The Lido Girls

by Allie Burns

  Everything would be all right between her and Jack in time. He would find the right woman soon enough.

  ‘I am sorry I can’t be your wife.’ She tilted her head.

  ‘I see Mother, Prunella and Delphi are getting along.’ Jack had followed her gaze over to the women on the pontoon in their bathers, their toes frothing the water in front of them. She’d never seen Mrs Mulberry so off guard, so free-spirited. ‘Now there’s a turn-up.’

  It had been worth it to see this happen. She had to admit she hadn’t imagined that Prunella would be able to charm the Mulberrys quite as quickly and effectively as she had, but then the League was trying to build a stronger Empire after all, just like them. Mr Mulberry’s government’s new Fitness Council needed the right people to advise them on building a robust and healthy nation to prepare for what seemed increasingly inevitable: another war. It stood to reason they might let Delphi train with the League now so that the Mulberrys could claim to be leading change from the front.

  As for herself, she had to look to the future now. Whatever happened next would be an adventure, a step closer to the life she wanted.

  ‘Why don’t you go and join them?’ Jack said.

  ‘Look, young George is trying so hard to impress you, Jack.’ George burst out of the water behind him. ‘We did a wonderful job bringing his diving along, didn’t we?’

  ‘Come on then, toe-rag. Fancy another turn on the high board?’ George nodded fiercely. She gave him an approving nod and off the two of them went towards the shallows, George atop Jack’s shoulders, the boy swaying along with the rhythm of Jack’s swagger.

  The pool, the sides, the pontoon were all so full there was barely room to stand, but she found the space to rest the back of her head on the concrete and kick her legs in the cool water in front of her, feeling it slipping through her toes and run around the edges of her feet.

  ‘Natty!’ Delphi called and beckoned her across. It was just the two women now. Mrs Mulberry had gone to her husband. Picking her way through the swarm of bathers, she managed to find enough space to make a path through, swimming the last few feet, sinking under the water and pulling herself up to the surface when she reached their spot on the pontoon. It was shallow enough for her to stand at chest height.

  Prunella stretched out a slender hand to shake her own dripping skin.

  ‘I was just saying, what a great show – and to see your Lido girls was a splendid finale to show how movement and rhythm are within the grasp of us all.’

  ‘Even Natty.’ Delphi chuckled, kicking up more water with her feet.

  ‘I meant what I said about the need to balance artistry with science. It’s what the League must do next and the two of you offer both qualities, which makes you the perfect combination. It really does.’

  Delphi’s grin was almost splitting her face in two as she slipped into the water beside Natalie.

  ‘Father has asked Prunella to advise his Fitness Council,’ she said without any trace of the defeated Delphi she had seen only that morning. ‘They think it would be useful if I’m involved too.’

  The three women laughed.

  Natalie was unable to speak as Delphi’s submerged hand gripped her own hand beneath the water. The gesture threatened to overwhelm her. Just how far away would the search for a job take her from Delphi? How long would it be before she could send for her?

  Delphi winked and still beneath the water stroked the back of Natalie’s hand with her thumb, squeezing it tightly, waiting for Prunella to speak.

  ‘I’ve been talking to Delphi. And I have a rather exciting proposal…’

  ‘You won’t regret having her on your team,’ Natalie interrupted.

  ‘Wait, Natty.’ Delphi pulled on her hand. ‘It’s something else.’

  ‘I’d like you both to travel with me in the autumn, to open a brand new centre, in Canada.’

  ‘Canada!’

  Delphi was jumping up and down beside her, their joined hands emerging from the water. Natalie could hardly believe it; all she could think of were those itchy soles that had troubled her all day. Had her feet known that she was going to travel, or was she becoming as superstitious as Arthur?

  Before she could say anything else, Prunella said, ‘I told you that you had inspired me. After our first meeting I decided that if the Board of Education won’t let us in, then they’re jolly well going to have to try and keep up with us! Now Delphi has told me about her illness. It’s fine. Movement is for everyone – whatever their health – and the two of you work so well as a team; I can only see that it will be an inspiration to others.’

  Natalie looked to Delphi, wide-mouthed, for an answer.

  Without warning, Delphi lifted their joined hands so that they burst out of the water like the prow of a sunken ship emerging from the depths. Natalie began wafting along to a tune only she could hear.

