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White Rani
When beautiful, strong-willed Alexandra Wantage impetuously married American photographer Clarkson Hale, it marked a beginning of an adventure that would take them from the privileged circles of British society to the savage, sultry wilderness of Malaya.
Forced to work on a failing rubber plantation, Alexandra determinedly built it into a thriving, successful business. And as her reputation among the native turned from notoriety to respect and devotion, Alexandra also kindled the desires of a darkly handsome rajah. In his arms, she would succumb to the exotic enchantment of the islands and fulfill the deepest longings of her womanhood. But their passions held dangers even the two lovers could not foresee.
Wars, heartbreak, and betrayals -- Alexandra triumphed against overwhelming odds with a heart and courage that inspired her legend throughout the South Pacific -- the legend of WHITE RANI
Forced to work on a failing rubber plantation, Alexandra determinedly built it into a thriving, successful business. And as her reputation among the native turned from notoriety to respect and devotion, Alexandra also kindled the desires of a darkly handsome rajah. In his arms, she would succumb to the exotic enchantment of the islands and fulfill the deepest longings of her womanhood. But their passions held dangers even the two lovers could not foresee.
Wars, heartbreak, and betrayals -- Alexandra triumphed against overwhelming odds with a heart and courage that inspired her legend throughout the South Pacific -- the legend of WHITE RANI
- GenresAsia
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 26, 1986
About the author
Caroline Gray
38 books5 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Christopher Robin Nicole was born on 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), where he was raised. He is the son of Jean Dorothy (Logan) and Jack Nicole, a police officer, both Scottish. He studied at Queen's College in Guyana and at Harrison College in Barbados. He was a fellow at the Canadian Bankers Association and a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada in Georgetown and Nassau from 1947 to 1956. In 1957, he moved to Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom, where he currently lives, but he also has a domicile in Spain.
On 31 March 1951, he married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, they divorced. On 8 May 1982 he married for the second time with fellow writer Diana Bachmann.
As a romantic and passionate of history, Nicole has been published since 1957, when he published a book about West Indian Cricket. He published his first novel in 1959 with his first stories set in his native Caribbean. Later he wrote many historical novels set mostly in tumultuous periods like World War I, World War II and the Cold War, and depict places in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also wrote classic romance novels. He specialized in Series and Sagas, and continues to write into the 21st century with no intention of retiring.
He signs his books as Christopher Nicole and uses several pseudonyms, some of them female. Pseudonyms used include: Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C. R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He wrote disaster thrillers in collaboration with his wife, Diana Bachmann, under the penname Max Marlow. Under his different pseudonyms he has worked with many publishing houses: Jarrolds, Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, Coward-McCann & Geoghegan, Jove, Michael Joseph, Mills & Boon, and Severn House.
Christopher Robin Nicole was born on 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), where he was raised. He is the son of Jean Dorothy (Logan) and Jack Nicole, a police officer, both Scottish. He studied at Queen's College in Guyana and at Harrison College in Barbados. He was a fellow at the Canadian Bankers Association and a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada in Georgetown and Nassau from 1947 to 1956. In 1957, he moved to Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom, where he currently lives, but he also has a domicile in Spain.
On 31 March 1951, he married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, they divorced. On 8 May 1982 he married for the second time with fellow writer Diana Bachmann.
As a romantic and passionate of history, Nicole has been published since 1957, when he published a book about West Indian Cricket. He published his first novel in 1959 with his first stories set in his native Caribbean. Later he wrote many historical novels set mostly in tumultuous periods like World War I, World War II and the Cold War, and depict places in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also wrote classic romance novels. He specialized in Series and Sagas, and continues to write into the 21st century with no intention of retiring.
He signs his books as Christopher Nicole and uses several pseudonyms, some of them female. Pseudonyms used include: Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C. R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He wrote disaster thrillers in collaboration with his wife, Diana Bachmann, under the penname Max Marlow. Under his different pseudonyms he has worked with many publishing houses: Jarrolds, Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, Coward-McCann & Geoghegan, Jove, Michael Joseph, Mills & Boon, and Severn House.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 12, 2014
3.5 stars
"If I had supposed you intended to use my seeds commercially, Mr. Wickham, I would not give them to you. Brazil is the rubber capital of the world. It must remain so."
Alexandra Wantage (The Honorable Alexandra Wantage as she's properly known) is daughter of some high mucky muck lord, and also the granddaughter of a marquess. I think it was mentioned that Queen Alexandra was her godmother, so the Wantage family is pretty well connected, and she was raised to do the proper thing and marry the right gentleman and have a family and all that proper stuff. But...one day at a hunt Alexandra (Alix for short) meets American photographer Clarkson Hale and they decide they're in love and elope to Gretna Green. They just barely manage to make it official and consummated before the policemen daddy sent find them and bring them home.
