Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Orange Prize 'Best of the Best', the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread AwardWith an introduction by Monique Roffey________I did not dare to dream that it would one day be I that would go to England. It would one day be I that would sail on a ship as big as a world and feel the sun's heat on my face gradually change from roasting to caressing. But there was I! Standing at the door of a house in London and ringing the bell. Pushing my finger to hear the ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling. Oh, Celia Langley, where were you then with your big ideas and your nose in the air? Could you see me? Could you see me there in London? Hortense Roberts married with a gold ring and a wedding dress in a trunk. Mrs Joseph. Mrs Gilbert Joseph. What you think of that, Celia Langley? There was I in England ringing the door bell on one of the tallest houses I had ever seen. ________'A great read . . . honest, skilful, thoughtful and important'Guardian'An engrossing read - slyly funny, passionately angry and wholly involving'Daily Mail'Gives us a new urgent take on our past' Vogue