  ‘Canada doesn’t know what it’s got coming.’ Prunella clapped her hands together.

  Natalie had always believed that she’d only be truly happy once she’d found a husband, but now she could see that she – and others, surplus women, like her – were in some ways gifted by their loss. Weren’t they the first women to find another way of life beyond the domesticity to which so many wives were consigned?

  Arthur was wrong; she wasn’t exceptional at all. Neither of them were; they were just lucky. Lucky to have found another way to live.

  *

  ‘Photograph for the Gazette.’ The journalist in rolled-up shirtsleeves bent towards his tripod.

  Prunella’s exciting plans for them would have to wait for today. They lined up: Delphi, Natalie, Prunella, Aunt Norah, Betsy, Barnie, Edith, Yvonne and the rest of the girls, with of course Arthur reappearing to claim his moment. Freckle-faced George – despite being cast into shadows by the taller adults around him – still beamed like a lighthouse, his two adult-sized teeth filling out his gums.

  ‘It’s awfully high up there. Weren’t you afraid?’ Prunella asked him.

  ‘Not at all, miss. I’ve always wanted to dive for my country, and Miss Flacker says I’m very brave indeed.’

  Natalie admired his pluck and hoped he would grow up ignorant of the real bravery young men like him had needed to endure during the war not twenty years before. She rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder while they smiled for the camera.

  Chapter Twenty

  Backward screw dive

  The diver stands with her back to the water on the diving board and then once airborne flips over on to her front.

  Today, the first day of September, was her thirty-fifth birthday, but she wouldn’t mark the day, as she had in recent years, with the feeling of time marching on while she stood still. Instead she would celebrate everything she had achieved, and everything she had ahead of her.

  She sat on the wall of the Lido’s top deck, her back to the sea. A storm overnight had cleared away the cloud to leave a blue sky. The intensity of the heatwave and the airless, muggy atmosphere had dissipated, making way for a thin, chilled autumnal finger to slip into the pocket.

  Arthur had sent in the Borough Engineer to drain the bathing pool. Like a huge empty bath, it was now nothing more than a rectangular sinkhole. With the water and the bathers gone, the place was like a vivacious drunk the morning after a heavy night.

  While she wasn’t looking, she had grown so attached to this place. She’d arrived so conflicted and lost. Delphi, the Lido, St Darlstone, Prunella, Jack, the Lido girls, even Arthur, had given her a chance at another way of living.

  Delphi, who’d been so keen to come to the town and enjoy the freedom it had to offer, was now eager to escape. She waited at the edge of the empty bathing pool, her legs dangling over the abyss. A wide-latticed snood cradled her hair as she faced the sun and bathed in the last of its summertime rays.

  Natalie’s ideal companion had been with her all along. The very first person who had become her friend when she joined the college as a student, and she’d never found anyone who ca
me close to that since.

  It was time to step off the path she’d dutifully trodden for so many years. Some people were destined to be pioneers, to dare to live differently, so that those who came later could follow the route that they had hacked out for them.

  She heard him before she saw him. The unmistakable clatter as George clambered his way over the top of the exit turnstile.

  ‘I was going to ask if you’ll take me to Canada,’ he said, once he’d found her. He winked before she could reply and said, ‘but Mother says I’m to train to swim for my country.’

  She ruffled his hair. ‘You’ve got the potential,’ she said. ‘Don’t give up, young man.’

  She followed him down to see him climb out. Pausing on his haunches before he jumped down to the concrete on the other side, he called: ‘Send me a postcard.’

  She couldn’t move for a second, listening as his footsteps grew faint, heard his voice one last time, as he called hello to one of the men unloading at the dairy depot across the road. Even once the footsteps were gone she stayed still. That part of teaching never got easier, especially when you’d grown fond of a child, but if he’d outgrown her, then that was a sign that she’d done her job well.

  ‘Come over here.’ Delphi bowed her head and shielded her cigarette from the wind as she lit up. Natalie held her hand out for a smoke too and they sat and smoked in silence, their legs hanging over the edge.

  Natalie reflected on the season they’d had – from gala to gala. A smile edged its way through and she opened her mouth to share those memories with Delphi, but instead her breath was snatched away by the beauty of her friend. Those delicate, fragile features, the bounce of her hair, the glow of her skin, her spirit shining through in an act of defiance against the illness that plagued her. She wouldn’t be beaten.

