Mrs Whitelady

Laura, Jeff, and four-year-old Annabel have come to live in a remote place in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Jeff is a doctor in the local hospital. They are surrounded by poverty and hardship, and communications are almost non-existant. How will they cope? An earlier version of Mrs Whitelady, Welcome to Africa, Mrs Bennett, won the Daily Telegraph/Alexander McCall Smith online serialised novel competition in 2009. 'This tale of cultures clashing and a marriage threatened is told with an awareness of the humour and horror inherent in the everyday. The author has created a sympathetic and rounded character in Mrs Bennett, and has an eye for incidental detail. This, combined with an ear for dialogue, makes this story stand out as the winner.' Daily Telegraph.