Miss Graham's career began in the theatre as chorus girl, actress, soubrette and Principal Boy. But a failed marriage led to drink and loss of voice. She ends as maid to Cicely Courtneidge, then as queen of lavatory attendants at London's Metropole Cinema.

My word what a good book.
John Betjeman

Happiness, like its opposite, often comes all at once and in plenty. In a hall in a Soho back street, I was chosen by Mr Ernest Crampton to sing in his summer Concert Party, 'Cigarettes'. Seven of us were signed: Leonard de Renzi, the baritone, to song duets with me and be stage manager; Whitwell Firth for dramatic monologues; George Baker, pianist, and his wife, Jean Harley, operatic contralto; Claude Hulbert, comedian, with Enid Trevor, comedienne. An old nanny dressed the show and did the basketing. We toured the resorts - Worthing, Bognor, Ilfracombe - from April to October. It was all very simple and I adored it. We had one spotlight, sometimes no footlights. At the Sparrow's Nest, Lowestoft, we had just one dressing-room with a partition, and, to wash, a bowlful of water from a jug.