  She lifted her hand to Delphi’s face, traced it along the soft down of her cheek, edging around her jawline, her balled hand coming to rest on Delphi’s chin. The flat of her forefinger nestled and stroked the spot where Delphi’s lips met. As Delphi closed her eyes, she too closed hers.

  ‘So next stop Canada then?’ Delphi said. Prunella had promised to book their passage as soon as she got back to London.

  ‘A few stops first: Linshatch and London and then we’re free.’ She still had Miss Lott’s motorcycle to take care of at the college; which gave her a chance to check on young Margaret’s progress. There was her brother to see too. She hoped William would accept Delphi. She would apologise to him and suggest they rekindle the relationship they’d had before the war. There would be the Mulberrys too, a farewell luncheon; a chance to show off their daughter and her new friends to their circle.

  After a while, she dragged one last time on the cigarette and stood, trailing a lingering hand across Delphi’s shoulder, and walked slowly around the perimeter of the pool until she reached the gentle slope of the shallow end.

  She unbuckled her sandals and walked down into the depths of the empty pool. The blue paint had cracked and peeled off in leaf-sized layers in places. Halfway along, the pool sloped again, leading to the deep end. She smoothed the seat of the powder-blue trouser suit.

  The pool’s bottom had seemed so far away from the water’s surface when it was full. She lowered her back until she was facing upwards from the depths. The air was clear and the blue was way above her, out of reach. She imagined the water around her, remembered the sight of Jack diving in, of George, Edith. That feeling of exhilaration and blind faith when she jumped up and let gravity pull her down to break the water’s surface.

  Delphi appeared at her side and lay next to her. They held hands, their skins merging. She squeezed Delphi’s hand.

  ‘I know you’ve had a torrid time of it, but I’m so glad you persuaded me down here for our holidays,’ she said.

  ‘Me too. It was worth it in the end.’

  ‘I wouldn’t swap our time here for anything,’ Natalie said. ‘Not a thing. You challenged me to move on and actually it’s turned out to be the best adventure of my life.’

  Delphi smiled and said, ‘So far.’

  Acknowledgements

  The Wellcome Library, the volunteers at the Bergman Osterberg Union Archive and the Hastings Museum, particularly Andre Palfrey-Martin for being so generous with his time and sharing such interesting stories about the old St Leonards’ bathing pool.

  Victoria and Hannah at HQ for this wonderful opportunity and for getting me and The Lido Girls to this point.

  Jackie Burton for the benefit of her diving expertise, Guillaume Olive for the use of his social history book collection and Stuart Mottram for aiding my research into vintage motorcycles.

  To readers of early drafts, Sheena Robinson, Sian Pullen and my Nannie, Gladys, who was particularly helpful with period detail and for sharing memories of her 1930s childhood holidays in Hastings.

  To my very special writing friends Sue Wilsher and Tanya Gupta – a huge thanks to you both and also to all of my friends at the Author Lab. As this is a story that celebrates the power of friendship, I would like to extend my thanks to all of my family and friends for their invaluable support.

  A debt of gratitude to our teachers. Teachers like Mr Ashwell, to whom this novel is dedicated, whose encouragement to follow our passions and interests lasts a lifetime.

  And final thanks to my family, Andrew, Evie and Dylan, for allowing Natalie and Delphi into our lives and giving me the space to research, imagine and write their story.

  Author’s Note

  This novel is a fictional creation inspired by the real people and institutions whose early twentieth century legacy is still enjoyed today.

  Prunella Stack and her mother Mary Bagot Stack were inspirational pioneers who persisted with their aims for the Women’s League of Health and Beauty, now called The Fitness League, despite the cold shoulder they initially received from the educational establishment. The Prunella Stack and Aunt Norah in this novel are my imagined versions. Two women, Natalie and Delphine, did travel with Prunella to Canada in the autumn of 1935 to spread the League’s aims of peace and cooperation to the Dominions. I have imagined the lives of these two women and the story that led them to travel to Canada. I have also, in places, made small adjustments to tell a more complete story, for example Prunella Stack was invited to advise on the government’s Fitness Council in 1936, not 1935.

