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Chapters (43)
  1. An Unsuitable Woman
  2. Praise for An Unsuitable Woman:
  3. Dedication
  4. Part One
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Part Two
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Part Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Historical Note
  40. Acknowledgements
  41. About the Author
  42. Also by Kat Gordon
  43. About the Publisher

There are a number of writers whose careful research and outstanding storytelling was invaluable when I was trying to get a sense of the Happy Valley set and their lifestyle. If any reader would like to know more about Josslyn Hay and Alice de Janzé – the real Freddie and Sylvie – and Josslyn’s mysterious death, I cannot recommend the following enough: White Mischief by James Fox; The Temptress by Paul Spicer; Child of Happy Valley, a memoir by Juanita Carberry with Nicola Tryer; and Tarred with the Same Brush by Frederic de Janzé – the real Nicolas – with a special mention to The Life and Death of Lord Erroll: The Truth Behind the Happy Valley Murder by Errol Trzebinski. A few of Freddie’s speeches quote a line or two from Joss directly, and those excerpts and the newspaper extract on the Blackshirts in Kenya were found in Ms. Trzebinski’s excellent biography. Getting the period details just right was helped immensely by reading Elspeth Huxley’s Pioneers’ Scrapbook: Reminiscences of Kenya, 1890 to 1968, and for a background on the politics, I found Dane Kennedy’s Islands of White: Settler Society and Culture in Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1939 extremely comprehensive and thought-provoking. I also recommend The Africa House, by Christina Lamb, for its rich and fascinating account of colonialism in action in another part of Africa.

I would like to thank: my editor at Borough Press, Holly Ainley, who impressed me from the first with her passion for the novel and her thoughtful, nuanced editing. She is also a great partner in crime for a new mum at her first party away from the baby.

Everyone at Borough Press, for their enthusiasm, their talent, and for making me feel so welcome.

My amazing agent, Caroline Wood at Felicity Bryan, who is patient but firm and always right, it turns out.

The following writers: Carolina Gonzales-Carvajal, Emma Chapman, Liz Gifford and Liza Klaussmann. For re-reading manuscripts a million times, and for loving the book before anyone else saw it.

My friends and family, for their unending support. I’d like to mention Valur Anarson and Edythe Mangindin in particular. I wrote this book when my partner and I were living in Reykjavik, renting their old apartment, and they became family away from home for us.

And finally, my men. My brilliant partner, Tom Feltham, and our beautiful son, Noah Gordon (on that note, it turns out there is someone I’ll give up chocolate for). You guys make every day the best day ever.

About the Author