July 2026- The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club > Likes and Comments

This is our group discussion for our July read, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. Please be sure to mark spoilers

I read this book last year and really enjoyed. Characters were interesting and well written. The plot moved along very well. Highly recommend

I think the main theme was the changing attitudes of Brits after WWI. Not only about women and their careers, which was a huge part of it, but also with class distinctions.

I like the romance, even though it was very low-key.

(view spoiler)[I was disappointed about the death of one of the characters, which was so abrupt. Maybe that was the point. (hide spoiler)]

Fiona Hardingham narrated the audiobook excellently.

It seems the author tried to convey the tedium of English upper-class society throughout the beginning of this month’s selection. I usually refer to the beginning of a novel as “the beginning of the book” or more precisely introducing the setting. This is also where some of the main characters are introduced.

Well, with the possible exception of the excursions of the Ladies Motorcycle Club, where things get a bit more interesting. The tedium was indeed tedious.. I also note we are beginning to see some of the flyers, many of whom are already discharged, while the main fighting and the surrender of the Central Powers has shifted attention and expectations to negotiations at the Versailles Conference. This does at least begin to give us some hints as to who might provide flight training for members of the ladies in the motorcycle club.

By contrast, another novel, tension in “The Glass Library,? Set in 1920 plunges into social tensions and loss of wartime service, jobs, and privileges for women is better presented. It is possible to. Draw the readers into the characters more effectively.

Readers rank this month’s read rather high though, and I am looking forward to the ladies reacting and pushing forward.

It should be noted, British women were not allowed to vote until 1928. So, the lingering afterglow of upper-class patriarchy and privilege is definitely more than apparent. One can only hope for things to pick up very soon.

I am only 23 percent into the novel, and thus far, have not felt the transition into the”middle of the book” which I often refer to as establishing the narrative. So, expectations are high for the story to break free along with members of the Ladies motorcycle and flying club.

This was another great book by Helen Simonson. Her writing about the sense of the changes including the pathos and drama wrought by WWI in the English countryside was so prevalently portrayed in this delightful historical fiction book. And I must say that one of my favorite characters was Poppy, a woman ahead of her time.

This was a very charming book with a quaint setting in an English seaside town.

There aren't many books that cover post-war life and it was fascinating to read the issues of the time. Racism against various groups, women having to leave fulfilling jobs when men returned from war, and the poor treatment of disfigured men painted a vivid picture of what people were experiencing.

I did not particularly care for the wealthy characters in the book whose portrayals were overdone. Rachel's American husband Percival and Lady Mercer were too extreme. I wanted more from Tilly and Iris. The book is supposed to be about the club but it was more about the wealthy families of the town.

The ending of the book took a dark turn where all of the characters went into bizarre mode and I wasn't sure what was happening. Atter a pretty mild and quiet journey for Constance, the plot turns up significantly in very unexpected ways and ends with an epilogue that made me furious.

A definite improvement over the initial 30 percent of the book, after a rather tedious start. Now 51-percent in my read of The Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, as I expected the last 20 percent is a good read.

The folks have met or further developed new characters, as expected. The narrative has been effectively established. And, when attention shifts to the motorcycle and flying club, all aspects of the book pick up. Also, the difficulty transition to include the ladies flying and dealing with their new airplane has added to the narrative.

I am very pleased with the developments and the writing, but still looking forward to more development over the next 20 percent, “Developing the Narrative.”

I read this a while ago, so my recollections are a bit vague. I found it a lot less subtle than The Summer before the War: some characters seemed introduced merely to exemplify some aspect of post-WWI life, and I found many situations that arose predictable. On the whole, it made the story feel more expository than organic. I did like the ambivalent social position of the heroine, and the ways that lingering social distinctions drove the action.

The author mentions the loss of her previous editor, and I felt that loss in passages that could have been deleted—there’d be a good exchange of dialogue followed by an unnecessary sentence of explanation, as if the author were insecure that the reader would get the point.