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1800s: In Victorian Cornwall nineteen-year-old Susanna Elliot rebels against her strict Quaker background
A Place of Birds
What you need to know before your trail
In Victorian Cornwall nineteen-year-old Susanna Elliot rebels against her strict Quaker background. Alienated from her family and community, rejected by the doctor she admires, and refused permission to take her dead brother’s place in the family business, she flees to join her two cousins on their mission to China. All three leave Falmouth for Shanghai aboard a schooner owned by Lowell Hawke. Hawke’s daring exploits have made him a legend along the China coast and Susanna finds herself involved in terrible danger – and love…
Travel Guide
China
Susanna’s journey to China reveals a lot more than she originally hoped it would. S he flees to join her two cousins on their mission to China . Susanna’s uncle George has already described it to her:
“He had described steep mountains and flat plains wide river and terraced fields, pirate waters and typhoons. A land were people wore read to celebrate birth and marriage and white to mourn their dead. Where black was the only acceptable couleour for hair and eyes”
The East India Company
A British trading venture which started in 1600 “ which acquired a prestige unequalled since the days of the Phoenicians. It developed from India to branch out into China. However the company lost its monopoly in 1833 and free traders then scrambled to get the best deal in setting up the trading houses. It is said in the novel that the new traders bribed the mandarins. If there were any custom-house officials foolish enough to interfere were simply brushed aside
Susanna wants to go to China and is interested in the country but her parent’s disapprove of her interest in a country still ignorant of Christianity.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: A Place of Birds
Destination: Falmouth, Shanghai Author/Guide Jane Jackson Departure Time: 1800s
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