After the heavy air raids by the Japanese air force, all white European women and children had been evacuated from Penang Island on military orders. She arrived at the railway station wearing her white solar topee, her black widow’s weeds and a furious expression. The train had been crowded with hundreds of other evacuees. Englishwomen in crumpled cotton frocks, flushed scarlet with heat, clutched tearful children and howling babies and struggled with suitcases and bags and boxes. Susan, who had been sent with Ghani to meet her grandmother, received a sharp peck on the cheek and an equally sharp reproof. ‘Far too much lipstick for a young girl … and it’s not as though you need it. And I don’t approve of painting fingernails and certainly not toenails. Only trollops paint their feet. Zhu, don’t bump Hector about like that. You know how he hates it.’ Hector, Grandmother’s parrot, acquired from the jungle many years ago by Grandfather, was making indignant squawks from under the cloth covering his cage.
What do You think about The Other Side Of Paradise?
