About Our Words: Mauritius
Barbara Durlacher was delighted to hear of Mary Pilfold-Allan's new book about Britain's take-over of the island of Mauritius in the early 19th Century.
A million congratulations Mary! Fantastic, and I write as a fellow sufferer who has also attempted to put into words the courage and endurance of my forebears (see my saga Fair Stood the Wind in Openwriting) in the middle of the 1800s.
When he was 17 my grand-father arrived with his family in South Africa in 1857 after 90 days at sea on the sailing ship Lady Kennaway, which, only three days after everyone had disembarked, was wrecked on the sandbar at the entrance to the Buffalo River. Without the employment they had been led to expect would be available to them on arrival, or money to survive the family were forced to find whatever means they could to exist and after many privations and difficulties eventually enjoyed a comfortable and relatively wealthy life in Kingwilliamstown and East London in the Eastern Cape Province.
My paternal grandmother, Charlotte Elizabeth, whom my grandfather married in East London when he was in his early twenties, was born of English parents in Ceylon and my most recent writings have covered the very faint links I have to the Indian sub-continent which I am finding of increasing interest the more I read about it. I would have loved to have visited India in earlier years when I was young and sprightly, but alas, feel that my age and lack of funds definitely preclude such an adventure now.
I would love a copy of your book when it is published, please will you let me know if it will be available in South Africa or what the price will be if bought direct from you in the UK.
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2010/10/the_man_and_the_1.php
