73 Dove Street

Soho, London, 1958. Three women. One boarding house. A secret that could shatter everything. 
 
 'Gripping… Julie Owen Moylan vividly recreates drab, grey postwar London and her characters are convincing to the end' THE TIMES, 'BEST NEW HISTORICAL FICTION' 
 
 'Psychologically astute and emotionally absorbing, this is a heartfelt read' DAILY MAIL 
 
 'Emotional, immersive and utterly absorbing' JENNIFER SAINT 
 
 ---- 
 
 West London, 1958. 73 Dove Street is a shabby house in a shabby street. 
 But this boarding house’s attic room suits newcomer Edie Budd very well. 
 It’s somewhere to hide. 
 
 Tommie, on the second floor, is up in Soho every night. 
 There’s a man she’s pursuing – 
 whether he wants her or not. 
 
 Landlady Phyllis has thrown out her cheating husband. 
 She’s burned his belongings in the street. 
 Sometimes there’s no going back. 
 
 Three survivors living under one roof. 
 Each alone nursing their secret hurts – and hopes. 
 Because opening your heart could save or destroy you... 
---- 
 
'A wonderfully evocative, immersive novel that brings 50s London to life, from the smog and the nightlife to attitudes towards women . . . a vivid, absorbing and ultimately uplifting read' SUNDAY EXPRESS 
 
 'The sense of time and place is beautifully evocative. It's about pride and shame and love and loss and ultimately hope' LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON 
 'Once again, Julie Owen Moylan has created a world that feels completely real and vivid' JODIE CHAPMAN 
 
 'From the Rivoli Ballroom to the seedy nightlife of Soho, the characters leap off the page in this compelling mystery' WOMAN &amp; HOME 
 
 'A beautiful story of friendship and new beginnings' BEST 
 
 'Gripping and atmospheric' RED

Touching, entertaining, hopeful. A vivid sense of time, place, people's attitudes and fragilities

Psychologically astute and emotionally absorbing, this is a heartfelt read

73 Dove Street is a pacy and evocative account of the struggles facing women of that era

Gripping . . . Julie Owen Moylan vividly recreates drab, grey postwar London and her characters are convincing to the end

The Times, 'Best New Historical Fiction for July 2023

From the Rivoli Ballroom to the seedy nightlife of Soho, the characters leap off the page in this compelling mystery

An incredibly vivid rendering of post-war London and the complicated lives of three woman whose fates intersect at a boarding house as they seek to take control of their own destinies. This was an engrossing read; emotional, immersive and utterly absorbing

Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne

A corker. It's the story of three working class women in 1950's London. It's so evocative, you can *smell* the gas fires, the lard, the perfume, the talc, the gin. It's bleakly honest about women's lot at the time (not so very long ago) and the tale is deftly woven. I loved how the strands came together, very satisfying

Kate Sawyer, author of The Stranding

A wonderfully evocative, immersive novel that brings 50s London to life, from the smog and the nightlife to attitudes towards women. Julie Owen Moylan excels in creating female characters who the reader cares about. As the friendship between these three unlikely women grows, so does their hope for a better future. It's a vivid, absorbing and ultimately uplifting read

A vivid and propulsive story of three women and three dangerous secrets, 73 Dove Street so brillaintly and evocatively captures Soho in the 50s that I really feel I was there

Sophie Irwin, bestseslling author of The Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting

I loved it even more than Julie's debut That Green Eyed Girl. Soho in the 50s is brilliantly done, as are the female characters. Brava Julie!

Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls

Powerful, poignant and so beautifully drawn - every single scene comes alive

Frances Quinn, author of The Smallest Man

Once again, Julie Owen Moylan has created a mid century world that feels completely real and vivid. I've loved walking the damp postwar London streets with Edie and Tommie, chain-smoking in gin bars and watching these women grow. Julie has such a knack for setting up a story, creating a mystery that pulls you right in. A hugely enjoyable book.

Jodie Chapman, author of Another Life

Set in my end of 1950s London, the sense of time and place is beautifully evocative, the ghost of the war, and the sense of societal change about to come. It's about pride and shame and love and loss and ultimately hope

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of Blood & Sugar

Stark choices and dangerous secrets disrupt the lives of three damaged but resilient working-class women in this compelling emotional drama

From the Rivoli Ballroom to the seedy nightlife of Soho, the characters leap off the page in this compelling mystery

Brilliant! Totally immersed in postwar London. I loved every page of this wonderful novel. A mystery that keeps you guessing, difficult women and that seductive 1950s atmosphere - all my favourite things!

Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City

Another fabulous read by the brilliant Julie Owen Moylan. A gripping and touching feminist read about three women in one London boarding house in 1958. Julie writes about mid-20th century women like no-one else!

Laura Price, author of Single Bald Female

I loved That Green Eyed Girl by Julie Owen Moylan so had high hopes for 73 Dove Street and it did not disappoint. This beautiful postwar story of three working class women is so evocative and moving. Adored it.

Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

A beautiful story of friendship and new beginnings

Another absolute cracker from Julie Owen Moylan. The compelling and vividly-evoked story of three brave and complex women in 1950s London.

Anna Mazzola, author of The Clockwork Girl

Hugely atmospheric, this haunting and thought-provoking read explores the lives of three women whose tales become entwined through a single address. Set in 1958 London, brought to life by immersive, detailed descriptions, it looks at women's roles in a changing society. It's a really tough read at times but written with such heart. A fascinating, bold read. Bravo Julie bravo!

A brilliant evocation of the seedy side of post-war London, wrapped around a story of the power of female friendship, this is the very best kind of escapism

Gripping and atmospheric, this novel will worm its way into your heart

I adored it. It's gripping (I stayed up until 1am on a school night to finish it), moving and so wonderfully evocative of post-war London. Julie's firmly an auto-buy author for me now, and I can't wait to read what she writes next

Emma Hughes, author of No Such Thing As Perfect

Brimming with 1950s detail and atmosphere, pacy and evocative, authentic and well-drawn. An enjoyable read

Julie Owen Moylan is the author of three novels: That Green Eyed Girl, 73 Dove Street and Circus of Mirrors. Her debut novel That Green Eyed Girl was a Waterstones’ Welsh Book of the Month and the official runner up for the prestigious Paul Torday Memorial Prize. It was also shortlisted for Best Debut at the Fingerprint Awards and featured at the Hay Festival as one of its ‘Ten at Ten’. 73 Dove Street was a Waterstones’ Books of 2023 and a Daily Mail Historical Fiction Book of the Year. As a filmmaker Julie won the Celtic Media Award for her graduation film “BabyCakes” before going on to win Best Short Film at the Swansea Film Festival. Her writing and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications including Sunday Express, The Independent, New Welsh Review and Good Housekeeping. She has a Masters in Filmmaking and an additional qualification in Creative Writing &amp; English Literature. Julie is an alumna of the Faber Academy. 
 
Julie can be found on Instagram: @JulieOwenMoylan and her website: JulieOwenMoylan.com

When Edie Budd arrives at a shabby West London boarding house in October 1958 with a broken suitcase and an envelope of cash, it's clear she's hiding something. And she's not the only one . . . 
 
Tommie, who lives on the second floor, waits on the eccentric Mrs Vee by day. After dark, she is addicted to seedy Soho nightlife - and a man she can't quit. 
 
Phyllis, the formidable landlady, has set fire to her husband's belongings after discovering a heart-breaking betrayal - yet her bravado hides a secret past. 
 
Soon Edie's past catches up with her, while Tommie becomes caught in her lies - forcing her into a decision that will change everything . . .

Be transported to mid-century New York in this evocative and page-turning debut

That Green Eyed Girl

Transport yourself to mid-century New York in this compelling and evocative story of secrets, jealousy and hidden love 
 
'Book of the Month' WOMAN &amp; HOME 
'Dazzling debut' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 
'So vividly evoked' CLARE CHAMBERS 
'I was gripped from the first page' SARA COX 
__________ 
 
NEW YORK CITY, 1955. 
 
In the dimmed lights of their apartment, Dovie and Gillian love each other in secret. Mixing drinks, dancing to slow jazz, they guard their lives closely, knowing they'll never truly be safe. 
 
And yet, outside, someone suspects the truth. 
 
Gillian fears the worst, and grips on to Dovie more tightly. But Dovie, seeing the good in people, lets the door open . . . 
 
Is this their chance to finally be free? 
 
Or are they in even more danger than before? 
__________ 
 
'Superlative' RED 
'Summer sparkles in this book and so does the prose' DAMIAN BARR 
'Highly recommended' NIKKI MAY, AUTHOR OF WAHALA 
 
READERS ARE FALLING IN LOVE WITH THAT GREEN EYED GIRL 
 
'Broke me, put me back together. Just buy this. You won't regret it' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
'The pacing is perfect, the voice is striking' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
'So well written that you truly feel like you're there' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
'The ending will floor you' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
'I was blown away by this book! So evocative of the period' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
'It would make a lovely film, with beautiful visuals and a killer jazz soundtrack' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
'Pick it up if you wanted to be transported to mid-century NYC (and if you like a novel that makes you want to dance and weep in equal measure)' 5* READER REVIEW 
 
 'This is the kind of book that takes your heart in its hands' 5* READER REVIEW

Loved this . . . I was gripped from the first page and eked out the last chapters as I didn't want to leave the smoky clubs of 1950's Manhattan. A stellar line-up of brave, complicated and bright women . . . prepare to lose yourself in a tale of love, loss and deceit

Sara Cox, Radio 2 DJ and host of BBC 2’s Between the Covers

Summer sparkles in this book and so does the prose!

