Tag Archives: Ceylon

#Bookreview ‘The Sapphire Widow’ by @DinahJefferies #historical #romance

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When Dinah Jefferies writes about Ceylon, you can smell it and sense it. The blossom, the flowers, the birds, she is excellent at evoking setting. The Sapphire Widow is not her strongest book, but it is nevertheless an enjoyable read. Whatever it may lack in plot – a weakness I think because the main character is the wronged one, rather than with a secret of her own to hide – it is a fascinating glimpse of mid-Thirties Ceylon and a beautiful seaside town. Dinah JefferiesIt is 1936 in Galle on the southernmost tip of Ceylon. Louisa Reeve and her husband Elliot seem to have it all except, after a series of miscarriages, a child. Louisa, who wonders if she will ever be a mother, is often alone as Elliot spends his spare time sailing with friends and on a cinnamon plantation in which he is an investor. But when tragedy hits Louisa discovers Elliot’s life, investments and hobbies were not as he told her. As she deals with one lie after another, Louisa continues to develop Sapphire, the retail emporium originally planned with Elliot and which provides the novel’s title.
Given the title I expected the gemstone business of Louisa’s father, and where Elliot worked, to be prominent in the plot. It is however lightly sketched and I felt rather short-changed. The description of the cinnamon plantation is fascinating though, as is the Galle setting, though at times it felt as if local history was being shoehorned in. Towards the end the plot went a little haywire, not what I was expecting. Frustrating, I was left feeling there was a deeper, more emotional story to be told.
An interesting read but not her finest.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

And here are my reviews of some of Dinah Jefferies’ other novels:-
DAUGHTERS OF WAR [#1 DaughtersOfWar]
THE HIDDEN PALACE [#2 DaughtersOfWar]

And these standalone novels:-
THE TEA PLANTER’S WIFE
THE TUSCAN CONTESSA

If you like this, try these:-
‘Beneath an Indian Sky’ by Renita d’Silva
‘The Gift of Rain’ by Tan Twan Eng
‘Quartet’ by Jean Rhys

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SAPPHIRE WIDOW by @DinahJefferies https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3xX via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Tea Planter’s Wife’ by @DinahJefferies #romance

4 Replies

In Ceylon, between the First and Second World Wars, pre-Independence, a young wife arrives from England to join her new husband on his tea plantation. The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies is a portrayal of an island riven by racial differences, a marriage riven by an inability to be honest, concluding that in the end skin colour should not matter. Dinah JefferiesAs her ship from England docks in Colombo, Gwen Hooper feels faint and is helped by a charming dark-skinned man. This is our introduction to Savi Ravasinghe, a pivotal character, a Sinhalese portrait painter who paints the rich in Ceylon, England and America. At this first meeting, Gwen demonstrates her naivety of racial tensions between Ceylon’s native Sinhalese population and the Tamil workers brought to the island by the British tea planters to work on the plantations. Soon after, trying to help an injured worker, she tramples over old sensitivities and the Raj way of doing things. I found Gwen both fascinating and a little irritating. The story is told totally from her viewpoint and, for me, her husband Laurence is rather remote. When Gwen gives birth to twins, the first, a boy, is christened Hugh. The second is a dark-skinned girl. In fear of accusations of infidelity with Savi, and rejection by her husband, Gwen panics. Her ayah Naveena takes the child to be cared for in a nearby village. Conveniently, the birth took place with only the ayah present so secrecy is assured. But Gwen lives on, haunted by her lies to her husband and her failings to her daughter.
This story hangs on the premise that Gwen feels unable to question her husband about the death of his first wife and child. When we finally get the answer in the last few pages, it seems obvious. Except of course the book is set in the late 1920s early 1930s so though obvious to a modern reader, it would not be widely known or understood at that time. To say more would give away the plot. This aside, I enjoyed this fragrant tale of the Hooper tea plantation, the difficulties faced after the Wall Street Crash, the changing times, the fashions and foods. There is a particularly unlikeable sister-in-law Verity, American vamp Christina, and bright and charming cousin-from-home Fran. The story felt alive in Ceylon. Jefferies cultivates a believable world from another time w ith the scents of cinnamon, sandalwood and jasmine combined with bullock dung, grease and rotting fish, servants dressed in white, and glamorous balls danced to the music of jazz. In contrast the short section in New York when Laurence and Gwen meet bankers and advertising men to launch the Hoopers Tea brand, seems remote and it was a relief to return to the lushness and complications of Ceylon.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

And here are my reviews of some of Dinah Jefferies’ other novels:-
DAUGHTERS OF WAR [#1 DaughtersOfWar]
THE HIDDEN PALACE [#2 DaughtersOfWar]

And these standalone novels:-
THE SAPPHIRE WIDOW
THE TUSCAN CONTESSA

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Gift of Rain’ by Tan Twan Eng
‘A Mother’s Secret’ by Renita d’Silva
‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ by Tan Twan Eng

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReviewTHE TEA PLANTER’S WIFE by @DinahJefferies http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2Rh via @SandraDanby