Dancing into Danger is the first of a quartet of novels featuring four young women as they each navigate their way through the horrors of the Second World War. The main character is Lucie Edwards, an Anglo-French ballet dancer with the Sadlers Wells Company.
We first meet Lucie in August 1939 when she’s sharing a picnic with three old friends in the picturesque old port of Exeter. Despite their happiness at their reunion, they understand that the clouds of war are gathering. Lucie is anxious not only for her job but also for her French grandmother.
With Britain at war, Lucie dances in factories and hospitals, becoming increasingly concerned for her beloved grandmother, who is now unable to leave France. Frustrated by her lack of progression in Sadler’s Wells and confiding in her old friend, Ludo, that she needs to do more for the war effort, she joins ENSA, travelling abroad to entertain Allied soldiers. Returning to England in late 1943, Lucie is summoned to the London offices of the mysterious Special Operations Executive. After intensive training, she parachutes into Brittany to help co-ordinate arms drops in advance of D-Day. Will the story have a happy ending?
Deirdre Dee Writer 