The Botanist's Daughter

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Did you know? Women were conscripted in December 1941. They were given a choice of working in industry or joining one of the auxiliary services. Burma, 1945. Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy: five young women in search of adventure, attached to the Fourteenth Army, fighting a forgotten war in the jungle. Assigned to run a mobile canteen, navigating treacherous roads and dodging hostile gunfire, they become embroiled in life-threatening battles of their own. Battles that will haunt the women for the rest of their lives.

Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes. In 1945, Bea decides to join the Army in a women's only squad assigned in Burma. They are the forgotten squadron in the forgotten war, serving food and supplies to the Allied forces and coming very close to the front line.The book details stories about all five women. Their courage, strengths and the bond that ties them all together. This is such a unique story brimming with many memorable characters and deeply moving passages. The writing just flowed so well and the characters had me captivated. This is such an awesome example of bringing history to life. Kayte Nunn’s debut novel “Rose’s Vintage” is a contemporary romance novel set in Shingle Valley, an imaginary small town set in the lush vineyards of a wide valley. Kayte has also written historical fiction with her most popular work being “The Botanist’s Daughter” that she published in 2018. She has said that she believes if you are receptive enough, you can get all manner of stories from the ether that will whisper into your ear or tap you on the shoulder asking to be told. Her job then is to spin the ideas she gets into stories that her readers have loved over the years. Kayte Nunn’s novels have been called deliciously immersive, atmospheric and heartbreaking, compelling and sensitive by several publications such as “Who Weekly,” “Australian Women’s Weekly” and “The Daily Telegraph.” When she is not writing her novels, she can be found enjoying a cup of tea with some cake or on a comfortable chair enjoying a good read. Burma, 1945. Five young women joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service. They are attached to the Fourteenth Army, assigned to run a mobile canteen in support of the Burma Campaign of the Second World War. Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy were in search of adventure, keen to do their bit to support those involved in what has often been referred to as ‘The Forgotten War’. When I am walking or cooking or driving I’m also in the world of my current novel, thinking about the characters and what might happen next, so I make sure to always have a notebook to hand. The reunion in the title refers to a New Year's party taking place in Galway at the end of 1999 at the home of fellow Wasbie Plum. Bea doesn't want to go, but to sort the provenance of the netsuke she has to, so she asks Olivia to go with her.

In a striking and original way, Haeseker shows us how we rely on small things, and how their destruction can have huge and irreversible consequences. Indeed, they are not just “small things” – that is precisely her point. They matter as much as if they were six feet tall. Nature is bigger than us, even if we do not typically view it as such.Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. I can’t wait for inspiration or I’d never get anywhere! I write while my daughters are at school, but also sometimes at the weekend if I haven’t achieved the word count I set myself during the week. I take my laptop to their after-school activities if I have to wait there, and find a place to write, often in the car. Lots and lots of novels set in Europe, the UK about ordinary people during and after WWII. But very few, in comparison, set in Japan, China or what was then Burma, now Myanmar. The cruelty and ruthlessness of the Japanese armed forces to prisoners and civilians is very well documented, but there hasn't been the same tsunami of fiction coming out of this history. This one is all about a group that you have probably never heard of - the Wasbies - the Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) which ran mobile canteens for the Allied soldiers involved in the Burma campaign - British, Australian, NZers, Canadians, Americans who made up the 14th Army. The Wasbies were mainly young women - early 20s - looking for some excitement as well as wanting to make a contribution to the war effort. Having lived parts of their lives in British colonies such as Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, they were well suited to the climate and living conditions. But things were still very primitive, basic, at times dangerous but almost always exciting. Much of the detail in the story comes from the diary of one of the surviving Wasbies who wrote about her experiences in India and Burma with the 14th Army. Across thousands of miles of inhospitable jungle, mosquitoes, often in difficult conditions, and from time to time within the sound of the front line, these young women ran char and wads - tea and buns - mobile and static canteens providing the troops with a constant and reliable source of food and drink- all the things they were missing from home. Her books have been described as, 'sensitive, atmospheric and often heartbreaking' (Who Weekly), offering 'compelling storytelling' (Australian Women's Weekly), and 'deliciously immersive' (The Daily Telegraph).

Nunn is an author passionately dedicated to her research and this is very much evident in The Last Reunion. I was amazed by the forgotten story of the lost women of the Fourteenth Army. It is vital that we dredge up these absent stories and place them in the spotlight via engaging narratives, such as The Last Reunion. I am grateful to Kayte Nunn to drawing my attention to an aspect of the war that I was not previously aware of, despite having read such a wide range of literature around the WWII conflict. I valued the time that I spent with each keynote member of the group that gave up their lives so selflessly during the Burma conflict. These were incredibly testing times for the women, especially in a physical sense. We also learn of the emotional wounds of war from viewpoint of the women decades later. This is a time that continues to haunt them, for good reasons. It was heartbreaking to read. Olivia is a young intern to a renowned art dealer and is instructed to meet Beatrix and establish whether she truly does have the infamous netsuke known as the fox-girl. This and several other Japanese netsuke were stolen from an exhibition in Oxford in 1976, so does Beatrix really have it? If so, how did she acquire it? Where has it been all of these years? Can you tell us a bit about your writing process? Do you have a strict schedule or write when inspiration strikes?

Kayte is a superb writer both in the research she undertakes and the story she then weaves from that, inclusive of characters that you really come to care for. The fact that so much of this story is based on and/or inspired by real life events certainly adds a richness of appreciation to events. This is historical fiction at its best. The modern day timeline - some fifty years on - see these women meet up again in Ireland and face some underlying issues from the past. This ‘reunion’ will certainly test loyalties that were forged all those many years ago. I also really enjoyed the character of Olivia as a side story - an Aussie trying to live and work in London - her story is more than just a support to Bea.