The Dragon Lady by Louisa Treger. Published by Bloomsbury

This is the story of Ginie from the 1920s up to the 1950s and the extraordinary life she lived, from Scotland to Italy to Rhodesia where she makes a home with her second husband, Stephen. The marriage is not an unhappy one, but both partners are haunted by their pasts, she by her first love and he by the horrors of World War I. Reading about Ginie’s tropical garden in Rhodesia, I felt like I was there and could hear the birds and smell the tropical vegetation. But this novel is not all hearts and flowers and Ginia will find herself in the sights of a gun before her story ends. This book is so beautifully written, so lyrical and evocative I felt like I was emerging from another world whenever I had to put it down