A gorgeous, evocative novel that's part love story, part coming of age and part mystery. But all parts are superlative!

I so enjoyed That Green Eyed Girl. The atmosphere of city heat and dust and stifling apartments was so vividly evoked. And I was equally invested in both narrative strands . . . I was hooked from the beginning

Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

It's beautifully written and particularly wonderful on forbidden love, loss and forgiveness

I loved this. Dovie and Ava are both such compelling characters and the evocation of time and place so strong - I was irresistibly drawn into their stories. Sad, rage-inducing and uplifting - a very emotional read

Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange

Julie Owen Moylan expertly places her readers in a New York apartment, where you feel the heat and hear the tinny radio . . . There's a cinematic quality to this novel; the characters are deftly drawn and emotionally engaging, and the plot develops at the right pace, with unexpected twists. An accomplished debut

That Green Eyed Girl takes hold of you and draws you along. I loved the little connective details between the timelines and the unravelling of the gentle mystery of it all. Hits a perfect bittersweet note - I predict big things

With an intriguing opening line and a camera-like gaze, the author places her readers in a New York apartment, where you feel the heat and hear the tinny radio . . . The characters are deftly drawn and emotionally engaging, and the plot develops at just the right pace, with unexpected twists. An accomplished debut

The mystery at the heart of this novel had me hooked from the start. I spent a weekend sitting in 1950s bars, listening to jazz with Gillian and Dovie, then skipping ahead twenty years to walk the same streets with Ava, remembering the awkwardness of being a teenager. Heartbreaking but with a satisfying ending, I will remember this book for a long time

Old school New York, cocktails and jazz bars and pulsing heat. A story of love and loneliness, it's heart-breaking and complex and oh so real. I loved it

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of Blood and Sugar

Made me cry, took me to smoke-filled jazz bars, and made me want to dance. A brilliantly written, evocative and moving novel

Not only assured, pacy and involving, but both heartbreaking and heartmending

Hope Adams, author of Dangerous Women

I've spent the whole day reading this mesmerising book. Such a devastating, gripping story and stunning, powerful writing. Once I started I just could not stop

Aliya Ali-Afzal, author of Would I Lie to You

This book ... wow. So beautifully written, you feel you're there in New York, feeling everything the characters feel. A very original story that will stay with me for a long time

A gripping tale of jealousy, loyalty and the lengths people will go to in order to protect those they love

With an intriguing opening line and a camera-like gaze, Julie Owen Moylan places her readers in a New York apartment, where you feel the heat and hear the tinny radio . . . There's a sensory filmic quality to this novel - the characters are deftly drawn and the plot develops at just the right pace. A very accomplished debut

I've just spent a couple of days in mid-century Manhattan, dancing in underground jazz clubs and feeling the sweat of summer on my skin . . . A smoky page-turner

Wonderful . . . utterly transported me to the jazz bars and stuffy apartments of New York, while telling a moving and compelling story about a time in history I knew little about

The pacing is perfect, the voice is striking. Highly recommend.

A poignant coming of age and a gorgeously romantic and tragic queer love story

Isabel Costello, author of Paris Mon Amour

I so enjoyed [That Green Eyed Girl]. I loved the evocation of NYC, the jazz, and the two storylines . . . so compelling

Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring

A cracking read. Compelling and stylish. I'll be thinking about Ava, Dovie and Gillian for a long time

Claire Alexander, author of Meredith, Alone

Heartbreaking, multi-layered and thoughtfully written, this is a book that stays with you for all the right reasons

From the killer first sentence until the final page, I was totally gripped by That Green Eyed Girl. Told across two timelines twenty years apart, it's deeply immersive, hugely addictive and, like the girl in the song, it will haunt me

Paul Burston, author of The Closer I Get

How the three women are connected is tantalisingly revealed in this evocative tale

Incredibly elegant and sophisticated prose

Set in the smoky jazz bars of 1950s New York, this debut novel by Julie Owen Moylan brings to life an array of powerful, bold and complicated women - all of whom have their own stories and secrets. The mystery at hand is soft and gently unfolds to climax into a satisfying but heartbreaking ending

