The story of Mammy from Gone With the Wind from age 4 to her life with Miss Scarlett as we know her. It is jaw-droppingly good, quite magnificent. There is so much tenderness, hardship, joy and emotion, it fair rings you out. You’ll cry, you’ll laugh, you’ll love it. The dialect used for the characters sings, the whole colour and drama of the tale is memorable. A lovely read. Apparently Margaret Mitchell’s estate approves too! Indeed they authorised it after the author wrote Rhett Butler’s story. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
Set against the backdrop of the American South from the 1820s until the dawn of the Civil War, this is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbreak, and indomitable will - and a tale that will forever illuminate the reading of Margaret Mitchell's unforgettable classic, Gone with the Wind. On the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, an island consumed by the flames of revolution, a senseless attack leaves only one survivor: an infant girl. She falls into the hands of two French emigres, Henri and Solange Fournier, who take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah. What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth's life as shaped by her strong-willed mistress and other larger-than-life personalities she encounters in the South: Jehu Glen, a free black man with whom Ruth falls madly in love; the shabbily genteel family that first hires Ruth as Mammy; Solange's daughter Ellen and the rough Irishman, Gerald O'Hara, whom Ellen chooses to marry; the Butler family of Charleston and their shocking connection to Mammy Ruth; and finally Scarlett O'Hara-the irrepressible Southern belle Mammy raises from birth.
Donald McCaig is the award-winning author of Canaan as well as Jacob's Ladder. He was chosen by the Margaret Mitchell estate to write Rhett Butler's People, an authorized sequel to Gone with the Wind. He lives on a sheep farm in the mountains near Williamsville, Virginia, where he writes fiction, essays, and poetry, and trains and trials sheep dogs.