  The real Madame Forsberg was called Madame Osterberg, who upon founding the Bergman Osterberg Union finally put a stop to women wearing corsets in sport by introducing the controversial above-the-knee gymslip. No doubt a welcomed relief for sportswomen of the time. These physical education colleges for women had an excellent reputation internationally and provided single women like Natalie the opportunity of a profession and life in teaching.

  The advertising literature for British seaside resorts from the 1930s boasts year-round sunshine and glorious weather. Anyone who has holidayed in Britain will know this to be brilliantly optimistic. The weather in the summer of 1935 was in fact that of a typical British summer – cloudy, mild, the odd burst of sunshine, some rain. The heatwave in my story is created with the same sense of wishful thinking as the marketers back then.

  If you would like to read more about the work of the remarkable women in this novel, I would recommend:

  For the plight of the ‘surplus’ woman, Virginia Nicholson’s Singled Out is brilliantly researched and very insightful.

  To learn more about the life of Women’s League of Health and Beauty’s founders, Zest for Life by Prunella Stack is well worth a read.

  The Real Women’s League of Health & Beauty

  by

  Margaret Peggie OBE B.Ed.MA

  Vice President Fitness League

  One of my earliest memories is of my mother cycling away from our house, off to her Women’s League of Health and Beauty class every Monday evening. She risked the disapproval of the neighbours by leaving her three children in the care of our father, which was unusual in those days, but we loved it
as he was easier to get around when it came to bed time! She was one of the thousands of young women who had joined the League shortly after it began in 1930 and quickly became a devotee, caught up by the excitement of women doing it for themselves, the glamour of the black and white satin and the exhilaration of music, exercise and dance. She went to classes in London after her work at the Air Ministry and during the war, as an ‘advanced’ member, she was asked to be a relief teacher for a class in Fulham whose teacher had joined one of the forces. She loved to tell me years later that she was still waiting to be paid!

  Mrs Bagot Stack founded her Women’s League of Health and Beauty in 1930. It was a personal response to the pain and suffering of war, a belief in the power of women coming together to bring about change and an absolute conviction that exercise was fundamental to maintaining and improving good health, particularly for women who had no free access to health services in those days. The latter is now perceived wisdom and it can be argued that in that respect her mission has been fulfilled, though sadly not her over-arching ambition to achieve ‘Racial Health’.

  She was a natural entrepreneur who generated enormous publicity for her Women’s League. She produced records, books, magazines, ran public demonstrations and got a lot of coverage in the national press. In the magazines were glamorous photos of teachers such as Natalie and Delphine, who did indeed go to Canada to start up classes. It seems amazing to us today that so many young women were happy to be ‘sent’ to such far flung places in this country and abroad (mostly in the colonies) to extend the reach of Mary Bagot Stack’s vision.

  From its launch in 1930 until war broke out in 1939 the League had grown to 166,000 members. The growth seemed unstoppable even when Mary Bagot Stack died at the age of 52 in 1935. Supported by family, friends and teachers, Prunella stepped into her mother’s shoes at the tender age of 20, keeping the momentum going. Photos of her in the famous black satin pants and white satin shirt appeared weekly in the papers, who dubbed her the ‘Perfect Girl’. Her engagement and marriage to the younger son of the Duke of Hamilton caused even more of a stir and my mother was one of those League members for whom a special train was chartered to take them up to Scotland for the wedding in Glasgow Cathedral. While it looked to critical outsiders as though the League was an entirely commercial operation, the reality was that it was not, because Mary Bagot Stack’s guiding principle was to encourage as many women as possible to join by keeping the cost of the classes low, just enough to cover expenses. The obvious success of the League in bringing health and fitness to the lives of thousands of women was respected though in quarters other than the educational establishment, and Prunella was indeed invited to be a member of the government’s Fitness Council which was set up to investigate ways of improving the nation’s fitness which was of concern at the time. Who knows what would have happened to the League had war not broken out in 1939? Many of its teachers who were mostly young and single went off to join the forces, mostly as Physical Training Instructors and many classes had to close. Other classes remained open throughout the war, helped by advanced members like my mother, but as many of the members also got involved in war work, the numbers diminished rapidly. Training of teachers resumed after the war but the membership would never reach the heady heights of 1939. The PE profession encouraged the development of the Keep Fit Association, whose work was based on the same Rudolf Laban’s principles which underpinned the work in their colleges, and for the first time the Women’s League of Health and Beauty had a competitor.