Mango & Mimosa

by Suzanne St. Albans

In 1921, in the wilds of the Malaysian jungle, a clutch of British children are being brought up by a Swiss nanny, with a monkey for a pet and deadly scorpions in the night nursery. From that eccentric childhood spent in Malaysia, the south of France, and only occasionally Britain, to her early years as a young news reporter in Algeria and Italy during Word War II, Suzanne St Albans has had an extraordinary life. Charming and utterly fascinating in its details of another time and another world, Mango & Mimosa is destined to become a classic.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

338 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Born Suzanne Marie Adele Fesq, her husband, Colonel Charles Beauclerk, became the 13th Duke of St Albans in 1964, earning him the title of Hereditary Grand Falconer of England, and her the style Suzanne Marie Adele Beauclerk, Duchess St. Albans.

Having worked as a news writer in North Africa and Italy during WWII, she turned to writing again following the collapse of her husband's business ventures, publishing three volumes of memoirs, followed by five other works of non-fiction. Her memoirs were condensed into a single volume in 2000 as Mango and Mimosa , which featured as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.

Reviews

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who had what I consider to be an ordinary American suburban childhood, I am always impressed by anyone who has enough to say about his/her childhood that it fills a book. My admiration extends to Suzanne St Albans (born 1921), who had a fascinating and unconventional early life in Malaysia and the south of France (and was later a reporter in Algeria and Italy in World War II) and is moreover able to convey it vividly in her memoir. It is one of those books that made me chuckle out loud in public while reading, thereby making others around me curious as to what I was reading that was amusing me so much.

One of my favorite anecdotes in the memoir is about when she and her family lived in Malaysia. The numerous insects flying about would meet their end when colliding with the family's dining room light and fall to the ground while sizzling dramatically. St Albans and her siblings would promptly take the grilled feast to their bottled snakes, which they had captured in the jungle outside.

And, about her father: "He really should have been a monk, and I am quite certain that the happiest time of his life was the years that he spent in captivity during the Second World War. His ascetic spirit yearned for austerity, and anything joyful and light-hearted seemed to him frivolous and worthless. Changi Camp in the hands of the Japanese reduced life to basic essentials, and there he came face to face with absolute standards. In a monastery he could have achieved this state with the minimum of frustration. Whereas in the world, he was constantly deflected, so that it was only through the horrors of a Japanese concentration camp that he was able to get anywhere near his ideal. Once he had found it, the rest of his life, after his release, was nothing but a comedown from this higher state."

Overall I would highly recommend this captivating memoir, which is little known but deserves to be more widely read.

[Monique · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more, but it is poorly written and I found it very hard to follow.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting life story, well told.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book, especially her early life growing up in Malaya

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suzanne St Albans has had a very intresting life - certainly the first twenty five years or so (which are dealt with in this memoir) appear to have been. Born in Malaya, where she spends a few years of her eccentric childhood, she lived much of her life in the south of France, before going to school in Paris and then later for a short time in England. When war threatens their French idyll, the family flee to England again, and Suzanne now about twenty starts work in the county library. Soon - longing for a more active role in the war she finds herself working for Basic News -Psychological warfare Branch in Algiers, and later Italy. A very readable and engaging memoir.

[Koula · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovely read

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable memoir that makes Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals look positively tame!