Both by coincidence bring the same photo to show Kate for her research, a snap of the two aged 15 and 18 enjoying a moment of fun on a tea break. Ann got married quickly, she wryly admits. “It happened a lot, when you get a factory full of good-looking young men and women.” Eileen and Ann at their reunion in 2019 recreating the old photo from the factory - Credit: Kate Thompson The Lavender Girls is set in the 1940s, when - according to a Ministry of Supply memo - make-up was as important to women as cigarettes were to men to boost morale in the population. Winston Churchill declared “beauty is a duty” and Britain’s oldest cosmetics firm, established in 1770, rose to the wartime challenge.