I was really interested in delving into the contrast between the very grim reality of ordinary life and the glamour and stardust of this royal wedding. Apart from the human casualties and the emotional devastation, the economy was in ruins. People were confronted with cities and livelihoods that had been destroyed. 'If you look at the aftermath of the war in Britain, indeed all of Europe, what you're looking at is smoking ruin across the entire continent.

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Balancing behind-the-scenes details with a sweeping portrait of a society left reeling by the calamitous costs of victory, she introduces readers to three unforgettable heroines, their points of view alternating and intersecting throughout its pages, whose lives are woven together by the pain of survival, the bonds of friendship, and the redemptive power of love. With The Gown, Jennifer Robson takes us inside the workrooms where one of the most famous wedding gowns in history was created. How did her beloved Nan, a woman who never spoke of her old life in Britain, come to possess the priceless embroideries that so closely resemble the motifs on the stunning gown worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her wedding almost seventy years before? And what was her Nan's connection to the celebrated textile artist and Holocaust survivor Miriam Dassin? Toronto, 2016: More than half a century later, Heather Mackenzie seeks to unravel the mystery of a set of embroidered flowers, a legacy from her late grandmother. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, but their nascent hopes for a brighter future are tested when they are chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime honour: taking part in the creation of Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown. Among them are Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, embroiderers at the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell.

London, 1947: Besieged by the harshest winter in living memory, burdened by onerous shortages and rationing, the people of postwar Britain are enduring lives of quiet desperation despite their nation's recent victory.

The gown robson