The Golden Silence

The title page: so lovely. The book: so racist.

My top three most appallingly racist things about The Golden Silence — another travel adventure from A.M. and C.N. Williamson — not counting that thing where all the Arabs are kind of evil, are as follows:

1. Liberal use of the n-word, always in reference to someone whose skin is “hardly darker than old ivory.”
2. Referring to drums used by various North Africans as tom toms.
3. The obsessive cataloging of everyone’s complexions.

Hilda Wade, a Woman with Tenacity of Purpose

I never wrote anything about Hilda Wade, did I?

So, obviously I’m pretty into Miss Cayley’s Adventures. So into it that I was kind of terrified of reading anything else by Grant Allen, which is why Hilda Wade has been languishing on my Kindle (and then my other Kindle) for several years. I shouldn’t have worried, though. Hilda Wade is good and bad in almost exactly the same ways as Miss Cayley’s Adventures is good and bad.