The small Island of St Helena, flung away in mid-South Atlantic Ocean, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world - its loneliness breeding a phlegmatic populace as famous for friendliness as the island itself is known for stunning scenery and a captivating history. Small wonder, then, that the author - in love with St Helena from an early age - resolved to buy a second family home there in 1999, and found herself living there for nearly ten years while her family "commuted" back and forth from Cape Town on the RMS St Helena - the only ship that serves the island. Running concurrently with her unusually eventful tenure, was the British Government's determination to build St Helena's first airport, and the litany of those frustrating consultations is described with candour, while colourful splashes of the island's history, modest environmental offerings and breath-taking beauty are painted into day-to-day happenings. All this is woven into an intimate family story of a treasured house, the island's day-to-day demands, and coming to terms with a remote lifestyle - a forthright tale told with both humour and some measures of angst as she boldly endeavours to 'jump the cracks' that shockingly appear is this idyllic place as time moves on.
The small Island of St Helena, flung away in mid-South Atlantic Ocean, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world - its loneliness breeding a phlegmatic populace as famous for friendliness as the island itself is known for stunning scenery and a captivating history. Small wonder, then, that the author - in love with St Helena from an early age - resolved to buy a second family home there in 1999, and found herself living there for nearly ten years while her family "commuted" back and forth from Cape Town on the RMS St Helena - the only ship that serves the island. Running concurrently with her unusually eventful tenure, was the British Government's determination to build St Helena's first airport, and the litany of those frustrating consultations is described with candour, while colourful splashes of the island's history, modest environmental offerings and breath-taking beauty are painted into day-to-day happenings. All this is woven into an intimate family story of a treasured house, the island's day-to-day demands, and coming to terms with a remote lifestyle - a forthright tale told with both humour and some measures of angst as she boldly endeavours to 'jump the cracks' that shockingly appear is this idyllic place as time moves on.
