Cherub-like in matching dresses, their tidy hairdos topped with big matching bows, the Hilton sisters show off their musical ability. Back to back on a stool, Violet plays piano, while Daisy, on saxophone, perches facing the audience. Their confident musicianship and winning smiles dispel any idea of them as 'freaks'. Even at this young age, they seem like born entertainers, with confidence beyond their years. They give a mesmerising performance.

In reality, this on-stage joie de vivre was as insincere as it was irresistible. Mary Hilton, who bought them from their mother at birth, saw their moneymaking potential immediately. She taught them to sing and dance by force, and beat them if they resisted, turning them from a sideshow curiosity into a bona fide act, ready for the American carnival circuit: the Hilton sisters.

'Stage fame does not answer the wish in our hearts...Why can't we go out and have some fun?' From these unlikely beginnings, Violet and Daisy went on to be the highest paid act in vaudeville in the 30's and 40's. They starred alongside Charlie Chaplin and other stars of the day. Their doll-like features adorned postcards. But throughout these years, they were effective prisoners, denied their youthful desires for freedom and love.

Independent life would come, and with it, sensitive questions. 'When one of the sisters took a male companion to bed,' says Dean Jensen, a biographer of the sisters, 'the other was always inches away.' Just as Daisy and Violet had shared the hellishness of their enforced celebrity, so too would they enjoy their new freedom together. And face its challenges.

Bound by Flesh is a riveting look at the individual hopes and dreams of two extraordinary women who shared one body.