We'll Sing at Dawn: A family struggle to survive the Blitz

Front Cover
Headline, May 24, 2012 - Fiction - 352 pages

In the cold nights of the Blitz, her music warmed their hearts...

Victor Pemberton writes a compelling wartime saga in We'll Sing at Dawn, the story of a family's experiences of the London Blitz. Perfect for fans of Dee Williams and Harry Bowling.


'Captures the wartime spirit down to the last wail of the air raid siren... History with a heart on its sleeve' - Northern Echo

September 1940, Islington. The Blitz is taking its toll on Beth Shanks and her family. An aerial torpedo has recently devastated a complete block of flats and shops in Seven Sisters Road, and traumatised the whole neighbourhood. Beth works as a munitions worker at a factory in North Finchley and dodges falling shrapnel on her way to work. Her younger brother Phil is a teenage cyclist messenger in the Auxiliary Fire Service and he's been twice dug out of rubble as he carried important messages. Beth's father is away fighting and her mother Connie teaches piano lessons to children who've escaped evacuation.

Connie despairs that Beth won't learn how to play the piano properly and will only play popular songs by ear, but when she hears Beth playing the piano to lift the spirits of local people trapped in an air raid, she realises there is much more to music than she ever realised...

What readers are saying about We'll Sing at Dawn:

'Victor Pemberton's books are excellent'

'Five stars'

Other editions - View all

About the author (2012)

Victor Pemberton is a successful radio playwright and TV producer, and has worked with some of the great names of entertainment, including Benny Hill and Dodie Smith, had a longstanding correspondence with Stan Laurel and scripted and produced many of the BBC`s `Dr Who` series. In recent years he has worked as a producer for Jim Henson, and set up his own production company, whose first TV documentary won an Emmy Award.