This book is set immediately after the second World War and covers the investigations into the wrong doings of the Nazi party. Edith Graham is the main character who is living with her mother at the beginning and looking for more interesting work. Her cousin offers her a post in Germany, to help set up education facilities for displaced children. In fact the is is a rouge, to cover her role as a spy and to find a Doctor she had known pre war. The many characters are difficult to initially sort out as to their job roles and who is working for whom. However, I really enjoyed this book, and although at times very harrowing to read of the experiences of those who suffered under the Nazi regime it is well worth persevering with. I learnt a lot about who was responsible for helping who etc after the war.
A good read that I wold recommend.

Edith Graham thinks of herself as an ordinary woman living in the immediate aftermath of WW2. But Edith wants to get away from her job as a teacher and to do something new, something different, something that will make a difference. She applies for a job working in Germany, helping set up schools for refugee children. She gets approached by her cousin to seek out a high ranking german official who has gone into hiding - and who was her lover before the war. She is also approached by her friend Dori who was a spy and is seeking to find out what happened to her agents who went missing during the war. While in Germany Edith proves that she isn't an ordinary person but is courageous and moral in the face of adversity.

I loved this book but at first I couldn't quite work out what was going on as it felt like the first half of the book was scene setting that went on too long and I'm not sure why that was needed. I read on as the characters were very likeable and I wanted to know what happened. once the action moved to Germany, things speed up and the book starts to work. The ending is unexpectedly unflinching and in my opinion, moves the book to the next level of excellence.

Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley and the author for an e-copy of this book. I really enjoyed reading Edith's story set in uncertain times in post WW2 Germany. Once I'd worked out who was who I rattled through this well researched tale of espionage, war crimes and friendship. Well worth a read!

I really enjoyed this! It’s quite a challenging read, with double crossing and espionage all over the place, but it’s well-written and completely gripping.

There’s an eclectic cast of characters, from Edith, an almost unwilling spy, to Elisabeth, the displaced wife of a high ranking Nazi and Adeline, a photographer.

It’s a period of time I didn’t know much about and I found it interesting and often harrowing to read the depiction of life in Germany after the war ended. I very much enjoyed this story and I’ll look forward to reading more of this authors work. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Miss Graham’s War by Celia Rees was such a great read. Based on historical events and locations but brought to life by the fabulous characters. Celia paints a very real picture of devastation and poverty and of ongoing cruelty and discrimination. The horrors of the concentration camps and human experimentation are not described in any great detail but underpin the storyline, painting a picture of the post-war era and the Cold War tensions and morality vacuum. This was a thoroughly unexpectedly engrossing book with many unexpected betrayals and double dealing. I certainly didn’t expect one of the key events towards the end of the book. Celia kept the pace and intrigue going right to the end. Excellent 4 stars

I really enjoyed this book, set just after the Second World War, a period I knew little about, but found fascinating. I loved the period detail and the inclusion of a recipe at the start of each chapter, ostensibly to act as a coding device for messages, but they actually began to reflect the deprivations and the ingredients available at each stage of the journey, so another layer of historical context that made this book rather more interesting and thoughtful than a post-war spy story. I particularly liked the main characters, Edith, Dori and Elisabeth - all different ands distinct in their backgrounds and personalities, but equally intriguing within the narrative. I found the novel a gripping read, especially towards the climax. Well worth the time invested in reading this longer, complex book.

A thoroughly readable story of a young English woman involved in the intrigue of the intelligence and espionage world of WWll. She, through family and the personal friendships she develops, lead her from a pre-war German lover to the immediate post war recovery in Germany. She learns from the conflicting priorities of different branches of the intelligent services of the differing fates of the SS scientist (her pre-war lover) that lie in store for him. Her cover as a teacher with the Control Commission of Germany (CCG) ensured she could move around Germany with formal authority to contact former friends who were of interest to the Allies. In addition, she discovers clandestine efforts of former NAZI party members to smuggle wanted persons out of Germany to South America and safety.
Her unfortunate end at the hands of a sniper is disappointing as she has become the heroine in the eyes of the reader but the subsequent ending set many years later in Switzerland, completes the circle with the dramatic, but elegant, death of her assassin at the hand of her best friend.
As an aside I must mention that the recipes were interesting and some will be made by me.
Fascinating and immersive read, well recommended for those who enjoy the genre.

A gripping story of a reluctant spy, set in the aftermath of WW2.
I’ve read many spy novels and stories set in WW2, but this was my first post-war read and how interesting it was.
I loved that each chapter started with a menu or recipe from WW2, this added an extra dimension to the book.
The characters of Edith and her friends are strong and interesting.
This is a great historical fiction, spy novel, that I would definitely recommend.
I rated this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(This review was also posted to my Instagram account)

This book is very long, but is engaging enough to keep your attention. I really liked the characters involved and found the premise of the story intriguing.

I love historical fiction especially those set in or around World War 2. This is a very well written book with lots of larger than life characters. The detail in the story is very good although there were times when I felt that the story didn’t move fast enough and I found myself willing the story on. Overall a good historical novel.

