Ladies of Lascaris: Christina Ratcliffe and the Forgotten Heroes of Malta’s War

Description

The world premiere of the musical stage play _Star of Strait Street_ took place in Valletta on 4 April 2017. It celebrates the life of Christina Ratcliffe, an English singer and dancer who became an aircraft plotter in Malta in the Second World War. She worked in the underground Royal Air Force operational headquarters beneath Lascaris Bastion in Valletta. This is Christina’s story and that of other British and Maltese girls employed by the RAF. It is also the story of Philip Glassborow’s hit musical _Star of Strait Street_. In June 1942 fifty-three female civilian plotters worked at Lascaris, some as young as fourteen. Six including Christina were decorated for gallantry. What they did, how they lived and how some of them died is told in part using their own words. Their descriptions of life beneath the most intensive, prolonged bombing the world has ever seen are extraordinary and rare: female perspectives at the heart of military conflict. Described in the _Times of Malta_ in 1942 as ‘Christina of George Cross Island’, she herself said Malta ‘is carved on my heart’. For years after the Second World War in small corner cafés and bars that are such a feature of Malta’s towns and villages, people talked about a remarkable RAF photo-recce pilot called Warby and his stunning companion Christina, a true heroine, they said. Yet she died alone and unnoticed and was buried in a shared grave. Now the memory of what she and the _LADIES OF LASCARIS_ achieved has been brought back to life for a well-deserved encore in writing and on the stage. Cover......Page 1 Dedication......Page 3 Book Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Foreword......Page 11 Chapter 1 Connections......Page 14 Chapter 2 Dancing Shoes & Stepping Stones......Page 24 Chapter 3 War......Page 47 Chapter 4 The Whizz-Bangs......Page 72 Chapter 5 Heartbreak......Page 95 Chapter 6 ‘A Greek God’......Page 105 Chapter 7 Aircraft Plotter......Page 121 Chapter 8 Ladies of Lascaris......Page 145 Chapter 9 Breaking Point......Page 164 Chapter 10 Spitfire Summer......Page 183 Chapter 11 Warby’s World......Page 205 Chapter 12 Autumn......Page 209 Chapter 13 Pour que tu me n’oublie pas completement......Page 225 Chapter 14 ‘Carved on my Heart’......Page 240 Chapter 15 The End of a Quest......Page 260 Chapter 16 Star of Strait Street......Page 281 Postscript......Page 308 Annex A: Ladies of Lascaris - 1 June 1942......Page 310 Annex B: Malta’s Love Story: Casablanca replayed at The Morning Star......Page 314 Annex C: Strait Street cabaret performer Christina Ratcliffe celebrated in new book - ‘Words that come Strait from the heart’......Page 317 Bibliography & Sources......Page 319 Index......Page 322 Back cover......Page 338