The Chalk Ballroom

About this book

In September 1940, as the bombs fall on London, the town of Marrowby moves underground into the old chalk mines beneath Marrowby Hill. Iris Lampard, the precise young borough clerk who keeps the pitch register, writes every Sunday to her fiancé Gil in a German prison camp. Then the borough sends a conscientious objector, Tom Weller, to run the caves' first-aid post. Half the shelter won't let him touch their children, and Iris has to find him somewhere to sleep. Fifty years later the caves open for one reunion weekend. Iris is a widow of seventy-four. Her sister Nell has organised everything and is keeping something back. Her granddaughter Kit has brought a cassette recorder and too many questions. And one late acceptance on the guest list is a name Iris has not spoken aloud since 1941. What did a promise cost then, and what is it worth now?