This wasn’t a quick read, the subject matter was challenging and disturbing and it as a novel that needed time. Edith Graham applies for a job in Germany in the aftermath of the allies victory in WW2. She’s a school teacher and ostensibly is going to oversee the recommencement of education in post war Germany but others have an ulterior motive. They want to access an old friend of hers who was a Nazi and is guilty of war crimes. The Americans, British, Russian - they all want access to this man and this is the crux of the story. It’s a sad and disturbing story and the ending was a shock, but all in all it was a good read. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read in exchange for an honest review.

Edith Graham, a teacher, goes to Germany after the end of WWII to help rebuild schools and reform the Nazi education system. Her cousin Leo was something hush-hush in SOE and has not only encouraged but actively lobbied for Edith to go. Leo has asked her to keep her eyes and ears to the ground for any hints of Nazis in hiding, especially Kurt von Stabenow, a former lover of Edith's who was involved in the torture and murder of prisoners for medical research purposes, and his wife Elisabeth. Then two acquaintances also ask Edith to search Germany for Kurt, they tell Edith that the British establishment is less concerned with punishing Kurt (and others like him) and more concerned with harnessing his knowledge and research for their own purposes as the world slides into the Cold War. These women, Vera and Dori, want to know what happened to four British female spies who were captured almost as soon as they landed in enemy territory and never seen again. Vera and Dori suspect that there was an enemy agent deep in SOE and they want justice for these women, they want Kurt put on trial for war crimes and hanged.

Soon Edith, an innocent aboard, is mixed up in Cold War politics as the victorious allies each try to leverage the Nazi scientists' knowledge. She sees the pitiful state of the defeated German people, and all the displaced persons fleeing Eastern Europe from the Russians, the black market dealings and the people ready to exploit. Pushed and pulled by friends she makes, each of whom has an ulterior motive, Edith covertly reports back to Dori by way of a cipher hidden in recipes which she sends back home, using her existing alter-ego Stella Snelling who wrote war-time recipes for a newspaper.

I wanted to like this book, and parts of it were very well written and engrossing. However, it felt as if there were too many ingredients, or (to take the cookery motif further) as though this had started off as one thing and then evolved into something else. For example, every chapter starts with a recipe, gleaned from Edith's interactions with Allied occupiers, German people and refugees from the East. These are supposed to be a code, but the code was never clearly explained and it appeared highly coincidental that Edith was able to send a coded message about current events using a recipe which she had just obtained - ie she just received a Latvian recipe the week she wanted to send a message about a Latvian refugee. There was a 'romance' with a Jewish Allied soldier which just didn't ring true, he and Edith seemed to fall in love almost at first sight. Also the story was framed by events in 1989 which were intended to be cryptic. The problem was that I had totally forgotten the opening chapter by the time I got to the end of the book and had to reread it, so all the casual misdirection was totally wasted and, if I had kept the opening chapter front and centre it would have made it simpler for me to know who Edith could trust, thus destroying the suspense of the rest of the book.

Overall, I don't think the book needed the recipes or the 1989 wrap-around, and I had some questions as to why wait until 1989, the scenes in Germany were completely harrowing and didn't need the additional quirks.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

My thanks to Celia Rees, Harper Collins and Net Galley for the ARC of MISS GRAHAM'S WAR. A little slow to take off but when it did this novel was full of adventure and intrigue. The brave Edith Graham is sent to Germany after the Second World War. Her cover is as a teacher as she taught in a girl's school before the war, but she is in fact there to find Nazis who were trying to evade capture and prosecution for their involvement in the cruel treatment of their victims. She creates a curious way of sending coded messages, using her interest in cooking and recipes. Frightening and heartbreaking in turn. A brilliant read.

This book is set in the aftermath of the Second World War. Edith, an English schoolteacher, is sent to Germany as part of the post-war effort to rebuilt in various domains, hers being education. But Edith is also given other, more underground, tasks. She has to gather information destined to help her friends and the services they work for, to find former nazis. She excels in this mission, although it is difficult for her on a personal basis. She passes her information through cooking recipes, an original method. She and her friends succeed in their search but at which cost! No more said, I don't want to spoil it for the readers.
This is an extremely well written book, with an excellent plot and amazing characters. It is also very emotional because, apart from coming back on the atrocities committed during the war, it focuses on how people experienced the post war times: telling their story to others and reliving their trauma, trying to rebuild their life, finding a land where they can live after having been displaced from many areas of Germany and many other countries, in particular Eastern Europe. The cookbook and food related code also contribute to telling the story about food shortages in that period, and how people managed to create joy out of the little they had. On the historical side, the book also evokes the famous "ratlines" which many former nazi regime officials used to escape abroad and, in between the lines, the role that other nations such as the US, but also the Church, played in these escapes.
Starting with a cookbook that belonged to her grandmother, and the story of her aunt who went to Germany after the war and might have been a spy, Celia Rees has created a really strong and captivating story, and an opportunity for learning about this part of history. I would definitely recommend this book.

