My Driver by Maggie Gee is witty, entertaining and enlightening ..... He chose this book because she liked the book's rather attractive cover and was so glad that it turned out to be such a wonderful read. We recommend this book to everyone for it was delightful and we are quite sure that you'll be in for a treat!
There were four away this month; Ge was ill while the other three De, An, and Cat couldn't make it. We are in the middle of school-holls at the moment and the October meeting is the one that many of us tend to miss because of other commitments. We had an excellent discussion though, for the setting of the book, the content and characters were interesting .... Most of us were ready to throttle poor Vanessa as she was an irritating character. Ca had stumbled on My Cleaner, the first book in the series and was able to compare the characters as they were then to how they are now. She found that Mary Tendo was younger and not quite as pushy in My Cleaner.
Fra mentioned that she had heard from friends who had recently been travelling in Africa and their experiences reminded her of parts of the book.
It was interesting to see that the book starts with CHOGM in Uganda .. the meeting which really did take place in Uganda in 2007. It is a coincidence that CHOGM will be actually be taking place in our own capital city this month so we are quite pleased to be reading this book, coinciding with this very same event.
(Chogm 2011 website)
Maggie Gee (in brief - British Council)
Maggie Gee on Kampala and travelling in Uganda
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| The Sheraton in Kampala where Mary Tendo works |
We looked at a map of Uganda to see if we could find some of the places mentioned in the book and also gauge how far the characters travelled:
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| Kampala p12, Bwindi, Mbarara p226, The Kazinga Channel between Lake Albert and Lake Edward Ch26 |
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| Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp, Bwindi |
We looked at the website and some pictures of a Gorilla Retreat at Bwindi and noted the location of Bwindi, close to the border of Congo and Rwanda. More information on the Bwindi Forest National Park can be found here:
Bwindi National Park
(see video of gorillas - 40secs)
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The
Mweya Lodge, Queen Elizabeth Park, where Trevor stops for a break, prompted by
Mary Tendo!! (Ch29 and p231 )
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| Maggie Gee and her daughter Rosa |
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| Maggie Gee's writing room. Picture and more on the room from The Guardian |
Interesting Links:
Maggie Gee on My Driver - RN Bookshow (Audio) (Listen or Download audio or notes)
UWAP Bookclub Notes (Has discussion questions)
Review by The Guardian
Review by The Telegraph
Metro review
Independant - One Minute Interview
Video - Maggie talking about The White Family
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