Evening Standard, Best Thrillers Books to read in 2022

Julie Owen Moylan's astonishingly accomplished debut is both a deftly constructed thriller and a bittersweet love story - expect to hear a lot about it this summer

Evocative, thought-provoking and incredibly moving

Read this if you want to be transported to NYC to feel the sizzle of summer and experience the smoky, sultry glow of 1950s jazz clubs

Moving. A sensitive, endearing story

Julie Owen Moylan is the author of three novels: That Green Eyed Girl, 73 Dove Street and Circus of Mirrors. Her debut novel That Green Eyed Girl was a Waterstones’ Welsh Book of the Month and the official runner up for the prestigious Paul Torday Memorial Prize. It was also shortlisted for Best Debut at the Fingerprint Awards and featured at the Hay Festival as one of its ‘Ten at Ten’. 73 Dove Street was a Waterstones’ Books of 2023 and a Daily Mail Historical Fiction Book of the Year. As a filmmaker Julie won the Celtic Media Award for her graduation film “BabyCakes” before going on to win Best Short Film at the Swansea Film Festival. Her writing and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications including Sunday Express, The Independent, New Welsh Review and Good Housekeeping. She has a Masters in Filmmaking and an additional qualification in Creative Writing & English Literature. Julie is an alumna of the Faber Academy. 
 
Julie can be found on Instagram: @JulieOwenMoylan and her website: JulieOwenMoylan.com

Elizabeth and Marilyn

Available to pre-order now, the new novel from Julie Owen Moylan 
'Wonderful, I loved this. Julie is a writer you can ALWAYS trust in the way she portrays women, they are believable, flawed, complex and fascinating. Their motivations, loves, the way they grapple with meaning and their callings is all sensitively done and I love the way she shows the parallels between the two women' Georgina Moore 
 
*** 
 
October 1956. A glittering array of stars turn out in London for a Royal Film Premiere, where they will be presented to the Queen. Elizabeth II: an elegant young mother and wife, gracious and self-sacrificing who has embraced her patriotic duty despite never expecting to take the throne. 
Cameras flash and a limousine pulls up. Out steps a vision in dazzling gold. Marilyn Monroe. A global sensation and money-making machine for Hollywood, with curves that drive men wild and a smile that lets women know she’s in on the joke. 
Finally, the two most famous women in the world will come face to face in public for the first time. And the world is watching. 
But behind the scenes they are Lilibet and Norma-Jeane. Two women from very different backgrounds, who on the surface have little in common. Yet beneath the glamorous costumes and jewels, both women are fighting to keep the men they love, while trying to do their work in a man’s world. And they have spent the summer of 1956 as neighbours, battling secret demons that their adoring public could only guess at. 
Until now... 
Perfect for fans of American Wife, The Christie Affair and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this stunning novel imagines the secret lives of two of the 20th century’s most famous women – set during a momentous summer that brought them face to face, and publishing 100 years after their births.

Wonderful, I loved this. Julie is a writer you can ALWAYS trust in the way she portrays women, they are believable, flawed, complex and fascinating. Their motivations, loves, the way they grapple with meaning and their callings is all sensitively done and I love the way she shows the parallels between the two women

1956. Elizabeth II is an elegant young mother and wife who has embraced her patriotic duty despite never expecting to take the throne. 
 
Marilyn Monroe is a global sensation and money-making machine for Hollywood, with curves that drive men wild and a smile that lets women know she’s in on the joke. 
 
But behind the scenes, they are Lilibet and Norma-Jean. And they have spent the summer of 1956 as neighbours, battling secret demons that their adoring public could only guess at. 
 
Until now…

Julie Owen Moylan

Sexy, electrically stylish, and beautiful - a gorgeous story about sisterhood, and a glamorous, evocative passport to a period we all long to get lost in. Julie's such an incredible writer

What a brilliant tale of two sisters in Berlin. Atmospheric and the characters and flawed, complex and believable. Julie's best novel yet

A tale of two sisters and a city, all three of them so vividly drawn, I felt I knew them. An almost unbearably poignant story of missed chances, long-hidden lies and women fighting the odds to grab happiness where they can. Superbly atmospheric, with convincingly flawed characters that just leap off the page

An all-singing, all-dancing, moving and masterful book about two complex sisters living in incredibly complex times. Mid-twentieth century Berlin and the glittering world of the Babylon Circus are brilliantly evoked and, as always with Julie Owen Moylan's writing, the characters - astutely rendered, flawed and convincing - live with us long after we've closed the book. Brilliant

The sisters are terrific, unsentimentally and vividly portrayed. So, too, is Berlin, filled with menace, glitter and upcoming destruction. Bold and brave and absorbing

What a brilliantly evocative, moving and emotionally affecting read. Leni and Nette's struggles and the twists and turns of their relationship were so well realised and had me absolutely gripped. The Babylon Circus shimmered off the page, I could picture it completely. I raced through the final pages late at night desperate to know what would happen!

