It is 1914, and Margery Benson is ten years old, and her father introduces her to a book named “Incredible Creatures”, containing mermen, squirrels with wings and other strange beings which some people think must exist but which nobody had ever found. Included in these is a beetle, ostensibly quite plain, but over the page is a magnification of the same beetle, and it is a thing of beauty. It is golden, the Golden Beetle of New Caledonia.
Margery decides there and then that she is the one who will find this beetle, and whilst her father goes to answer the door she makes plans in her head to put this thought into action. Her father returns from answering the door, tears running down his face, takes a gun out of his desk drawer and shoots himself, having just learned that all his four sons have been lost in the war.
We jump to 1950; Miss Benson is a teacher, living alone, and considered by her pupils to be something of a freak. She is tall and ungainly, overweight since the menopause and drab in her dress. An event at the school which would surely lead to her dismissal prompts her to remember her childhood dream to track down the golden beetle, and plans are put into place.
She realises that it would be folly to go alone, and so advertises for a companion, all expenses paid, to travel with her. Of the four applicants – a widow, a retired teacher, a demobbed soldier and Enid Pretty with her bright yellow hair, she dismisses Enid whose letter comes on a shopping list with atrocious spelling. The widow thought it was Scotland that the trip was to and so opted out, and the demobbed soldier acted too strangely, obviously suffering from PTSD. The retired teacher, after interviews, appears to be the best bet, but lets her down at the last minute when she discovers the reason Margery left the school. Enid is the only option, and Miss Benson, already prepared with her list of what to take, adds her name to the passengers boarding the ship on its way to Brisbane. When Enid turns up in her pink suit and pom-pom sandals, as far from suitable for the expedition as could be, it is too late to do anything about it.
The demobbed soldier, Mundic, unable to accept that a woman could do this journey without a man, namely him, to take care of her, steals aboard the ship and stows away. Miss Benson, violently seasick for about a month and sharing a very small cabin with Enid, who seems unable to stop talking about anything and everything, finds the first stage of her adventure something of a trial. When Enid has a miscarriage (she hadn’t mentioned being pregnant before they set off, and hardly ever talks about her husband), things begin to really fall apart as she states her intention of staying in Brisbane with a man she has become friendly with on board and deserting Miss Benson.
In the meantime we find out why Enid was so eager to join Miss Benson on this trip, when she isn’t interested in beetles and her only French (supposedly a prerequisite of the companion) is “bon shoor”. The two of them do eventually arrive in New Caledonia, Enid having changed her mind about staying in Brisbane, and Mundic isn’t far behind them.
The rest of the book revolves round the struggle to reach the north of the island and the subsequent search for the beetle, involving the loss of Miss Benson’s luggage containing vital equipment and no transport. Enid’s resourcefulness provides both, and off they set.
On arrival at the bungalow they have rented for the duration, they find it more or less uninhabitable, full of rubbish and smelling foul, and rife with cockroaches. Enid, stating “I’ve seen worse”, sets to and unseen depths to her character emerge as she cheerfully cleans up and makes it as homely as is possible.
Mundic is still on their trail, Enid finds she hasn’t miscarried after all and gives birth to a little girl with the help of a very reluctant Miss Benson, the police catch up with them and new problems crop up with a vengeance. It is Enid who refuses to give in, and urges Miss Benson to carry on with her search for the golden beetle. As the story progresses we see other sides to the characters of both these women, who become so close as they overcome each hurdle in their path. It is a story of a developing friendship despite preconceptions, circumstances forcing the women to find a level of courage neither was aware they had, and an unlikely bond between two opposites that brings out the best in each of them. It is a joyous read, with each unlikely situation leaving the reader desperately wanting a good result.
ABOUT THE BOOK
She's going too far to go it alone.
It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist--the golden beetle of New Caledonia.
When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | WEBSITE
