Looks like another fascinating book. "The remarkable life and tragic end of an English singer and dancer who became an aircraft plotter in Malta during the Second World War has been told for the first time. Christina Ratcliffe, who was born in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, in 1914, did not plan on becoming a plotter when she travelled to Valletta in 1937 - in fact, she had intended to travel across Europe while working as a cabaret artiste. The young woman had already found fame as a dancer in the film Charing Cross Road (1935), starring John Mills and June Clyde, and created her own cabaret troupe the Whizz Bangs. But when Italy declared war on Britain, her flight was cancelled and she was stuck. She decided to become a civilian plotter at the Lascaris War Rooms, and loved the island so much that she stayed there until her death in the late 1980s. Her role as a plotter at the underground Royal Air Force operational headquarters beneath Lascaris Bastion in Valletta was of vital importance - she marked the approach of various friendly and enemy aircraft so that controllers could plan the best route to safety for their pilots. It was in her job there that she supposedly found love with pilot Adrian Warburton. Paul McDonald, who has extensively researched Ms Ratcliffe's life for his book the Ladies of Lascaris, told the Times of Malta: 'Warburton was pretty unusual – he was a gallant, brave man, but after my research on Ms Ratcliffe, it seems like her life was more extraordinary. 'She was a very determined woman, who left industrial north west England in her 20s, and travelled Europe as a singer and dancer.'" www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6167513/Remarkable-life-English-singer-aircraft-plotter-Malta-World-War-II.html