Immersive, tender, simmering with secrets - and such a richly-drawn portrait of Berlin from 1926 to 1961

With hints of Atonement, this is an epic novel, spanning decades as it explores with compassion and humanity the relationship of two sisters torn between the love and obligation they feel towards one another, and their desire for freedom and a better life that will split them apart. It&rsquo;s about secrets and hidden truths and the deep and long-lasting consequences of both. Above all it&rsquo;s a story of missed opportunity, chance, guilt, love and forgiveness. I devoured this novel with its rich, vivid prose and its complex characters, tossed into conflict and dire circumstances through no fault of their own. A deeply thought-provoking and emotional story I will be thinking of long after I finished the final page. Utterly luminous

Louise Fein, author of The London Bookshop Affair

Set against the backdrop of the exotic nightclub of the title, The Circus of Mirrors is the story of two sisters, Leni and Annette, and their struggles to survive in a Berlin torn apart by first war, then communism. Moylan has researched her period thoroughly, and her characters are well drawn, drawing the reader on to a heart-breaking conclusion

A sweeping saga of sisterhood, missed chances and a glittering circus sparkles fiercely against mid-20th century Berlin. Gorgeous and poignant. A captivating tale of two sisters that at turns dazzles and devastates

A dazzling ride through mid century Berlin, this is a story of both a place and the personal, as two sisters try to find their happiness as the world around them falls apart. Julie does mid century so well and her third book is no exception

Jodie Chapman, author of Oh, Sister

What a glittering and enticing world you've created- a book not to be read but swallowed whole

The story of the sisters' tragic lives brims with atmosphere

Touching, entertaining, hopeful. A vivid sense of time, place, people's attitudes and fragilities

I so enjoyed That Green Eyed Girl. The atmosphere of city heat and dust and stifling apartments was so vividly evoked. And I was equally invested in both narrative strands . . . I was hooked from the beginning

It's beautifully written and particularly wonderful on forbidden love, loss and forgiveness

Gripping . . . Julie Owen Moylan vividly recreates drab, grey postwar London and her characters are convincing to the end

Berlin, 1926. After the death of their parents, sisters Leni and Annette only have each other. Desperate to support her younger sister, Leni finds work at a notorious cabaret: the Babylon Circus, a place where reality and fantasy merge. 
 
Leni is happiest hiding in the shadows, until she meets resident pianist, Paul, beginning a tentative love affair that will play out over the next forty years. 
 
But can a love born within the feverish walls of the Babylon Circus ever survive? And can the bond between Leni and Annette – tugged in opposite directions of their own – also endure?

Julie Owen Moylan

Praise for Circus of Mirrors

Sexy, electrically stylish, and beautiful - a gorgeous story about sisterhood, and a glamorous, evocative passport to a period we all long to get lost in. Julie's such an incredible writer

What a brilliant tale of two sisters in Berlin. Atmospheric and the characters and flawed, complex and believable. Julie's best novel yet

A tale of two sisters and a city, all three of them so vividly drawn, I felt I knew them. An almost unbearably poignant story of missed chances, long-hidden lies and women fighting the odds to grab happine ...

Sexy, electrically stylish, and beautiful - a gorgeous story about sisterhood, and a glamorous, evocative passport to a period we all long to get lost in. Julie's such an incredible writer

What a brilliant tale of two sisters in Berlin. Atmospheric and the characters and flawed, complex and believable. Julie's best novel yet

A tale of two sisters and a city, all three of them so vividly drawn, I felt I knew them. An almost unbearably poignant story of missed chances, long-hidden lies and women fighting the odds to grab happine ...

Sexy, electrically stylish, and beautiful - a gorgeous story about sisterhood, and a glamorous, evocative passport to a period we all long to get lost in. Julie's such an incredible writer

What a brilliant tale of two sisters in Berlin. Atmospheric and the characters and flawed, complex and believable. Julie's best novel yet

A tale of two sisters and a city, all three of them so vividly drawn, I felt I knew them. An almost unbearably poignant story of missed chances, long-hidden lies and women fighting the odds to grab happine ...

Books by Julie Owen Moylan

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter