To The Last Page

Cloth Girl is set in a British West African outpost in the 1930’s/1940’s, against the backdrop of the Second World War and one nation’s struggle for independence and self determination. The story’s real drive however is in it depiction of the lives of two very different women and their fortunes. Mathilda is a young fourteen year-old native schoolgirl, starting English lessons and excited about her future, when she is forced into a marriage as Second Wife to the illustrious lawyer Robert Bannerman, a native of the country who has been educated at university in England. Apart from having her prospects taken out of her hands, Mathilda, still a child, has to endure the jealousy and humiliation of the lawyer’s First Wife, the sophisticated and cruel Julie. We also follow the fortunes of Audrey, the new wife of Alan Turton, an assistant to the Governor at the Colonial Office – in many respects also having her life brought to a standstill, finding it impossible to adjust to either the tediou