She loves him, she loves him not. But can he always love her, when heaven knows what she really wants?The moment Vaughan Thomas sets eyes on Ruth Parry, fumbling for the pennies that will buy her pamphlet, he finds something to aim for in his young and already corrupt life. So what sets the lovely imp so high above him? It could be her modern-girl looks. Maybe it's the perfect cheek of her tongue.Nothing hurts like rejection, even when life in the stark new world of the 192O and 30s is so full of distractions. Every street corner has its music hall, picture house, dance parlour or show room full of affordable cars and motorcycles. So why sit and brood when there are good-time girls, next-door girls, shop girls, even hat-check girls who can dance the tango? Liverpool is still the Pool of Life with the air raids of World War Two a decade off. Yet a cloud broods over the city.

There is something menacing in the world. Inequality, privilege, pettiness, the damn lies of politicians, the raw statistics of working for a living. In the long run, the pursuit of love and sex seems such a empty sort of goal, Vaughan struggles to cast it off. He believes can take it or leave it. Then the boomerang he has loosed comes winging round again. Just when he thinks he has grown out of its clutches, a woman throws everything back in his stupid face.An all-colour production years ahead of its time, "My Heart Forgets To Beat" (from Ray Noble's 1933 hit, "The Touch of Your Lips") simply pulses with romance and history.Also available on Kindle.

For more information, and other writing by Philip Lee, go to: downwritefiction@blogspot.com.