Why a Booktrail?
1963: Moving from Cambridge, England to Perth, Australia is a move between cities, climate and cultures. But problems have a way of making the same journey..
The Other Side of the World
What you need to know before your trail
Cambridge 1963.
Charlotte struggles to remember who she was before she had a family. She loves her children and husband Robert but has forgotten what it is to be Charlotte – not just a mother and wife but Charlotte, who loves to paint.
Robert is also unhappy as when a chance to move to Australia comes his way, he grasps at this new opportunity of a a fresh start. Charlotte is too tired to argue and so their journey to the other side of the world begins..
Perth their new home is not paradise however as a new city,a new setting reveals the cracks and weaknesses life in Cambridge never did. Charlotte wonders if there is anywhere she will feel at home.
Travel Guide
From Cambridge England to Perth Australia, this is a story of two cultures, two cities, two settings and one very different story
Cambridge
Life in Cambridge is tough. As a young married mother, Cambridge life is hurried and exhausting, lonely and a million miles away from where Charlotte wants to be. She is an artist and loves to wander in the English countryside with the greenery and the changing seasons but it’s her role as a mother which is tearing her apart, leaving her feeling afraid and helpless. Henry however is originally from India and so the thought of another damp winter in remote, dark Cambridge is not his idea of fun.
Perth
Is the grass always greener? Time passes differently in a new place; there are differences of wind and light that change the feeling of time.
Australia might sound like paradise and life in the sun on the other side of the world may sound like a new start but to Charlotte this is unchartered territory and if you haven’t got the proper secure moorings in the first place, chances are you’re going to drift aimlessly and become in danger of drowning.
Henry is half British and half Indian but here, he is nowhere and neither one of these as he tries to assimilate into the culture. Racism rears its ugly head and he starts to question why and how this new life will turn out. The marriage starts to fall apart and the Australian waters take them in different directions.
There are things that Charlotte must find out – the whereabouts of shops, libraries, parks, that change the feeling of space.
As the family deals with the culture shock of the largest proportions, questions of homesickness, race, love, motherhood and identity have seemingly boarded the plane and aren’t set to go back anytime soon.
India
From Charlotte’s Cambridge to Henry’s India – a country which has shaped and made him in to the man he is today. He remembers the damp humidity, the pain of his mother dying there, his early life and his most precious memories are here. The heat and the promise of a warm future make him want to travel to Australia, away from soggy England to a new dawn.
Where Next?
