A Burmese legacy

by sue-arnold

Sue Arnold has two British grandfathers and two Burmese grandmothers. She herself looks Burmese but sounds impeccably English. It was a conundrum she had never considered exploring until assigned by the Observer to cover a royal tour to China in 1985. The opportunity to stop off in Burma on the way home was irresistable. Thus began a quest for her ancestors which grew the more convoluted and surprising the further she delved into her family story.In doing so she has unravelled a tale of two worlds which the Anglo-Burmese straddled between the world wars. There are the tours of duty with elephants in the teak forests, and the grandmother who let her jewels down into a lake on a rope to hide them from the advancing Japanese, before whom Sue Arnold's own mother fled to India. She describes the hazards of mother and small daughters making their way in a class and colour-conscious postwar London. But to add to this, visits to Burma introduce her to a whole new quite unexpected Burmese family, the result of both her Burmese grandmothers remarrying.

Genres: Nonfiction

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching and thoughtful book about family and exploring one's own culture after a long separation. There are many books about Burma, and each one adds a new angle into understanding the plight and the conflict that surrounds the country and its people.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half is recollections and anecdotes of the author's two Burmese grandmothers and their lives with their English husbands; the second half relates the author's first trip to Myanmar (1985), which is a very good account of what it was like to visit the country in those years, with a follow-up visit five years later when the Tatmadaw was in evidence.

[Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her narration is wonderful & readable.