- Publisher
- Corvus / Atlantic Books
- Pages
- 400
- ISBN
- 978-0857890689
- First Published
- 2011
2011 · Historical Fiction
The Beauty Chorus
Three young women, one war, and the runway lights of the Air Transport Auxiliary.
UK · France
Kate's debut — a Sunday Times top-ten bestseller. Based on the remarkable women of the ATA who ferried Spitfires across wartime Britain, told with warmth, glamour and grit.
An Excerpt
“She climbed into the cockpit in a fur coat and silk stockings, because no one had told her you couldn't fly a Spitfire dressed for dinner — and so, that morning, she did.”
About the Story
Inside The Beauty Chorus
Hampshire, 1940. Three young women — a debutante, a Polish refugee and a chorus-line singer — arrive at White Waltham to fly for the Air Transport Auxiliary, the civilian unit ferrying every aircraft the RAF can build.
They are not allowed to fight, and they are not, for years, allowed to fly the heaviest aircraft. They do both anyway, in lipstick and leather flying jackets, between dances at the Savoy and funerals at the village church.
Kate Lord Brown's debut is a warm, glamorous, deeply researched portrait of the women the war could not quite contain — and the friendships forged at five thousand feet.
Best Reviews
Selected from press and readers
“A wonderful, escapist, nostalgic read.”
“Take three girls, with one thing in common — flying. Add a war and a smattering of romantic interest, and you have the recipe for a great read. The Beauty Chorus is a story of love and adventure, of loss and pain, and heroism. I can already see the movie.”
“Drawn from the home front diaries of the Second World War, Kate Lord Brown's rip-roaring The Beauty Chorus … the research is played light and as a result the book soars as if it had a pair of Merlin engines strapped to its covers.”
“A glittering, big-hearted debut.”
“Like Atonement crossed with a Spitfire.”
“Captures an extraordinary generation with style and tenderness.”
Reader Reviews
Read every verified reader review for The Beauty Chorus on Amazon.
Themes
- Women in Wartime
- Aviation
- Friendship
- Class & Glamour
A Note from Kate
Drawn from interviews with the last surviving ATA pilots, and from a single photograph of a young woman in flying gear, smiling on the wing of a Spitfire she had just delivered alone.