Pops is all for tossing Clark in jail and annulling the marriage, but Alix won't have any of that. They do need to be sent off somewhere until the scandal dies down, and since there's this bit of worthless jungle in Malay that he inherited from some uncle and since a friend managed to smuggle some rubber tree seeds out of Brazil and since they're pretty sure the seeds are looking like they'll thrive in Malay - Alix and Clark are sent off to the back 'o' beyond and carve a plantation out of the jungle wilderness.
Whew, that was a long sentence, sorry.
Anywho, that's the gist of it at the beginning, the rest you can read for yourself if you're game. The story begins in 1909 and ends around WWII, and does give the reader a good feel for Malay as a British Colony and the ups and downs of making a fortune out of a wild and almost untamable jungle. I don't think I'd ever want to go swimming in the river after what Alix brought back with her that time, let alone where she found it.
*shudders*
So how to categorize this story, let alone rate it? I hadn't realized it when I spotted the gorgeous cover and had to have it, that Caroline Grey was another pseudonym for Alan Savage, and you can see here, here and here about my experience with his *cough* historical entertainments, but I put on my big girl panties and prepared myself for the worst he could toss my way. Color me surprised that he/she didn't go OTT with wild sexual cray-cray. There were hints here and there that something would be coming (especially with that Hindu prince that was so hot for Alix), and while there was some bed-hopping going on (both parties), it wasn't as wild and OTT as I'd prepared myself for.
So, while there's a romantic element to the story, I wouldn't read it for the romance. There's a fair amount of history of Malay at the time the Brits were trying to grow the rubber trees, but there is a bit of sexual stuff that might turn off the straight historical readers. And not enough cray-cray to entertain die-hard fans of the older bodice rippers. YMMV. I did like Alix (and Clark), but she went from sheltered lordling's daughter to I am woman, hear me roar from zero to sixty and never looked back. If woman were wearing bras back then I would have expected Alix to be the first woman to burn hers - and because of that was just a wee bit too modern for her period - again, YMMV.
"If I had supposed you intended to use my seeds commercially, Mr. Wickham, I would not give them to you. Brazil is the rubber capital of the world. It must remain so."
Alexandra Wantage (The Honorable Alexandra Wantage as she's properly known) is daughter of some high mucky muck lord, and also the granddaughter of a marquess. I think it was mentioned that Queen Alexandra was her godmother, so the Wantage family is pretty well connected, and she was raised to do the proper thing and marry the right gentleman and have a family and all that proper stuff. But...one day at a hunt Alexandra (Alix for short) meets American photographer Clarkson Hale and they decide they're in love and elope to Gretna Green. They just barely manage to make it official and consummated before the policemen daddy sent find them and bring them home.
Pops is all for tossing Clark in jail and annulling the marriage, but Alix won't have any of that. They do need to be sent off somewhere until the scandal dies down, and since there's this bit of worthless jungle in Malay that he inherited from some uncle and since a friend managed to smuggle some rubber tree seeds out of Brazil and since they're pretty sure the seeds are looking like they'll thrive in Malay - Alix and Clark are sent off to the back 'o' beyond and carve a plantation out of the jungle wilderness.
Whew, that was a long sentence, sorry.
Anywho, that's the gist of it at the beginning, the rest you can read for yourself if you're game. The story begins in 1909 and ends around WWII, and does give the reader a good feel for Malay as a British Colony and the ups and downs of making a fortune out of a wild and almost untamable jungle. I don't think I'd ever want to go swimming in the river after what Alix brought back with her that time, let alone where she found it.
*shudders*
So how to categorize this story, let alone rate it? I hadn't realized it when I spotted the gorgeous cover and had to have it, that Caroline Grey was another pseudonym for Alan Savage, and you can see here, here and here about my experience with his *cough* historical entertainments, but I put on my big girl panties and prepared myself for the worst he could toss my way. Color me surprised that he/she didn't go OTT with wild sexual cray-cray. There were hints here and there that something would be coming (especially with that Hindu prince that was so hot for Alix), and while there was some bed-hopping going on (both parties), it wasn't as wild and OTT as I'd prepared myself for.
So, while there's a romantic element to the story, I wouldn't read it for the romance. There's a fair amount of history of Malay at the time the Brits were trying to grow the rubber trees, but there is a bit of sexual stuff that might turn off the straight historical readers. And not enough cray-cray to entertain die-hard fans of the older bodice rippers. YMMV. I did like Alix (and Clark), but she went from sheltered lordling's daughter to I am woman, hear me roar from zero to sixty and never looked back. If woman were wearing bras back then I would have expected Alix to be the first woman to burn hers - and because of that was just a wee bit too modern for her period - again, YMMV.
Displaying 1 of 1 review