The Bluebird Girls by Rosie Archer, Киев

Hampshire, 1939, and three young women are about to get the break of a lifetime.

Rainey Bird, Ivy Sparrow and Bea Herron all love to sing. For Rainey, music has been a solace during the upheaval of starting a new life with her mother, away from her abusive dad. Bea finds a confidence when she sings that she cannot get from anything else. Ivy sees it as her best chance of making a life away from Gosport and a dead-end job.

The three of them sing in a choir run by the strict but kind Mrs Wilkes. The choir provides a couple of hours of stardust each week, away from school and work and family worries.

When war breaks out, though, dreams must be put on hold. It seems that local pantomimes and charity shows are as far as the girls will be able to go, despite Mrs Wilkes's faith in their talent. That is, until a mysterious stranger arrives with a proposition that just might change their lives...