The Queen of Whale Cay by Kate Summerscale

The Queen of Whale Cay by Kate Summerscale

A fascinating biography of the woman champion motorboat racer of the 1920s who in the ’30s bought and became ‘ruler’ of an island in the British West Indies. ’Joe’ Carstairs was born in London in 1900, the daughter of a Scottish colonel and an American heiress. Educated in Connecticut, she returned to Europe in 1916 and drove ambulances for the Women’s Legion in France. She deserted her husband at the church door (marriage was a prerequisite of her coming into her $4 million inheritance) and settled in England where she took up racing, established a boat yard at Cowes and won nearly every trophy going. In the 30s she started travelling widely, finally moving to the West Indies where she bought the island of Whale Cay. There she developed the island into a populated community, building everything from roads and schools to lighthouses and churches. Carstairs then suceeded in establishing hegemony over the 500 islanders, controlling not only their sexual morals but also their diet. In 1944 she built a deepwater harbour for the Royal Navy’s use and, without a word to her population, left the island to build warcraft in Florida, where she settled for 40 years, having run a steamship freightline and set up a chain of airports. Kate Summerscale’s brilliant biography brings out of obscurity a woman whose very boldness took her beyond fame and notoriety.

Born in 1965 Kate Summerscale was brought up in Japan, England and Chile. She took a double-first at Oxford, an MA in Journalism from Stanford University, California, and for some years wrote and edited obituaries on the Daily Telegraph. Now, she writes features for the Telegraph.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781857026689
ISBN 10	1857026683
Title	The Queen of Whale Cay
Author	Kate Summerscale
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers
Year published	1998-07-02
Number of pages	256
Prizes	Winner of Somerset Maugham Awards 1998, Winner of Somerset Maugham Award 1998
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.