Mystery set mainly in LAS VEGAS and LONDON
Novel set in WW1 in CHESTER-LE-STREET (Co. Durham)
22nd May 2025
Secrets of the Toffee Factory Girls by Glenda Young, novel set in WW1 in Chester-Le-Street (Co. Durham).
This is no. 2 in The Toffee Factory Girls Trilogy.
1916. In the opening pages, there is a brief synopsis of what happened in Book 1, which is helpful. We return to the lives of three young women, Hetty, Elsie and Anne. They all have different stories but they are best friends.
Hetty is now being courted by a Belgian, Dirk from Elisabethville. I was interested to find out about Elisabethville, named after the Belgian Queen: thousands of Belgians were brought over during WW1 to work in the munitions factories, it was a little bit of Belgium in England, a military base ruled by Belgian law.
Anne is having an affair with someone important and Elsie is married to a violent ne’er do well. As the war progresses, the factory has to adjust. The supply of sugar is becoming precarious. The factory’s use cannot be switched to the manufacture munitions because the reaction between residual sugar and the acid used to make bombs would blow the factory sky high (interesting fact!), and so a three day week is instigated which, of course, affects all the workers, already on low wages. Just imagine so many of the employees are at tables, wrapping the toffees BY HAND, all day long….
The author wonderfully brings to life the place and time, the stresses foisted upon each individual, the care within the community and how the women have to pull together and face ingrained misogyny. The factory is inspired by an actual toffee factory that used to exist in the locale and it is clear the author has really done her research – and instead of Dainty Dinah toffees that were produced, in the novel there are Lady Tina toffees (I’m all for that!).
It’s worth getting to know the characters in the opening novel The Toffee Factory Girls but this book can easily be read as a standalone.
As the novel draws to a close there is a wedding to look forward to (that’s all I’m saying).
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