This is a wonderful insight into the inner strength and determination of the women of Sheffield who helped to produce the iron and steel needed for the WW 2 effort. The individual and real experiences of these women highlights the strength and courage they had at a time when life was so uncertain.

I requested this from NetGalley as I’m quite familiar with Sheffield, the steel city of the North and the setting of this non-fiction book about the young women who signed up to work in the factories and industries during WWII after most men were enlisted into the forces. The stories, told by the women themselves or their relatives, are fascinating, thought some of the short ‘novelizations’ felt a bit cheesy. There’s an overuse of the ‘It was hard work and poverty, but in that generation you just got on with it’ which started to grate on me a bit after a while – I know us young folk have not been challenged in the same way and their efforts in times of great hardship were amazing, but the phrasing makes it sound like we now would not care to help. The times and world is so different that I don’t think you can directly compare it!

A fabulous insight in to the lives of the women in Sheffield who found themselves working in the steel mills and foundries stepping up to fulfil the often dangerous jobs left as the men had gone to War.
This book is a tip of the hat in recognition to them and the huge contribution they made to the War effort holding down these jobs and then coming home to their families, chores and children.
The author has collected a real array of fascinating stories from the ladies interviewed- air raids, romances, weddings, loss & rations etc. It was a book I put down and thought about for along time after, how hard it must of been but how they all rallied together to help each other. I am so glad they have the statue now in Sheffield that remembers the sacrifices these special ladies made, it is important they are not forgotten.
My thanks go to the author, publisher and Netgalley in providing this arc in return for honest review.

This was an ok read, but it didn’t exactly enthrall me, based on the lives these women led it could have been so much more interesting and detailed, but it just felt like facts and very empty to read, like just reading a bio or something. This could and should be so much more, disappointing.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I was expecting to be a nocel based on a group of women who worked in the steel industry at the height of the war. What it actually is a collection of true life accounts of these women. It was very humbling to read their accounts but it wasn't what I wanted.
It appeared disjointed due to the nature of the writing.
If you are interesting in matter of fact accounts rather than a story then I would recommend it otherwise be aware before you read it. Maybe it would be easier in book form.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.


This book was a interesting read into the lives of those twenty women.

Quotations from their families of what they went through - with the their families and the works they carried out at the time to support their parents and also their siblings, a time which was so different to now.

The times they faced, knowing their loved ones are fighting A big battle.

To say i was very disappointed in this book is an understatement,it would of been better turning it into a story of these women and what they did.

Sheffield women of steel
Very interesting read
Twenty women giving quotations based on interviews with the author. The lives of working in the steelworks and their families