I bought this in January 2025 (because I loved the title) and finally decided to read it.
Here’s the blurb …
It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.
Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.
This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries.
This is a ‘girls’ own adventure’ for two incredibly unlikely explorers (or entomologists). The dialogue between Margery and Enid is brilliant. The descriptions of the places and the people are also excellent (and occasionally very funny, for example, the description of the Friday coffee and craft morning among the British wives in New Caledonia)
[…] and share an activity, though the knitted space rockets for the local orphanage, their last project, had turned out looking like woolly condoms, and the women had been a laughing stock.
And there are some lovely thoughts, Enid to Margery
‘We are not the things that happen to us. We can be what we like’
This is a beautifully written, witty story about friendship and resilience.
A review