If you like Cookson and Cox you will love this. An irresistible read.

Connie Ryan is from a working-class family in Southampton but her ambition in life is to be a singer. The chance of a lifetime is offered to her when a bookmaker, Les Baxter, hears her sing and offers to become her benefactor and agent.

As Connie climbs the ladder to success, Les Baxter has ideas for her other than business and Connie has a fight on her hands to keep the deal strictly to business. She eventually has to make the decision: is money more important than love?

Daphne Curtis