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

by Elma Napier

Elma Napier’s remarkable memoir chronicles her love affair with Dominica. It began in 1932 when she turned her back on London’s high society to build a home in Calibishie, then a remote village on Dominica’s north coast.

There are tales of bohemian house parties, of war and death, smugglers and servants and, above all, of stories inspired by her political life as the only woman in a colonial parliament, her love for the island’s turbulent landscapes and her curiosity about the lives and culture of its people.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Susie Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read about an upper class Englishwoman who makes her home on the island of Dominica. Really made our trip to the island come alive. Beautifully written by this way ahead of her time amazing woman.

[Jennifer Pletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Charlotte Fairbairn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isn't it strange how blurbs can deviate so far from one's own reading of a book? I loved this. Elma Napier - a true pioneer. Not afraid to become fully entrenched in the society of her adoptive homeland, proud to be friends of the local Dominicans, proud that her children married into Dominican families, undaunted by being the only woman (and white at that) involved in their politics. I am not sure the blurb gives you all that. Yes she came from Scotland and a world of privilege but no, she does not flex her muscles, such as they might be, except for the good of the island of her adoption. A really wonderful book. Heartening to know that not all white settlers were insensitive, boorish, proud of their often stupid (to put it mildly) peers. That she was commemorated on a Dominican stamp is not at all surprising, if you read this and hear her.

[Roman Loban · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, which is a glimpse into lives of people of Dominica before and after WW2. Mindset, traditions, behavior and way of live of modern Eastern Caribbean islands societies in one tiny book! For anyone living or just interested in Caribbean culture is an essential reading.

[Ashleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a memoir of Elma Napier's life and Dominica in the 1930s which was interesting but this book didn't grab me at all.

[Andy Pond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific memoir from a woman ahead of her time--we are on vacation in Dominica and Our host's mother, Shirley Nixon, loaned us this book which is a GREAT read. It's a memoir by Elma Napier, whose family was Downton Abbey-ish scots nobility. She escaped from all that (affair with a married man at 18, divorced her first husband, lived in the Austrialan outback, and led an amazing life. This book tells the story of her time from being a young mother in the early 1930s on Dominica until her 70s. She was (among other things) the first woman member of parliament in a Caribbean nation. It's available on Kindle too!

Very well written. Something beautiful or sad or funny (or all three) on every page.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read about a British woman who came back in the 1930's to live on the small island of Dominica. I enjoyed her writing style and her observations both about nature and about the lives of the local people she lived and worked among.

There were several short but memorable quotes that neatly encapsulated the values of the people who live back then, and currently. About a bridge: "The river mash it up," he told us, "Then they build it back and again the river mash it. And at last they go away."

This quote accurately describes the Peace Corps experience as I am seeing it unfold, just as it has many times before.

The book contains photos, one of which shows a baby picture of the island's most well-known historian: Lennox Honeychurch. He is large here but generally unknown elsewhere, and this would be the most basic limitation of the book: a wide audience is unfamiliar with Dominica even in name, so would have little reason to read the book and little understanding if they did.

[Jim]

"It has never been easy to analyse, to define the mysterious charm that has lured some people to stay in Dominica forever, and from which others have fled without even taking time to unpack." - Elma Napier

"There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart... pursue those." - Michael Nolan

For Kathy and I, Dominica definitely falls into the former category in the first quote and the latter category in the second one!

[Leo W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Led to this via Alec Waugh. Delightful.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Dominica, and was tickled to find a few books by a native author. All the sights, sounds, sensations of this beautiful island wrapped up in her memoir.

[Denise Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful view of colonial Life in Dominica