Choral Society

Three women in their fifties -- one widowed, one divorced and one never married -- meet when they join a choir. Lucy, a food journalist, is obeying her bossy daughter who prescribes singing to assuage her grief. Joanna, the successful businesswoman for whom failure is not an option, is tackling her inability to sing a note. And much-divorced Rebecca is unashamedly looking for another mate.

When they decide to combine their talents to restore a run down hotel on the Cornish coast and turn it into a spa offering holiday courses, conflict is bound to result.

Lucy, Joanna and Rebecca are a sympathetic and engaging trio, very different women, each with private demons to confront. We feel for them as they cope, or fail to cope, with the pain of the past and fear for the future. Prue Leith makes their intertwined journeys riveting and ultimately satisfying, even uplifting.

The choir teaches them a good deal more than how to sing ...