Chandeliers And Cherubs: The Ballroom Girls By Jenny Holmes

There’s no doubt about it, despite recent allegations Strictly Come Dancing brought a bit of glitz and glamour to Saturday nights, watched by millions - mostly, though not solely, women. And what’s wrong with watching couples waltz gracefully and elegantly round a dance floor, or jive energetically, or passionately embrace the drama of the tango? I was certainly hooked and, like many others, signed up for ballroom dancing classes: a five-week beginners’ class lasted seven years and i’m grateful to my patient husband who partnered me. When our class went for a weekend to Blackpool, obviously we booked places in the Tower Ballroom, to dance in the holiest of holies, feel the sprung floor and watch the Wurlitzer rise majestically – just like my mum before me! Watching her and my dad dance together had always been a great pleasure. Just as we had jigged around at discos, they had gone to Saturday night dances and never forgot how.

The Ballroom Girls, the first of a series by Jenny Holmes, brings it all to life. The reader is introduced to three young girls: Sylvia, the Queen Bee, whose mum is a dancing teacher and who longs to be recognized in the world of ballroom; Pearl, whose mum runs a fish and chips stall on the seafront and who is the life and soul, a friend to everyone; and then there’s Joy, the mouse, who is obviously not to be underestimated. She lost all her family in a bombing raid in Manchester and is now living in a tiny bedsit and doing many jobs to make ends meet; she’s far more resilient than even she realises.

Mick Greene is a thug with a chip on his shoulder and a penchant for too much beer. He takes no prisoners and even his younger brother is the butt of his threats.Set in 1942, the backdrop is the second world war with its blackouts, air raids, influx of GIs and conscription. Blackpool, where our tale is located, is no different from anywhere else in England and just as prone to Mr Hitler’s attacks, but then, like now, the Tower dominated the town. War is one thing but there is also division between dancers and it lies in the popularity of Ballroom dancing versus Latin. Lorna Ellis (Sylvia’s mother) teaches the traditional elegance, conformity and precision of the waltz and the quick step, while the more flamboyant Cliff Seymour teaches the energy and life of the newly introduced Jitterbug and Lindy Hop. The diehards are not quick to embrace novelty but the young are attracted like moths to a flame and battlelines are drawn.

Slowly, we are introduced to the principal characters and their dance partners, as they meet and become friends, all finding a path through their war-torn youth. Saturday night dance competitions are a feature and their dance lessons are taken seriously. There is hard cash to be won as well as accolades and the chance of being spotted by talent scouts.

Disappointment, shock, naivety, innocence, love, remorse, conscience, honesty, responsibility and most of all, friendship, are all explored...There is ill feeling, too, from ignorant bullies towards boys who dance: flames of prejudice which I believe SCD has done much to douse, and a reminder that, at that time, there was danger lurking for those who dared to be themselves. Mick Greene is a thug with a chip on his shoulder and a penchant for too much beer. He takes no prisoners and even his younger brother is the butt of his threats. He has a reputation for being one to avoid but is usually accompanied by his henchmen and is rarely alone. He shows his true colours ultimately, and given the penal code at the time, gets his comeuppance. Fortunately, the message is loud and clear: live and let live.

There is also some underhand dealing from people who set out to take advantage of the innocent, people who promise that dreams can come true but who prove to be the ‘serpent heart, hid with flow’ring face’ and who, thankfully, are thwarted by the power of friendship. Only ‘doing the right thing’ saves those who do not realise the danger they are in.

The Ballroom Girls is light reading, what I might term the soap opera of literature, as it includes so many of life’s dramas in a microcosm of familiar faces. Disappointment, shock, naivety, innocence, love, remorse, conscience, honesty, responsibility and most of all, friendship, are all explored in this novel and future books in the series will explore further the fortunes of Sylvia, Pearl and Joy.



The Ballroom Girls is published by Penguin