I hadn’t read anything by Elspeth Huxley before reading this one. She is of course best known for her book The Flame Trees of Thika which was made into a film. But she lived a long life, dying not long before her 90th birthday and although she wrote fiction, she wrote far more non-fiction and was a friend of Joy Adamson of Born Free fame.

This book was given to me by a friend and I had no idea what to expect, it says on the front cover – An Extravaganza but I think it would really be better described as a bit of a farce. It’s all a bit crazy but in a fun way, not at all what I would have expected Elspeth Huxley to have written.

The inhabitants of a Cotswold village are agog when rumours go around that ‘the prince’ is going to buy the local manor house. Some of the mothers with daughters are thrilled at the possible prospect of pairing their daughter off with royalty, but the consequent security measures annoy the majority of the villagers.

Throw in hunt saboteurs, Save the Badger campaigners, a bearded guru and his followers, the local police and the prince’s ADC in the shape of a General from the New Commonwealth unused to not being able to wander around with his gun toting body guards.

It’s all very reminiscent of the times this book was published – 1982, when African dictators came to the UK (where they had got their education in soldiering and general mayhem) bringing huge entourages with them, in fact everyone they thought likely to stage a coup if they were left at home in Africa.

It’s all a bit silly but amusing. Elspeth Huxley’s father was Scottish, I realised that one of her parents must have been when I was reading this book, not just because Elspeth is a Scottish name.

If you’re interested you can read her New York Times obituary here.