The Ballroom Blitz

Product Information

To feel that he is still doing something for the war effort, he decides to join the ARP and spends his evenings going towards the bombed areas rather than running away from them.

As bombs rain down on London in 1940, those employed by the well renowned Buckingham Hotel, do what they can to ensure their guests are kept comfortable. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. To be honest it took me a good few chapters to get into it as there are ALOT of characters to get your head around (thankfully a character list is included) but once you’ve got them sorted you really start to care for them. Nancy, Raymond’s wife, wants his company but he spends most nights while on leave helping out with the fire watchers, along with other men and Cathy whose fiancé died at Dunkirk. My only criticism would be that it might be difficult to read this as a stand-alone novel, you really have to read the whole series to get the best understanding of the characters and their relationships.Yes this is book 5 of the Buckingham series, but you do not need to have read any of the others to delve in and enjoy this book. Their usual luxuries are attended to and each night staff and dancers evoke the magic of the Grand Ballroom. However, the process for writing this book was clearly different and the stylistic differences made it a thoroughly enjoyable read.

This is clearly part of a series, but does also stand alone as the reader is soon brought up to speed. Set in the war post Dunkirk and mid London blitz we are introduced to a catalogue of characters from behind the scenes. A consummate storyteller adept at captivating audiences, he is now captivating readers as he whisks them away to worlds of dance, intrigue, high society and scandal.This book seemed more intense compared to the others, due to the bombs falling, air raid sirens constantly unsettling the hotel and characters putting themselves on the line. It's September 1940 and war around London is heavy and fierce with continued bombings and air raids. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. Anton Du Beke - the King of Ballroom, Strictly Come Dancing royalty, and household name - is one of this generation's all-round entertainers. He’s struggling and doesn’t know what he can do, when he can’t go back to his unit or to his old life as a ballroom dancer.

Along with community spirit and people pulling together there are those out to to take advantage of the system and feather their own nests. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

As usual they approach a member of the team who they feel might be a weak link and easily exploited. He did a fab job of bringing me up to speed with anything that may have happened in the previous books and my enjoyment wasn’t hampered. Apart from 'there' instead of 'their' and 'it' instead of 'it's ' every age had word or words removed from the correct place and put in several lines above where they should be. Add to the mix some war profiteering, some love found in old age, someone brought to madness by war's losses, and it would have been quite a good story if it wasn't for the editing. I loved getting to know the characters and despite not having read the others, it didn’t hinder me too much.