A London mum and Iraqi teacher should have nothing in common. Yet now,
despite their differences, they're the firmest of friends . . . Talking
About Jane Austen in Baghdad by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit is a touching
and poignant portrait of an unlikely friendship. Would you brave
gun-toting militias for a cut and blow dry? May's a tough-talking,
hard-smoking, lecturer in English. She's also an Iraqi from a
Sunni-Shi'ite background living in Baghdad, dodging bullets before
breakfast, bargaining for high heels in bombed-out bazaars and battling
through blockades to reach her class of Jane Austen-studying girls. Bee,
on the other hand, is a London mum of three, busy fighting off PTA
meetings and chicken pox, dealing with dead cats and generally juggling
work and family while squabbling with her globe-trotting husband over
the socks he leaves lying around the house. They should have nothing in
common. But when a simple email brings them together, they discover a
friendship that overcomes all their differences of culture, religion and
age. Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is the story of two women who
share laughter and tears, and swap their confidences, dreams and fears.
And, between the grenades, the gossip, the jokes and the secrets, they
also hatch an ingenious plan to help May escape the bombings of Baghdad
. . . Bee Rowlatt is a former show-girl turned BBC World Service
journalist. A mother of three and would-be do-gooder, she can find
keeping her career going while caring for her three daughters (and
husband) pretty tough, even in leafy North London. May Witwit is an
Iraqi expert in Chaucer and sender of emails depicting kittens in fancy
dress. She is prepared to face every hazard imaginable to make that
all-important hairdresser's appointment.
