When I first reviewed A Blonde Bengali Wife, Anne Hamilton’s travel autobiography of her time as a volunteer in Bangladesh, I was awed by her accomplishments but I never imagined that these might extend to taking over Lothian Life.
I still don’t know whether it is Anne’s positive attitude to the world that enabled her to see past the corruption, the desperation and the expectations – or lack of them, in this often forgotten country. I do know that I would not have coped anything like as well were I to find myself in a similar situation, the only white person, a woman at that, who doesn’t speak the language. I could not cope with the food, the toilets, the squalor, the apparent helplessness of it all without collapsing in despair at least once a day, and I know I would never have become a ginger Bengali wife.
Anne not only survived with a smile on her face, she returns  regularly, now with her son, Simon, to visit the charity she was moved to set up, Bhola’s Children, which provides home and education for disabled children, whose parents can not care for them.
The profits from sales of this book go to this charity, which is one good reason to buy it. Another is that it is simply a very enjoyable read, with warm, charming, surprisingly pragmatic characters who will endear themselves to you. And just to prove it, the new, re-edited A Blonde Bengali Wife has become an Amazon Kindle eBook Bestseller in ALL the categories in which it’s marketed (UK and dotcom) and even hit #1 in the UK’s World Literature/Asia.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016UDI86I
Price £2.99
