Behind the Scenes –

It was while researching for a previous story that I first became aware of Exeter's Blitz – one of a number of Luftwaffe raids on British towns and cities carried out in 1942. Earlier that year, the RAF had bombed the historic German city of Lübeck. Incensed by the loss of such a beautiful city, Baron Gustav Braun von Sturm used the German Baedeker tourist guide to Britain to identify British cities with cultural or historical importance – namely, Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York, and Canterbury – which he then singled out for retaliatory attacks. 

The first of the cities to be attacked was Exeter, noted by the guide as 'the jewel of the south west.' During the first raid, on 25th – 26th April, regarded by some as a 'practice' for what was to come, 80 people were killed and 55 wounded. But it was during the subsequent attack, mounted late on the night of Sunday 3rd May and continuing into the early hours of Monday 4th, that the centre of the quiet and largely undefended city of Exeter was to suffer the greatest destruction. Throughout that night, waves of German bombers dropped an estimated fifty-four tons of devices that included high explosives, parachute mines and incendiaries. Countless businesses and almost a thousand homes were either flattened, destroyed by fire, or else severely damaged. Records of the raid show that 163 people died and a further 131 were badly injured. When daylight came, it was clear that the mediaeval heart of the city was gone for good.

When I found myself trying to imagine what it would have been like to emerge from a city centre air raid shelter to discover that, not only had your home – and everything in it – been destroyed, but also your place of work, I realised I had stumbled upon the beginning of a story. Sometime later, this nub of an idea evolved to become a trilogy entitled The Sisters' War. The three main characters – May, Clemmie, and Pearl – might indeed be sisters, but they are very different, each responding in their own way to the need to build a new life from the ruins.

My characters in the three books are obviously imaginary, and my locations fictionalised, but the sisters’ stories spring from real events. Institutions such as the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS), the Royal Air Force (RAF), the Ministry of Agriculture (Min Ag) and the War Ags (local representatives of the War Agricultural Executive Committees), were clearly all real, although, here and there, I might have taken the odd liberty. After all, isn't that what story telling is all about?

These Wartime Dreams

As I have stated at the close of the book, the outbreak of World War II saw the British government mandate that all ‘places of entertainment’ be closed. This included the country’s cinemas, of which there were, at that time, more than four thousand. It was a period when, with no television, and only a very limited choice of radio programmes, going to see a film was an immensely popular pastime. Indeed, an estimated one-third of the population went to the cinema at least once a week. Within a fortnight of the restriction being brought in, the government recognised the role cinemas played in keeping up the nation’s morale, and the order was withdrawn. As the war continued, cinema audiences grew even more.

At the same time, dancing also saw a surge in popularity. For young people especially, dancing offered not only the chance to forget about the war for a few hours and enjoy themselves, but also to meet new people. A couple of years after the outbreak, American servicemen started arriving in the UK, bringing with them new and exciting types of music, along with fast and energetic styles of dancing to go with it. 

At the start of These Wartime Dreams, it is May 1942, and Pearl is just starting out on her journey to achieve her ambition of performing. At this point, the American influence on music has yet to take hold, and most of the songs Pearl knows would have come from the musicals she would have seen during the previous few years. All of the songs, films, and performers I’ve mentioned in this book are real and would have been well known at the time. 

In approximate order of appearance in the book, these include –

Performers:

Jean Harlow (1911-1937), the ‘Blond Bombshell’, American actress.

Rita Hayworth (1918-1987), American actress.

Fred Astaire, (1899-1987) American actor, dancer, and singer. Hayworth and Astaire famously starred together in You’ll Never Get Rich. 

Gary Cooper (1901-1961), American actor.

Billie Holiday (1915-1959), American jazz singer. 

Deanna Durbin (1921-2013), Canadian actress and singer.

Eleanor Powell (1912-1982), American dancer and actress.

Anne Shelton (1923-1994), English vocalist.

Judy Garland (1922-1969), American actress and singer.

Vera Lynn (1917-2020), English singer and entertainer who became known as The Forces’ Sweetheart.

Lena Horne (1917-2010), American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist.

Films:

Back-Room Boy, 1942 British comedy, starring Arthur Askey.

Lady Be Good, 1941 MGM musical film starring Eleanor Powell and the song, Fascinating Rhythm, written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin.

Babes in Arms, 1939 American film version of the earlier Broadway Musical, featuring the songs My Funny Valentine, and The Lady is a Tramp, written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

Songs:

Fools Rush In, the radio version, written by Johnny Mercer and Rube Bloom, recorded by Anne Shelton

Knees Up, Mother Brown, an East End pub song, various recordings, written in the 1800s, original writer unknown.

Stormy Weather, written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, as performed in this instance by Lena Horne in the 1943 film of the same name.

At Last, written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, originally for the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, later made famous by the Glenn Miller Orchestra but referred to here as the duet from the 1942 American musical film Orchestra Wives, sung by Ray Eberle and Pat Friday (dubbing for Lynn Bari).