Distant Music, by Charlotte Bingham.

Bantam Books, £5.99

SET during the great upheaval of life just after the Second World War, Charlotte Bingham's book taps into the magical era when live theatre, variety and film were the mainstay of entertainment.

It was the time before television took its hold and changed our way of entertaining ourselves.

Elsie Lancaster has been brought up to be a leading player. Her grandmother, a theatrical landlady, has seen all the great actors of the time and is determined her granddaughter will join that shining constellation of stars.

Life is a peculiar round of parsimony and make-do for the young trouper, and the allure of the stage is overpowering. She is desperate to be discovered; to taste the high life.

Momentous decision

Oliver Plunkett is from a completely different mould. A privileged background founded on old money makes him a very different proposition.

His childhood has been spent with his father's butler as mentor, and since the butler, Clifton, is theatre mad it is no surprise that Oliver decides that the theatre is the life for him. He takes the momentous decision to tell his father that he is going to train to be an actor.

Oliver's childhood friend Coco Hampton is another aspiring to the theatre, but her passion is design especially costumes.

The three hopefuls' paths cross when they meet theatrical agent Portly Cosgrove, and soon it isn't just theatre, but emotions too, which become inextricably entwined.

Charlotte Bingham's novels usually romp along, and this one is no exception. The highs and lows of the characters' lives are predictable, but none-the-less, set in the surreal world of the theatre they are not boring.

To anyone who remembers the time when going to the theatre and the cinema was a highlight in an otherwise dreary ration book life, this novel will charm. So put the fire on, get the choccies out and have a great read.

Annie Dendy