Gloria Times

Aunt Hazel is a rock. She opens her home to the extended members of her family after the devastating Castries fire of 1948. These include her sister, her niece and her husband and daughter, and a number of her much older female cousins. Tensions are never far from the surface as the family members are forced to accept their new living conditions surrounded by near total destruction.

The people of Castries struggle to rebuild their lives among the charred remains of the capital. The task is challenging but they are optimistic as they come to terms with their afflicted lives in colonial St Lucia.

However, the music of the island is ever present and provides a rhythmic thread throughout the story.

• 216 x 138 mm
• 308 pages
• Paperback

Gloria Times emigrated to England from St Lucia in 1966 to train as a nurse. Rhythm Played in a Fire is her first book and is set around the time of the devastating fire which destroyed much of St Lucia’s capital, Castries, in 1948. She experienced the aftermath of this disaster as a young child and much of the storyline is drawn from these experiences. Throughout the book, she has used the French Creole dialect to authenticate the language used by the story’s protagonists.