Historical fiction set in London – The Sleeping Beauties

Submitted: 10th January 2024

The Sleeping Beauties – Lucy Ashe

A novel set in the world of ballet

A woman and her daughter meet a strange women on a train

When the war starts, the ballet school has to try and survive. As do the dancers and their families..

Map of locations in The Sleeping Beauties

Historical fiction set in London - The Sleeping Beauties

BOARDING PASS INFORMATION

Destination : London and Devon

Author guide: Lucy Ashe

Genre: historical fiction set in the world of ballet

Food and drink to accompany: small sandwiches and pims

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#Bookreview

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A novel to transport you to the world of ballet

Map of locations in The Sleeping Beauties

I know nothing about ballet. Having read Lucy Ashe’s first book and now this one, I feel very welcomed into it and am fascinated about it! I still haven’t been to a ballet but I hope to change that very soon. Reading this book made me want to visit Sadlers’ Wells and see some of what Lucy weaves into this novel.

Be sure, it’s not a novel about ballet – if you even less than I did, you will discover so much. The book is more than though as it’s about a mother’s love for her child, war time and the blurring of boundaries that both can have.

A mother and her daughter are travelling on a train – this is wartime and the ballet school is on the move, child refugees are being moved between one family and another. A woman enters the carriage and starts to chat to them. She seems as if she wants too know them and is very friendly with the child. This strange situation is explained as we read on…

Map of locations in The Sleeping Beauties

From that day, we have flashbacks into the woman’s life, the stranger’s life and the day to day of the ballet school in war time. The flashbacks do jump quite a bit between each one and I wasn’t sure who I was reading about at the start. I feel the chapters could have been headed better but once I got used to this, the flow improved.

That didn’t get in the way of the story though. I was intrigued to learn about that strange woman on the train, the refugee children and the war. I mean, I hadn’t really thought about how the war had such a – effect on the ballet school and arts like it before. When I think about it though – what did we cling to even in lockdown – stories and the arts!

I loved the insights into the behind the scenes of the ballet school but this was so much more than that. A mother and her daughter, the way children were shipped out from one end of the country to another, how families grieved for their missing babies and how even after the war finished, the heartache would endure.

This is a sensitive story with the grace and elegance of a ballerina performing her most feted piece. I love the fact the author was a top ballerina herself and has woven this magic into her new career as a writer to watch!