My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Worrals On The War-Path or The One With All The Moustache Twirling is a lot. But then, all of these books are for me. They’re the sort of books which laugh in the face of restraint and subtlety and instead give you high drama (often rather camp drama) and the enemy being THE ENEMY and the good guys being THE GOOD GUYS and fair enough, that’s what they are. You don’t come to these for delicacy. Or tact. Or even logic.

What you do come to them for is the hysterical little foreword which explains who Worrals is and how she became involved in espionage and how she’s literally the best thing since sliced bread. And yes she is a girl and yes you do have to take that under consideration but also she knows French and German and she’s a qualified pilot and also she’s got an astute brain and she’s shrewd and fearless and yes she’s a girl but we must forgive her that.

And then you come to it for the other little foreword in which the author describes the geography of the local region and provides a little history to it and then you come to it for the story which, in just over one hundred and fifty pages, Worrals sets up a refuelling landing site in the middle of the Cevennes, deals with Vichyites, meets old enemies, has everybody under the sun flirt with her, and also manages to steal a plane or two.

These books are a lot. They are the very definition of a lot. And yet they fulfil a very clear purpose within the world. They’re wartime books so they do a lot of propaganda work and they’re written to spotlight the work of women in the service so they do that as well. They’re not the deftest of things and I don’t think that Johns is particularly comfortable with Worrals actually being in the front line (there’s a curious moment when she has somebody at gunpoint and then just sort of doesn’t) but they do what they do very well.

(man, that’s a vested compliment. But how else to review these indefatigable, indescribable things! These pulpy powerhouses! They make no sense! I am fascinated by them!).

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