Each time it seems things cannot get any worse, they do as the popular travel author lifts the lid on her own, often shocking, behavior in her quest to protect herself and those she loves. Rebellious, lonely and self-destructive, it is a small grey pony named Cinderella who saves Susie from herself and brings her the love she craves.
Susie recalls a 1950s childhood in post-war London's every shade of grey and the splendours of Africa as, with her glamorous mother and father, she boards a ship bound for exotic, technicolor Kenya. Then its final decade as a colony, Kenya was peopled with larger-than-life characters who had helped to forge its identity. There, with the threats of the Mau Mau uprising ever-present, Susie's life disintegrates at break-neck speed into a web of jealousy, rejection and casual cruelty.
Readers will shed a tear at her losses and laugh at her predicaments in this sometimes hilarious, often heartbreaking, true story that gives a moving and often shocking insight in to the earlier life of the author famed for her humor and her honesty.
A selectrion from the many ***** reader reviews:
“What an astounding story, sometimes true life experiences are better than fiction.”
“There is something very special about this book and the way the reader is instantly drawn into Susie's world and the appalling people and situations she had to endure.”
“This memoir kept me up. I could not stop reading this. An almost idyllic early girlhood that becomes more and more dysfunctional. What a story!”
“The whole story is a great tug on the heart strings. I couldn’t put the book down and have every intention of reading it again.”
“A dysfunctional families true story that had me shedding real tears in some places and laughing out loud in other places as I read. A marvellous book.”
"Great, engaging, memoir. Funny and very sad at times."
“Spellbinding. I didn't want to put it down.”
“I am blown away by such talent. Fabulous, the kind of book where you can't wait to drop everything and get back to reading.”
"Susie wins my ‘best book of the year’ without hesitation for the quality of her writing and the honesty and truth which makes this book such a great read. It had me gripped from the first page and left me feeling quite emotional at the end.I happily award a rare five out of five stars." The Writing Desk
