Delilah Drummond wasn't born notorious, but after several marriages, multiple affairs and a looming international dispute over her recently dead husband's jewels, (the sparkly kind), her mother and ex-husband/lawyer convince her to retire to Africa until it all blows over. Luckily, her step-father has an estate in Kenya that no one is using, so Delilah packs up her divine Paris frocks and her drab cousin Dodo and they steam away from France to up-country Kenya, via Mombasa and Nairobi. Despite the fact that Delilah has lived a flapper's life of luxury and decadence, she is almost immediately drawn to the completely alien and dangerous life on the savanna, falling under the spell of Africa and her people. But the white people are in charge, and she soon finds out that she can't run away from scandal and intrigue. And she certainly can't keep running away from the demons of her past.
Deanna Raybourn paints a fascinating canvas of British Colonial Africa in the 1920's. Much was good, but much was terrible, requiring the truly courageous to fight for the rights of both man and beast. Sounds like today, only without antibiotics. Kwaheri! TBC
No comments:
Post a Comment