Why a Booktrail?
1903: In East Africa, the sunbirds are singing, a sign of freedom if you hear the true meaning..
The Girl and the Sunbird
What you need to know before your trail
East Africa 1903: Iris Johnson is only 18 when she is forced to choose between marrying the frightful Lord Sidcup or a faceless stranger, Jeremy Lawrence, in a far-off land
“You need to make a decision, and make one quickly. Lord Sidcup or the East Africa Protectorate.”
Accompanied by her chaperone, Miss Logan, they journey from Cambridgeshire to East Africa, Iris’s eyes are opened to a world she never knew existed beyond the comforts of her family home.
But when Iris meets Jeremy, even the hot African heat can not warm the chill she feels to meet the man she is about to marry. A cold distant and emotion free man.
Trying to make the best of her new life, she falls in love with the landscape and the windswept plains of Nairobi, and the delightful sunbirds that visit her window every day. One day she meets Kamau, a school teacher, and ultimately finds her calling.
But now she has another impossible choice to make….
Travel Guide
From Cambridge via Egypt and the British East Africa
You need to make a decision, and make one quickly. Lord Sidcup or the East Africa Protectorate.”
And yet.. East Africa. A vast , unknown territory, flooded with sunlight and …what else? I did not know
The journey from Cambridge is fraught with danger and unknown experiences. From Alexandria and then down the Nile to Aden, the journey attack another one of the senses:
“Smells I should say’” I reply as I thrust my nose upwards and breathe in the air, pungent with spics and the dung of animals, seaweed and fish”
At Cape Guardafui, the sea grows restless from the southwest monsoon and the rocky Somalian Coast spreads out along our starboard side as we draw ever nearer to Mombasa.
Mombasa Island “ My heart sinks as we approach”
Mombasa and Nairobi
With Mr Lawrence so prejudiced this is not going to be an easy stay. In the houses there, with the wooden fans to protect against the wind, the kusi from the south, and the shutters to protect against the salt from the ocean, the atmosphere is humid and then comes the Siafu – the bitting ants.
But after the heat and the shock of the strange smells and creatures, comes the coldness, the chill of the marriage and the isolations in more ways than one.
Iris, despite her horror at her marriage and new circumstances is keen to experience all this exotic country has to offer. In the time she is there, the country is growing and expanding like never before. The British are building railways and roads to create links between the various distant parts of the country – from the small villages to the towns and the various desert regions in the countryside. Another attempt to create an Empire like the Indian one?
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I think I may have stood and simply stared at this cover before even opening it. What a gorgeous book and an even more sumptuous read!
Rebecca writing is just quite literally like a paintbrush which brushes the scenes of an African wilderness as she writes. The sights, sounds and smells just build up in layers, the colours of the sky vivid and evocative and the sounds just jump from the page. Such a visual read and even more poignant when I thought of how this must have seemed to a woman who knew her destiny was here, with a cold-hearted man.
I ‘m a bit of a nervous wreck now to be honest. I invest so much into these characters but to be fair Rebecca makes it hard not to. I really feel as if I can picture and dream of Kenya much more clearly now and I feel that I have too been on such a journey with Iris. She is such an amazing character and she made me wonder what I would have done in her circumstances but that was impossible as how would you know? Iris must have been just one woman who was forced to marry to be ‘useful’ and not only that, being forced to live in a strange country. That really made me think.
Rebecca Stonehill this book just read like a song. A beautiful heartbreaking song. And Kamu! I was in bits by this point!! The rest of the book was just unexpected and a deep and meaningful reading experience. No spoilers here – you have to experience the song of the sunbird yourself.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Girl and the Sunbird
Author/ Guide: Rebecca Stonehill Destination: Nairobi and Mombasa Departure Time: 1903
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