logo
Wrong email address or username
Wrong email address or username
Incorrect verification code
back to top
Search tags: colonial-overlords
Load new posts () and activity
Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2015-02-05 22:53
Islands by Dan Sleigh
Islands - Dan Sleigh

Translated from Afrikaans by André Brink.
Withdrawn from Waltham Forest Public Libraries.

Description: A major work of literature, Islands is one of the most important novels to come out of South Africa. Crammed with characters and events, staggering in the scale of its adventures, this epic tale covers the first half-century of Dutch settlement at the Cape.

Opening: Seven of us, or at least seven, carried in our hearts the same woman, from before her birth until after her death.

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (April 21, 1619, Culemborg, Gelderland – January 18, 1677) was a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town.

Feb 2015: It took me four years to get this one done and dusted. I would have preferred a straight forward history, as it was I had to wheedle out nuggets of information in much the mode of river gold-siever.

Pieter van Meerhof was from Copenhagen, Denmark. He arrived at the Cape on the ship Princess van Royael. He was an adventurer, traveller and surgeon. He also served as the superintendent on Robben Island. He went on th slaving ship Westwout. He got killed on this slaving expedition at Antogil Bay in Madagascar before 27 February 1668. This ship arrived back at the Cape on 30 September 1668. Meerhoffskasteel was named after him.

He got married to the khoikhoi Eva Krotoa on 26 April 1664. She was baptised as an adult at the Fort on 3 May 1662. She was raised in the Governor van Riebeeck"s home. - Source


Robben Island




 
 
Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2015-01-06 20:12
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
West with the Night - Beryl Markham

 

Description: f the first responsibility of a memoirist is to lead a life worth writing about, Markham succeeded beyond all measure. Born Beryl Clutterbuck in the middle of England, she spent her life defying all expectations of how a woman should live and what a single person can achieve.

Markham and her father moved to Kenya when she was a girl, and she grew up with a zebra for a pet, horses for friends, and baboons, lions, leopards, and gazelles for neighbors. She made money by scouting elephants from a tiny plane and would spend most of the rest of her life in East Africa as an adventurer, a racehorse trainer, and an aviatrix — she became the first person to fly nonstop from Europe to America.


Dedication: For My Father

Opening quote:
I speak of Africa and golden joys
HENRY IV, Act V, Sc.3
Opening: BOOK ONE: I: Message from Nungwe:
How is it possible to bring order out of memory? I should like to begin at the beginning, paiently, like a weaver at his loom. I should like to say, 'This is the place to start; there can be no other.'


MUTHAIGA COUNTRY CLUB

I remained so happily provincial I was unable to discuss the boredom of being alive with any intelligence until I had gone to London and lived there a year. Boredom, like hookworm, is endemic.

Denys Finch Hatton

How quick this reads; it is over almost before it has begun. The typeset and size is easy on the eyes.

Now there is the either/or question

Blixen or Markham

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2014-05-28 13:41
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

bookshelves: radio-4x, re-read, autumn-2012, published-1966, paper-read, colonial-overlords, caribbean-caper, fanfic-writeback

Read from January 01, 1972 to October 06, 2012


Really didn't like the book but how much of that was me ::at:that:time:: *shrugs* This is up for grabs at R4x so I'll swing by and have a listen.



#1 Tensions escalate amongst the former slaves on a Caribbean island. Prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, read by Adjoa Andoh.

#2 The mother of Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway marries an Englishman in Spanish Town, Jamaica. Read by Adjoa Andoh.

#3 Without her brother and parted from her mother, heiress Antoinette is sent off to school.

#4 Fresh from England, Rochester weds Creole heiress Antoinette and takes her to Dominica.

#5 Antoinette and Rochester's honeymoon develops into an intense love affair in Dominica. Read by Adam Godley.

#6 An urgent letter to Rochester casts doubt on his wife's character.

 

#7 Antoinette seeks advice, as malicious gossip puts a strain on her marriage to Rochester

 

#8 Antoinette opens up to her husband Rochester, but the following events lead to a betrayal.

#9 Antoinette returns home distressed. Husband Rochester makes plans to leave the island.

#10 Distressed Antoinette must come to terms with her future. Prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre concluded by Adjoa Andoh.

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2014-01-24 13:09
For All the Tea in China
For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink - Sarah Rose

bookshelves: nonfiction, autumn-2012, history, published-2009, biography, colonial-overlords, victorian, recreational-drugs, war, fraudio, china, india, gardening, pirates-smugglers-wreckers

Read on November 05, 2012




Read by the author herself.





Blurb - A dramatic historical narrative of the man who stole the secret of tea from China.

In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China's territory forbidden to foreigners,to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China; a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.

Disguised in Mandarin robes, Fortune ventured deep into the country, confronting pirates, hostile climate, and his own untrustworthy men as he made his way to the epicenter of tea production, the remote Wu Yi Shan hills. One of the most daring acts of corporate espionage in history, Fortune's pursuit of China's ancient secret makes for a classic nineteenth-century adventure tale, one in which the fate of empires hinges on the feats of one extraordinary man.


Camellia sinensis:









Robert Fortune, the tea thief. From wiki: Robert Fortune (16 September 1812 – 13 April 1880) was a Scottish botanist, plant hunter and traveller, best known for introducing tea plants from China to India. Robert Fortune was born in Britain on 16 September 1812, at Kelloe, Berwickshire.



This does have the tang of 'must publish my dissertation or bust', feeling; the author delivers this in rather a dramatic and staccato'd fashion.

Can't fault the historical research and it is enjoyable enough for a solid 3*

More posts
Your Dashboard view:
Need help?