‘Poor Girls’ by Clare Whitfield

Published by Head of Zeus,
7 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-187393086-9 (HB)

Clare Whitfield’s third novel is based on real-life characters with a lifestyle you couldn’t make up: the Forty Elephants, a team of 1920s working class women who broke the mould they were expected to settle back into after fulfilling men’s roles throughout the First World War. After a taste of respect, freedom and decent wages, a handful were unwilling to return to a life of servicing the men whose jobs they had done and become wives or domestic servants. Instead, they decided to provide for themselves, by embarking on a well-organized life of thieving from those who were determined to tread them down.  

Eleanor Mackridge is working as a waitress, ignored or abused by the rich clientele, when she meets John, an amiable rogue, who introduces her to his glamorous sister Chrissie. Within weeks, Eleanor has changed her appearance and her name and joined a ‘cell’ of feisty young women who earn enough to buy their own jewellery and fur coats – through shoplifting their way through London’s upmarket department stores and selling on their loot.

Nell, as she becomes, emerges as spirited, ambitious and intelligent. She reluctantly cuts herself off from her family, who would never approve of the way she comes by the considerable sums of money she is able to send them. Her new family consists of the girls in her cell: impulsive Effie, friendly Charlie and sensitive Lily. The novel charts their adventures in and out of the tight knit Forty Elephants: their assaults on the department stores, their relationships with men and other women, and their extra-curricular ventures, one of which almost leads them into serious trouble.

The novel is littered with quirky and fascinating characters: Jay, the lesbian driver; Peter, Nell’s lover who inevitably comes to a sticky end; the Anns, two wizened crones retired from active thieving, who teach Nell her craft; and of course, Alice Diamond herself, statuesque Queen Alice who rules the Elephants with a rod of iron; and many more besides. On the other side are Nell’s downtrodden sister Steph; PC Horace Bevan, who takes a shine to Nell but becomes her nemesis; and a host of snooty shop assistants, rude restaurant clientele and corrupt magistrates, who place the readers’ sympathies firmly with Nell and her fellow thieves – engaging and honest crooks everyone.  

It’s a crime novel like no other I’ve encountered, and its solid proof of the old adage truth is stranger than fiction. And it’s a jolly good read into the bargain.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Clare Whitfield is a UK based writer living in a suburb where the main cultural landmark is a home store/Starbucks combo. She is the wife of a tattoo artist, mother of a small benign dictator and relies on a black Labrador for emotional stability.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.