Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Surplus Girls | 2020 | Polly Heron | Buy |
| 2 | The Surplus Girls’ Orphans | 2021 | Polly Heron | Buy |
| 3 | Christmas with the Surplus Girls | 2022 | Polly Heron | Buy |
| 4 | New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls | 2023 | Polly Heron | Buy |
The Surplus Girls series is set in the years following World War I, when British women outnumbered men by nearly two million due to wartime casualties. The Surplus Girls (2020) introduces a group of young women navigating this reality, finding work and community in a society that has little place for unmarried women. The Surplus Girls’ Orphans (2021) expands the story to include children affected by the war’s aftermath.
Christmas with the Surplus Girls (2022) brings a seasonal element to the series, while New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls (2023) continues the characters’ stories into new territory. Polly Heron grounds her fiction in real social history, and the series gives a human face to a demographic crisis that shaped British life for decades.