"Valaida listened hard. After the melody's intro and Earl's left-hand-to-right-hand cascades of piano sound, her space opened, and Valaida jumped in. She blew. She entered the music, saw the chords, embellishes, the reference to other songs as plain as the day behind her eyeballs, and she used them. She jumped from bar to bar like a benzine-fuelled billy goat. She didn't miss. She hit her peaks and whinnied in triumph. In the nebular light of the Terrace's mirror ball, she flew with the men who had backed Louis armstrong at his best."

From a childhood in Chattanooga, to a debut in Harlem; from touring in the Jim Crow south, to showcasing in Shanghai and London in the 1930s, Valaida lived large, blazing a trail with charismatic energy and inimitable style.

Based on the true story of Valaida Snow, one of the first female jazz trumpeters, this is a fascinating, seductive and deeply imagined novel, a sweeping tale of love, degradation, laughter and longing. Valaida is an exhilarating debut from a dazzling new talent.

CANDACE ALLEN received her B.A. from Harvard before attending the New York University School of Film and Television and becoming the first African-American female member of the Directors Guild of America. She has been an assistant director and a Hollywood screenwriter. This is her first novel. She lives in London.

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