My mother’s annual soirées ‘Women only’

I have childhood memories of my mother throwing two big parties a year. One was a dress-up affair, a dinner party for couples. The other was an extravagant evening, a glamorous soirée, for her women friends, who would come dressed in glittering gold and bright, sequined dresses. The marble floors of our house were polished to gleaming, there were bright flowers wherever you looked, and chairs stood lined up against the parlour walls. This was where my mother received her friends – sometimes up to seventy or eighty – each and every one of them dressed to the nines.