The First Time I Heard Anthea Speak

The First Time I Heard Anthea Speak is the story of Sylvia Bollusk, a woman both ordinary and ex-traordinary, and her struggle for survival. She is a failed actress, trying to make ends meet in post-war austerity Britain by whatever means she can. Most of her family and her four previous husbands have been annihilated in tragic circumstances. Then she meets Dickie, the jaunty prosthetic limb salesman, who she knows, in her heart, is the one. But the happy ending she longs for is jeopardized when she succumbs to the terrible hereditary condition Latent Twin Syndrome, and Anthea develops. The climax is a breathless swirl played out to the giddy music of a hurdy-gurdy. Sibling rivalry at its most extreme, only one of the sisters will survive the surgery to separate them. Which one will it be?