Sailing Through Byzantium

<p>It’s one minute to midnight on 27th October 1962. The Cuban missile crisis is entering its final countdown as the world prepares for nuclear winter.</p><p>But in Istanbul’s old bohemian quarter a confederacy of free spirits has gathered around a baby grand to see the night out in style. The moment is captured in a legendary photograph.</p><p>Behind them dark ships pass along the Bosphorus. Some could be Soviet tankers smuggling missiles to Cuba but tonight no one is looking. All eyes are on Grace the dark-haired singer. All that matters is her sublime voice and her song: Stormy Weather.</p><p>The girl crouched beneath the piano is the discordant note in the flamboyant scene. This is Mimi Grace’s nine-year old daughter. Until tonight she believed every word her mother uttered. Now she sees a byzantine web of lies. Who abandoned whom that night? And why did it change her life forever?</p><p>On the 27th October 2012 Mimi has come back haunted by these unanswered questions to make her peace with the past.</p>