Autumn 2021

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley.

Billionaire, affectionally known as Pa Salt, lives with his six adopted daughters, named after the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, a story from Greek Mythology, in a fabulous secluded castle, “Atlantis”, on the shores of Lake Geneva. They are Maia, Ally(Alcyone), Star (Asterope), Ce Ce  (Celaeno), Tiggy (Taygete), Electra and Merope (missing).

As they all gather in the family home, they hear that their father has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue as to her true heritage.

This book, the first in the series, deals with Maia and takes her across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Once there she begins to put together the pieces of her story which begins eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s.  Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy.  Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called, “Christ the Redeemer”, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor for his vision.  Izabella persuades her father to accompany him and his family before she is married.  There, she meets an ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly and she knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

This is an epic tale of love and loss, from the streets of Rio to the heady vibrant cafes of Montparnasse and takes Maia on a spellbinding journey to discover her roots and make a life for herself outside of “Atlantis”.

A real page turner, however it should come with a warning. I am now on the fourth book and it, like the others is compulsive reading!

Sandra Barker

Comedy Connections

This month linked questions about TV comedy shows.

1a  Whose Mother did have em?

1b  Played by which actor?

1c Which Andrew Lloyd Webber show was he in?

2a  Who was that ‘Stupid Boy’?

2b  Played by who?

2c  Which soap has he been in?

3a  Who was originally ‘Open all hours’?

3b  Played by ?

3c  Who played the shop keeper looking for his ‘four candles’?

4a  Which priest lived on Craggy Island?

4b  Who played his dopey sidekick?

4c  He recently played a detective where?.

5a  Who said We’ll be millionaires next year?

5b  played by?

5c  Which detective did he play?

6a  Whose house had rising damp?

6b  played by?

6c  Which of his student lodgers is now on a Paradise island?

7a  Who kept up appearances?

7b  Played by ?

7c  She also played which detective?

8a  This Actor played at the good life?

8b  Who played his snooty neighbour?

8c  She recently did travel documentaries featuring what?

ANSWERS