From a childhood fortune-telling that seems to predict a life of movement and upheaval, Lady Broome's memoir opens into a vivid world of empire, loss, and reinvention. She recalls Jamaica, England, and India, her marriage to Captain Barker, and the emotional distance of colonial service, including the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny and the Siege of Lucknow. After his death in Simla, she returns to England and enters a second, adventurous marriage with Napier Broome, a New Zealand sheep farmer whose career carries them from precarious prosperity in New Zealand into the fast-paced literary world of London. There she and her husband write for Macmillan's and The Times, while she supports the household through reviews, editorial work, and educational roles. The memoir then widens across colonial outposts—Natal, Mauritius, Western Australia, and Trinidad—while also offering lively scenes of frontier settlement in New Zealand and the bush: prefabricated homes, battling gardens, improvised domestic life, rough travel, and the humor of incompetent helpers. Amid danger, from the fugitive Bill to a fatal shooting in the wilderness, Lady Broome balances public service, domestic resilience, and poignant reflection on the happiness and loneliness of a life lived at the edges of empire. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
