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It took me a long time to get around to reading this book. Mostly, that was due to a misunderstanding on my part. I had mentally logged this as 'just another of those books set in exotic places'. Think of The Storyteller of Casablanca, the Beekeeper of Aleppo, and others in the same vein. This is the problem with receiving coverless ARC copies through NetGalley - you don't get the visual cues about the book and I've often forgotten the blurb by the time I get around to reading.

Shame on me.
Nothing to do with Jericho in Israel at all.
And even more shaming, I have no excuse for that mistake because I used to live on the Woodstock Road about half a mile north of Oxford's Jericho.
In fact, my knowledge of the area made the book all the more poignant. I knew people who lived on the canal, I cycled through Jericho most days although, somewhat shamefully, I couldn't have told you where Sommerville was.

This lovely book handles many tricky issues about life as a poor young woman before, during and after the First World War. Peggy and Maude are twins, orphaned and living on Calliope, a canal boat, they both work at the Oxford University Press, folding and collating the pages of academic books. Maude has learning difficulties and Peggy loves her but feels tied to her. As a result of meeting Gwen, a wealthy student at Sommerville, Peggy realises that she might be able to achieve things she had always thought were impossible.

We get interesting perspectives on the war. The initial welcoming of Belgians fleeing the war and seeking sanctuary, their rejection when our own 'boys' start getting killed, tales from the nurses on the front line and those of the girls back in Oxford helping the injured and damaged young men sent back from the war. Add in the drive for women to get the vote, and the low social status of women at the OUP and you've got lots to get your teeth into.

I really enjoyed it.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.