Black and White Sands: A bohemian life in the colonial Caribbean

This book is Elma Napier's story, of coming to the Caribbean and starting a new life with her husband Lennox and two young, and one adult child (Elma's by a previous marriage). Elma came from rich and aristocratic Scottish parents and was very much a rebel and free thinker. This book vividly brings to life Dominica from the 30's -50's. Building their house was quite an event, it was cut in Roseau and taken in several loads under sail to Pointe Baptiste, Calibishe, where they had bought land. Much of it was floated ashore and it all had to be carried up the hill. When they brought in a car it had to be transported ashore by lashing it to two canoes.Her descriptive writing is eloquent and her cutting wit wonderful. She was the first woman to be elected to the Dominica legislative council, and she has been been commemorated on a postage stamp. Buy the book and take a trip to Dominica and visit their old estate. It is now managed by her grandson Alan, who makes the most wonderful chocolate by hand.

This is the author telling her own story about her time living in Dominica. She moved there in 1932 after leaving London and the high society she was a part of. She moved to a remote island in the Caribbean and she and her family set on finding land to build a house. She wrote this memoir near the end of her life, looking back at her time on the island with her husband and children. She lived there during the 2nd World War, and talks about how that even affected her island because at that time it was a British colony. Her observations of the locals and expats and the island itself were quirky and fun to read.I really enjoyed this book. The style was a little different and hard to get into at first, but as I settled into the book, I started to enjoy it. It is whimsical, and if you aren't reading carefully, you might miss the underlying humor she has throughout the book. She seems like a neat person and someone I would have loved to know. She moved to an island with no electricity and mud huts and swarms of mosquitos, and seemed to fit right in. She even joined the local council and became the first women in legislation in the West Indies. Bravo.

This is the finest book on the Caribbean I have read, and more generally one of the finest memoirs. Elma Napier was a perceptive and candid observer of locals and expats. Written in her pre-politically correct era, her observations are forthright, showing the good and bad and quirky. While rejecting London society and choosing a bohemian life, she notes the strange and unromantic superstitions of the locals. She had an original sense of humor, often gentle, occasionally barbed. I am impressed with the courage of her and her husband Lennox, who was still recovering (apparently never completely) from WW1 wounds, to build and live in remote region of a remote, primitive and all but inaccessible Caribbean island through times of great stress and change, in which she was a major player. This is not some fantasy island novel but an honest historical memoir of a remarkable and original life. It left me wishing I had known Elma and Lennox.

Before reading "Black and White Sands," I first visited the Pointe Baptiste Estate, which is the main setting of Elma Napier's memoir on living in Dominica in the 1930s through the 50s, and met her chocolate-making grandson Alan. I was charmed by the locale, its current proprietor, and by the book itself.As a literary work, Napier has a beautifully creative writing style with fetching turns of phrases. It is an exceptionally good read simply for the use of language. She especially comes alive in describing the joys of the natural world."Black and White Sands" is also an insightful essay on the social and political life of the island, written from more of a progressive than a colonialist point-of-view.

Having recently visited Dominica, twice, I was able to easily identify with the places described in the book. It is a very verdant island with many interesting villages and splendid views.Elma Napier must have bean a very brave lady to settle there in 1932. Her grandson now makes fine chocolate from the native cocoa pod harvests.Black and White Sands is a book well worth reading.

It arrived yesterday and I'm already half way through. Beautifully written and enjoyable.

Excellent account of Elma's life in Dominica. Took me right back to the time I spent there on holiday.

This is an excellent book and a splendid addition to both Dominican and Caribbean literature. Very well produced and illustrated, the title says it all.

This is the author telling her own story about her time living in Dominica. She moved there in 1932 after leaving London and the high society she was a part of. She moved to a remote island in the Caribbean and she and her family set on finding land to build a house. She wrote this memoir near the end of her life, looking back at her time on the island with her husband and children. She lived there during the 2nd World War, and talks about how that even affected her island because at that time it was a British colony. Her observations of the locals and expats and the island itself were quirky and fun to read.I really enjoyed this book. The style was a little different and hard to get into at first, but as I settled into the book, I started to enjoy it. It is whimsical, and if you aren't reading carefully, you might miss the underlying humor she has throughout the book. She seems like a neat person and someone I would have loved to know. She moved to an island with no electricity and mud huts and swarms of mosquitos, and seemed to fit right in. She even joined the local council and became the first women in legislation in the West Indies. Bravo.