Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award, this is a delight. Set on Africa’s Gold Coast in the 1940s during the ten years leading up to Independence, it centres on two very different women, one black, one white, and their different views, particularly about what Africa means to each. It’s warm, passionate, eventful stuff, full of the politics of the period, the cruelty of Africa, the ignorance of the colonials and the exhilaration of a fascinating period. A lovely, lovely read.
Matilda Lamptey, the Cloth Girl of the title, is fourteen years old when sophisticated black Gold Coast lawyer, Robert Bannerman, sets eyes on her and resolves to take her as his second wife. For Julie, his first wife, this is a colossal slap in the face, which she is not willing to tolerate. For Matilda it is a cruel-end to childhood.
Marilyn Heward Mills was born in Switzerland in 1968 to a Swiss mother and a Ghanaian father. She grew up in Accra, Ghana and came to England to study law at Durham University in 1988. She qualified as an English solicitor and a member of the New York Bar, and practised English and US law in the City of London for many years until she decided in 2003 to concentrate on writing. She has a husband and two young children and lives in South London.