An interesting and refreshing storyline post WW2 and how Europe evolved after the fighting ended. I knew a little firsthand from my late father who after six years stationed in the Middle East was then posted to Belgium to help “ clear up the mess “ left behind from all the bombings etc. I really enjoyed this book and also felt I learned from it too. At times it was emotional as it takes us from 1945 to 1989 and tells us stories of hunting war criminals in
Germany and beyond. Using many strong female characters It is well written and researched although I’m not sure i will be trying any of the recipes!

Great read set in WW2 and a different kind of codebreaking - Edith Graham sends messages home from Germany concealed in recipes and references to cookbooks, seemingly in the guise of typical female interests.

This book has a variety of interesting and colourful characters, to care about or hate as relevant, and a story that threads its way through a good mix of twists and turns.

My only criticism is the title - sounds like a real spinstery story, and it really isn't - Edith is young, full of life and a beautifully written character.

I love historical fiction and I absolutely loved this book! Through reading I've learned a lot about life before and during the wars but this is set after and is about Edith Graham who is enlisted to spy. I loved how the recipes had hidden meaning. Brilliantly written I really enjoyed this book.

It's no secret that I have a weak spot for WWII historical fiction, and having a story set just after the war is over seemed like a real catch. Add both a spy and a food element, and it sounded like a perfect match for me... I've been looking forward to read Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook ever since, positive I was going to love my time with this story. I'm still not sure what happened and it might just have been that it's simply not the right time for me to read this type of story, but the fact is that I ended up having mixed thoughts instead.

First of all I do have to stress that I still love the premise of the story. The 1946 setting, the many different locations in multiple countries, the spy element, the food, the clever spy code, the historical events incorporated into the plot... There were a lot of things I did enjoy in this story and the descriptions were thorough and really gave color to both the settings and the historical situation with the gruesome aftermath of the war. It made for the perfect backdrop for the plot and set the right tone for the story in general.

That said, one of my main issues with this story is that it is rather overlong and really drags in points. I don't mind descriptions and detail, but there was just something about Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook that didn't manage to grab my attention and I even caught myself starting to skimread in points. The fact that we have a big cast of characters who mostly seem to be unreliable or at least hiding something got a little old too. While I do get how this could add suspense to the plot and give it that spy thriller feel, it mostly started to annoy me that many characters seem to have a hidden agenda. Double crossing and backstabbing might be part of the spy game, but it wasn't something I enjoyed reading about. The pace in the final part was a bit faster, although one of the plot twists was a bit of a let down and unnecessary for me (those who've read the story will probably know what I'm talking about).

I still like the food element of the story and how recipes are used as part of the code to send messages between the characters. The recipes included at the beginning of some chapters were initially a nice touch, and definitely made me crave some of the food mentioned, but after a while it did get a bit tedious especially if the recipe turned out to be a long one. Most of the possibly hidden messages were never explained, and it started to distract from the plot itself. I'm not too sure what to make of the characters either, which is probably due to the fact most seem to have that hidden agenda. I did like how the final chapter ended up being connected to the beginning and how the circle was completed.

In short, while this story sadly wasn't for me personally, if you enjoy slower paced historical fiction with a focus on descriptions and unreliable characters, Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook will probably work better for you.

This was an intriguing historical novel set in Germany in 1946. Schoolteacher, Edith is recruited to the Control Commission looking into education in Germany immediately after the Second World War. Based in Lubeck near Hamburg she experiences first hand the terrible state of the country, the poverty of the people and the refugees trying to eke out a living. I felt immense sympathy for the young children who were living in such terrible circumstances but still wanted to learn.
However, Edith is not only working in this capacity. She has been asked by her old friend ,Leo, to look for
Kurt Von Stavenow and his wife, Elizabeth, whom they knew before the war. Kurt and Edith had been very close so she is shocked to learn that he had ended up as an officer in the SS and is being sought by the allies. Edith’s friend, Dori is also after him, to make him pay for the deaths of her fellow SOE operatives who went missing in Germany during the war.
Edith’s love of cookery is a major part of the story and each chapter starts with a different recipe which she has collected whilst working under cover.
I loved the character of Edith, so sensible and caring but always ready to stand up for what she believes in. There is a lot of duplicity and danger in Germany at this time and for Edith it becomes increasingly difficult to know whom she can trust.
This was a great read which, once the scene had been set, moved at a cracking pace. There was a lot in the book and I personally learnt about a time after the war which is not often portrayed in fiction.
There were a number of twists and turns along the way which certainly kept me guessing until the very last page. This was a compelling and enjoyable read which entertained me over the course of several days- however, I am a quick reader so I must add that this was quite a long book!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Edith Graham is recruited as a spy to go to Germany after the Second World War to find the whereabouts of her former lover who has played a horrendous part in experiments on prisoners. The first half of the book is quite slow, establishing characters and backstories, but the second half picks up pace and has some surprise elements in its final stages.
An enjoyable thriller.