The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 29 July 2013
by Anne Telscombe
What if Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple suddenly decided she wanted to trek in the Himalayas all by herself? That is essentially the premise of this 1962 novel. Lavinia Bagshot is a strong willed woman in her seventies who has done quite a bit of traveling around the world (see Miss Bagshot goes to Moscow). One day, she decides to travel, alone, into Tibet. It is the late 1950s, and Tibet is freshly taken over by the Chinese Communists, so this adventure seems absurd to her family. And yet, off she goes. The book opens when a dead goose falls out of the sky upon Miss Bagshot's head as she is disembarking from the ship that took her to India. This seems an ill omen. She stops at the comfortable bungalow of some friends, where she acquires a traveling companion in 20-year-old Brenda, who has tricked her parents into letting her join Miss Bagshot on her journey. They make an easy trip to Kalimpong, where they stay at a thoroughly British pub/inn and meet a bevy of reporters who have flocked to the foothills on news that the Dalai Lama may be fleeing the Chinese in Tibet (which the current Dalai Lama did after a 1959 uprising in Lhasa). There are important forboding themes, spies in Kalimpong, intrigue across the border, displaced refugees, and romance for Brenda and the reporters. None of the ominous signs really pan out to any genuine threat to Miss Bagshot's trip. Brenda connives to follow the reporters to Tezpur. Miss Bagshot goes along, until she is inpsired, finally, to just walk to Tibet across a border region closed by the military. Author Telscombe (a pseudonym for Australian Marie Dobbs, who has also written a book completing Sanditon by Jane Austen) is a journalist. She focuses curiously on Brenda and the reporters gathering in the Himalayan foothills. Miss Bagshot's journey takes a back seat to Brenda's misadventures with the men in Tezpur. The old lady is reported to be tramping into Tibet, without so much as a mention of how unlikely and dangerous such a solo trip would be even today. The Dala Lama passes quietly through the story. The intrigues evaporate. Brenda finds romance. It is all very light. It is difficult to determine the audience Telscombe might have imagined for the book. It is a bit too adult for young readers, perhaps, but is quite light for discerning adult readers, as well. The trip through Kalimpong and Tezpur is vividly told, and the reporters are an amusing bunch of characters. But we never really do get to know much about stubborn Miss Bagshot, or what it really is that makes her do what she does.