Dede Sophie

When I got my first in the metal view of the Citroen C5 X at a 2021 preview, I immediately thought of the Citroen XM large executive car I drove a number of times through the 1990s, writes Brian Byrne, eventually discontinued in 2000. Sleek, truly comfortable thanks to its hydro-pneumatic suspension, and close to luxury inside. As a big hatchback, it offered more flexibility than the saloons that were then the norm in the segment. It was a 1990 European Car of the Year. But it wasn’t the success in sales terms its maker hoped, hitting an era when large cars from most mass-market brands were in decline against their premium brand equivalents. Drive on two decades and we have that car’s spiritual successor, with clear physical reflections of the XM.  Sleek, truly comfortable, a flexible format as a large hatchback-estate that is aimed at crossing the market between large saloons and the trending SUV format. An interior that can compete in quality terms with any premium brand competitor.

Alison McQueen, author of Under The Jeweled Sky Forbidden love set against the backdrop of a maharaja’s palace in post-World War II India is at the center of Alison McQueen’s new novel, Under the Jeweled Sky (Jan 21, 2014; $14.99 U.S.; Fiction; Trade Paper). Sophie Schofield always knew she would return to India. When she does in 1957, she is the new bride of ambitious British diplomat Lucien Granger and part of the glittering expatriate set that called New Delhi home following India’s partition. But it’s not the country she fell in love with 10 years earlier and Sophie is soon confronted with the memory of her first love and its devastating consequences. The past still haunts her – the guilt she carries, the destruction wreaked upon her fragile parents, and the boy with the tourmaline eyes. Join me in reading what Alison McQueen has to say about her research involving declassified diplomatic documents, and her love affair with India while writing this interesting book. Read more »