Snowfed Waters
… Another super story, is Jane Wilson-Howarth's Snowfed Waters, her fictional sequel to her non-fiction book, A Glimpse of Eternal Snows. Jane, who is based in Cambridge, spoke at Words in Walden a few years ago about her very moving experiences in Nepal on which A Glimpse is based. And it is immediately clear when you read Snowfed Waters that it is shot through with cultural insights and anecdotes which could only have come from personal experience.
The story is related through five voices - Sonia, the English woman travelling to Nepal, Rekraj, a young Nepali man who has been appointed to look after her; Guliya Tharu, a Nepali village woman, Regimental Sergeant-Major Bom Bahadur Gurung, and Moti, a Nepali teenage girl. Much of the humour in the story comes from their often perplexed accounts of each other's reactions to particular circumstances, highlighting their false cultural assumptions.
Rekraj, for example reports on the following exchange between himself and Sonia:-
'"Where exactly is England in America?"
She is angry when she answers. "England is NOT in America. England, Britain actually, is very, very different!"
I do not know how I have offended her. I feel I should apologise but I do not see what the problem is. Perhaps she has tasted some alcoholic drinks...'
Very quickly one warms to each of these characters and the story, which becomes unexpectedly dramatic and is full of vivid local description, unfolds through their joint narrative. This is a really lovely, uplifting, gloriously humane read.
Jo Burch in Hub Magazine (Saffron Walden)
The Magic Middle Finger
I love the setting of this story – it’s so sumptuously told. The sights, smells and sounds are vivid and evocative, it completely took me away while I was reading it.
Emily Talbot
50 Camels and She's Yours
A book well worth 50 camels. The launch at Heffers bookshop showcased the ability of each writer, who read excerpts from their chapters and had the audience by turns laughing and also slightly anxious – maybe that was just me – about the extreme situations they find themselves in, especially Jane, who describes being stuck in a very deep cave in Nepal.
Cambridge Independent newspaper