A Late Beginner

I am reading Priscilla Napier's A Late Beginner, (available directly from Slightly Foxed). "Priscilla Napier grew up in Egypt during the last golden years of the Edwardian Age - a time when, for her parents' generation, it seemed the sun would never set upon 'the regimental band playing selections from HMS Pinafore under the banyan tree.'"

What a marvelous memoir, not only of an interesting period but written beautifully as well. Napier was born in 1908 and grew up between Britain and Egypt in the fashion of the day. Her family were of that ilk that formed the backbone of the the British Empire: engineers, soldiers, sailors, lawyers, etc. The people that went to the four corners of the world to make things work and inadvertently to kick-start the slow and fitful integration of the world.

As I read along, I keep coming across passages that bear quoting, either because they are so originally expressed, so beautiful or because they shed light on understanding a different age, a land where things are done differently for reasons we have forgotten.

Not having finished the book, I hesitate to recommend it yet but I will be posting a number of excerpts along the way: there are few better leading indicators of a book's quality and impact than the degree to which you think it is worth quoting.