The Moonlight Dreamers by Siobhan Curham

After a long hiatus I am now catching up with all the posts I had meant to publish in the recent past. I hope you enjoy my latest offering about the story of four young English girls who are challenged by the trials, frustrations and longings typical of the teenage years.

Amber, Maali, Sky and Rose feel like misfits until they become friends when Amber, inspired by the writings of Oscar Wilde and responding to the bright pull of a full moon, she starts The Moonlight Dreamers Club.

"On the night it all began, a full moon hung over Brick Lane, casting everything in a pearly glow"

Amber is the only daughter of Gerald and Daniel. She is teased at school for having two gay fathers, wonders who her birth mother is, and suffers the ultimate humiliation - and every girl's worst nightmare - a public menstruation accident while playing sport.

Amber works in a vintage clothes shop and decides to hand out her calling card to girls she hopes are just like her.

Maali is an Indian Hindu, who loves photography, prays to Lakshmi for guidance about a crush on a boy called Ash. Her mother runs an Indian sweet shop that specialises in the popular dessert - burfi.


On the way to buy groceries from Brick Lane for her mother, she stopped to look at the moon. She had never seen one so big.

"The moonlight was causing the mirror-tiled minaret (on the mosque) 

to glisten like a magician's wand."

Sky loves writing poetry and has challenged herself to join a poetry reading competition. She lives with her hippy Irish dad on a houseboat and is grieving the death of her mother. She is cocooned by her father until he meets a love interest that threatens to take his attention away from her.


After performing her first poetry reading in secret at Convent Garden she stops to buy something to eat on her way home.

"She took another bite of her pizza and looked up at the sky, a huge silvery moon 

shone down on the square like a spotlight."

The next to fall under the spell of the full moon is Rose. She is the daughter of a world famous model who is hounded by the paparrazzi. This causes a stressful mother/daughter relationship. On top of this her mother has now entered a relationship with an Irish hippy with a dull daughter and worst of all- they are moving in!


Rose's mother wants her to follow in her footsteps but Rose wants to be a patissier. After yet another argument with her mother, Rose runs away to be alone.

"Rose collapsed on the wet grass. Her entire life sucked! What was she going to do? 

She opened her eyes and gasped. A full moon was suspended in the sky. 

Please, please let something good happen, she begged."

All the girls answer Amber's call to be a moonlight dreamer and through their friendship and support they each overcome their anxieties and fulfil their dreams.

Burfi Recipe

250g dessicated coconut

395g sweetened condensed milk

10 cardamom pods (powdered)

Crushed pistaccios and extra coconut to roll the balls in.

 Instructions

Heat the condensed milk in a pan. Add the coconut and spices and 2T rosewater if desired. 

Stir constantly until the mixture dries out and comes away from the sides of the pan. 

Allow to cool and form in to bite-sized balls. Roll in coconut or pistaccios if desired. 

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

This book review and food photographs are the copyright of Ann Etcell-Ly