When the Music Stopped

2017 | Fiction & Poetry

London, 1910. Twins Lester and Lillia Holdsworth are destined for the stage. Lester is a brilliant pianist; Lillia a magnificent opera singer. But their cruel father has other ideas for their future. Lester is sent to a military academy, while Lillia must marry Lord Dalton - a self righteous, pompous friend of her father's looking for a young wife to give him an heir. Yet their plans to defy their father's wishes are put on hold when war breaks out in 1914. Suddenly Lester is flying planes for the RFC and Lillia trains as a nurse to help those wounded at home, and then abroad. For both twins, the fighting brings hardships and difficult choices. They wait in hope, like the rest of Europe, for the war to end and the music to start again.

Beryl Matthews (Author)