Son Harry Whittaker completes Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series: 'I'll never write a bestseller like that again'

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Maastricht - Harry Whittaker, the eldest son of Irish-British best-selling author Lucinda Riley, was barely able to mourn his mother's death. He was too busy writing. After all, he had promised on his deathbed that he would complete his successful Seven Sisters series.

Paula van der Velde

"I fulfilled her last wish with pure love. Atlas, the story of Pa Salt, is my ode to my sweet, funny and energetic mother, she was my best friend," he says.

The fact that fifteen million readers around the world are eagerly awaiting the last part, which will be published on May 11, has made the task even more difficult. In this part, it will finally be revealed who the mysterious and very wealthy Pa Salt is, who has adopted seven daughters from all over the world, and why he did it. "Still, it didn't keep me awake for a second," says Whittaker. "The pressure to bring this project to a successful conclusion is so insane I can't even imagine. And then I didn't feel any pressure, except that of the deadline."

Children's books

Whittaker, almost thirty, didn't have much experience in writing. "Until now I'd only written a few children's books, together with my mother. Like her, I started my career as an actor. I have a weekly BBC radio show in my home city of York, and I also run my own improvisational theater group. I did my writing on the side. Thanks to my mother, I've become very disciplined in the last year and a half. To keep my promise to her, I found it easy to get up very early every day and go to bed late."

Lucinda Riley, who died on June 11, 2021 at the age of 56, had been battling cancer for four years, unbeknownst to her fans. "She called me on Christmas Day 2018," Whittaker recalls. "She wanted to talk to me. It was a very emotional conversation. We sat together in her room for almost six hours. Forgive me for keeping the details to myself. This is really private. But she then asked me if, should the worst happen and she die, I would be willing to discard any parts of the Seven Sisters series that have not yet been published."

First reader

"You should know that I've always been her first reader. I know her books inside out. So I wanted to please her. However, we've hardly talked about it since. It was inevitable that my mother would live. In her mind, dying wasn't an option."

Whittaker lowers her gaze and swallows her emotions. "My mother was in a bad position several times during her illness. So much so that my stepfather, sisters, little brother and I thought it was over. But every time she miraculously pulled herself together. It really suited her. My mother was a magical woman. She really was what you would call a bright, life-loving personality, always positive and full of energy. I've never met anyone like her in my life. In fact, she was very sweet. She never saw evil in others, she was generous and selfless and listened to everyone."

Dictaphone

Lucinda Riley almost never wrote in the literal sense of the word. "That's right," agrees Whittaker. "My mother dictated her books into a dictaphone. She had also been a dancer before and was still very active and didn't have the patience to sit at a computer. Unfortunately for me, she didn't leave an audiobook for me to type into."

"But I didn't have to come up with everything myself. In 2016, Lucinda contacted a Hollywood film production company that wanted to film the Seven Sisters series. They wanted to know how the series would end. As a result, she was forced to look further ahead and put something, roughly, on paper. Those thirty pages from then on, in which all the loose ends are tied up, were my main reference."

Storytelling was passed on to Lucinda Riley by her father. In an interview with this newspaper in 2019, she said: "Like Pa Salt, he was constantly traveling. I have no idea what exactly he did. My mother and we children rarely saw him. But when he was at home I couldn't get away from him, because he was always full of stories. He was a storyteller pur sangI hung on your every word. Your adventures planted the seed for me to continue discovering new countries and cultures."

Father figure

Whittaker also has fond memories of his grandfather: "As my parents soon separated, he was a kind of father figure to me for a long time. Pa Salt certainly has my grandfather's traits. But then, after the sixth book, my mother also realized how much she resembled the enigmatic Pa Salt. For me, her story is mainly a tribute to Lucinda."

He's not allowed to lift too much of the veil on Atlas. "All I can say is that Pa Salt was a lonely boy as a child, who became a special man who created his own family. Fans won't be disappointed. All the sisters return in the final part, and almost all the places where the books take place, from Australia to Norway to Brazil, are also visited again."

Harry Whittaker is not afraid of falling into a black hole after this novel. "Although I realize that as a writer I will never again achieve such immense success as with this book, which is already a worldwide bestseller in advance. I'm not afraid that grief will catch up with me later. My mother taught me to always enjoy life, even when things go wrong or when you're sad. Seize the day, live in the moment. That's the best lesson I learned from her. It's the key to a happy life."