In 2023, Carteret Writers will be 40 years old (though we hardly look a day over 18). To begin celebrating our organization’s long and storied history of supporting, connecting, and inspiring local writers, we asked our members to think back to some of the best stories, poems, and essays of the year before the group was founded. Several members responded to our request for literary responses to 1982’s bestsellers. Our first post is by member Joyce Allan, an author, former librarian, and winner of our Summer Doldrums Challenge Perfect Attendance Award. In the post, Joyce recalls the pleasure of reading M.M. Kaye’s escapist adventures like the 1982 bestseller Trade Winds. Thank you, Joyce, for playing along with us.
I was in a bookstore somewhere when I first met the British author M.M. Kaye. As with most authors, it was not a literal meeting, but a first encounter through one of her books. The book was on one of those bargain tables placed at the front of the store in hopes of pulling you in as you stroll through the mall. I was unfamiliar with M.M. Kaye, but she was a British author who wrote murder mysteries, and I was a huge fan of Agatha Christie. How could I resist? I grabbed up the bargain book for a dollar or two. It was one of Kaye’s “Death in” books. She wrote several of these including Death in Zanzibar, Death in Kashmir, Death in Cyprus, and Death in Berlin. Later, I opened the book, read the first few lines, and fell in love with the writing.
The year was around 1982, and I was a young mother with a five-year-old, a three-year-old, a new baby, and a passion for reading. When the demands of life aligned so I had a free hour, I never wasted time on electives like cooking or cleaning. Instead, I learned to ignore the dust and dishes and head for some of the most exotic places in the world. M.M. Kaye’s books provided escapism at its very best. In addition to murder mysteries, Kaye was also a master of historical fiction. Regardless of the genre, every book was set in some mysterious far-away place like Zanzibar, India, or Kashmir. My favorite of Kaye’s books, written in 1981, was Trade Winds. This tome of six or seven hundred pages is about a young woman from Boston who travels to Zanzibar.
Now, forty years later, I have forgotten almost everything about M.M. Kaye’s books. The plots and characters and settings have blurred. What I do remember is the aroma of bougainvillea in a foreign garden, a dark night lit by a full moon, and the clamor of strangers in a marketplace. Kaye’s writing did not just introduce me to new places, it transported me to the most unlikely destinations—for one hour every day.
