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A captivating and haunting memoir by celebrated children’s author Lauren St John about her childhood spent in rural Africa.
In 1978, during the final, bloodiest phase of the Rhodesian War, 11-year-old Lauren St John moved with her family to Rainbow’s End, and idyllic farm and game reserve on the banks of the Umfuli River. Obsessed with horses, pop stars and her pet giraffe, Lauren lived in an African paradise until the brutal murder of a school friend and the coming of independence forced her to confront the past – to realise that almost everything she’d believed about her country and her life had been a lie.
In 1978, during the final, bloodiest phase of the Rhodesian War, 11-year-old Lauren St John moved with her family to Rainbow’s End, and idyllic farm and game reserve on the banks of the Umfuli River. Obsessed with horses, pop stars and her pet giraffe, Lauren lived in an African paradise until the brutal murder of a school friend and the coming of independence forced her to confront the past – to realise that almost everything she’d believed about her country and her life had been a lie.
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Reviews
Highly evocative, beautifully written...a world of striking colours...a tapestry of innocence, while the brutal reality of life encroaches into the travesty which is now modern Zimbabwe.
The starkly honest memoirs of a white Rhodesian forced to face up to the racist, violent truth of her society...St. John's disarming frankness triumphs.
Lovingly recalled...St John powerfully conveys the implosion of her moral world, her complex disillusionment and her hard decision to leave this snake-rich Eden.
A captivating and haunting memoir
Packed with so much of Africa's sights, smells and sounds that the place - beloved, beautiful, and troubled - practically seeps from its pages.
Precise, evocative and funny. Even as the Smith regime crumbles, as Mugabe waits to exact revenge and you know disillusionment is going to follow, you are irresistibly drawn into this personal story...A fine book.
A gripping account...told with depth and humour. St John comes of age amid a harrowing civil war and the dissolution of her parents' marriage.
This memoir works on many levels. It is a spot on account of coming of age in the 1970s, at once universal and intensely African. It also raises questions about the moral gymnastics of the time...Above all, this is a memoir of a country. It is a love letter to a harsh yet beautiful land, with invigorating prose soaked in African sunshine. Its poignancy stems from the way in which Lauren's attempts to work out who she is parallel her beloved nation's struggle to do the same.
Astonishingly evocative and wonderfully written.
A girl's-eye-view of life in 1970s Rhodesia: as powerful as Alexandra Fuller's classic Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight.
This is a paean of praise for what Zimbabwe has lost, but might find again. It is also a heart-rending account of the searing, slow dissolution of marriage...This is an important book, worth reading for many reasons.