About this ebook
At ten she is full to the brim with dreams and ambition, a passion for dance, and a talent for it too, inspired by encounters with the paintings of Ford Madox Brown to create a life beyond her beginnings, Muriel takes on the mantle of family responsibility. It is a duty she resents when she wants to shine, to be in the spotlight, and escape a fate that seems mapped out for her. As a teenager on a street corner in Moss Side she meets Jim and sees a way to find a love that is lacking in her family and to meld him to her will, although his best friend Mickey still lurks and waits for her affection. She rails against the expectation that she will be a wife and a mother, is happy as a dance instructor and dressmaker, making silk gowns for rich ladies.
In the summer of 1939 she marries Jim, and shortly after, engineers a trip to Canada where she is excited by the possibility of a new life in a new country and intends to wow the Canadians with her city sophistication, but after a long journey, the isolation of the family farm is a shock. She rallies and woos the locals with her talents, but her moment in the spotlight is interrupted by the declaration of war. They must return to England, where Jim is called up.
She must choose to settle, or to fly.
About the author
Winner of the Wasafiri Life Writing Prize, Jools Abrams is a successful ghost writer of over twenty books for clients. She was the Writer in Residence at Talliston House and writes stories, long and short, for adults and children; one published by Walker Books, the others performed nationally. She has written features for SCWBI, Mslexia and blogs and screenplays.
