Return to the Islands

by Arthur Grimble

PRE-ISBN“ …‘At the end of [A Pattern of Islands] the author wrote ‘I borrowed £150 at the end of my leave to pay my way back to the Pacific and leave the family in funds until I arrived there. I did not see them again for seven years. But that is another story.’This is the other and it is a remarkable one. Sir Arthur returns, alone this time, not only to the friendship of the Gilbert and Ellice Islanders and to continue his instruction in etiquette at the hands of ‘Movement of Clouds’, who becomes his adopted daughter, but also to increased anxieties and responsibilities on Bannaba (Ocean Island). Acting as resident Commissioner, Magistrate, and in charge of police and prisons, he has to intervene in the riots between the Gilbertese and Chinese labour force and to make arrests single-handed on the island of Arorae. But the Gilbertese know him as a friend and support him faithfully and with affection, though sometimes not without merriment when he shows himself ignorant of the finer points of their code of behaviour.On the ‘guest mat’ they tell of the forces that direct their lives, of the curse of Nakaa, of the boat that came home, of the tragedies following the outlawing of polygamy, and the way to ‘the world’s edge’.What stands out again very clearly in this inspiring book is the charm, the humour and the childlike sincerity of the Gilbertese; the courage, modesty and humanity of the author; and their mutual trust and love.”

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[^ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first of Sir Arthur Grimble’s memoirs, “A Pattern of Islands” several years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I never expected that I should be so fortunate to also find this, the second of his books. That’s what I love about second-hand bookshops; you never know what you’re going to find. Simply paying twice the price (or more) to buy a book, sight and condition unseen, doesn’t even come remotely close to that pleasure.

“Return To The Islands” continues Grimble’s account of life, now in the 1920s-1930s, as an Acting Resident Commissioner, for the Gilbert & Ellice Islands (Western Isles of the South Pacific). This book contains a very helpful map of the sixteen named Gilbert Islands, and their geographical position related not only to Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia, but also to the Caroline, Marshall, Hawaiian, Solomon, Ellice, Christmas, Phoenix, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, and New Hebridian islands.

Here, quite literally, lie other worlds. Grimble blesses the luxury of the wonderful postal (mail) service on Ocean Island: two or three times a month, thanks to the industrial mining and export operations of the British Phosphate Commissioners. By comparison, three mails in a year was the average in any of the other twenty-four Gilbert & Ellice Islands. It’s not difficult to imagine the communications-shock that a present-day first-world teenager utterly dependent on the Web would experience if taken back to that time and place.

Grimble recounts through events, with rare clarity, honesty, acute observation, and humility, just how the British administered these islands. Shot through with a warm, appreciative, gently humour, his tales are not only of history, anthropology and etiquette, but also of friendships, health, and law and order (for example, the outlawing of polygamy).

His description of the islanders philosophy of giving and receiving is just one fascinating example of extreme cultural difference. This centred on demonstrating devoted appreciation of the loving kindness of the giver’s action, for several days or more, before answering the giver with a gift. Such a practice would, I think, improve the present-day (please excuse the pun) British Christmas no end. The younger generation would tender presents to their elders on Christmas Day, who would return the compliment on Twelfth Night. None of that awful, sinking, commercialised Christmas Day evening ‘was that all there was to it?’ feeling.

Grimble advises that the easiest way through to the ‘domestic heart of most islanders’: simply by sitting on a beach, with a loop of string, making string patterns. It wasn’t long before a good-natured crown formed to join-in, gossip, and generally hang-out. That struck a chord with me, because I find very much the same happens today, in England, whether I’m sitting & making string figures in a park, on a train, in a museum, … wherever. How strangely reassuring it is to reflect that although everything else in this book is now history, cross-cultural non-verbal communication through string figures still works!

[Dan Trubman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much less of a straight narrative than his first book, A Pattern of Islands, the book is mostly a series of anecdotes from his time in the Gilbert Islands after the events of this first memoir.

Still quite funny at times, with some insight in to what imperial governance meant on the ground, both for those governed by the British, and those sent away to far away distant lands as the colonial project continued in to the 20th century. Many of the same themes emerge, such as Grimble realizing his assumptions about the local customs being utter wrong, his growing appreciation of the local culture, along with an ever deepening comprehension of its complexity, and the occasional absurdities of life as a relatively low level employee of an imperial project based half way around the world.

Definitely worth the quick read if you enjoyed A Pattern of Islands, (also known as We Chose the Islands in American editions) but I would read that book first.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second part of his first book (Pattern of Islands). Not as good as the first one in my opinion, but worth reading it to know more about it.

[Stacey King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grimble was a Colonial Resident Commissioner and a poetic writer who unfortunately rewrote the history of the Banabans to suit the Colonial government of the times.

[Erinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grimble approaches his colonial service with honor, wit and self-deprecation. I appreciate the format of the book as I did with his first: a series of short narratives about his interactions with the Gilbert Islanders and the follies that come with intercultural encounters. It wasn't quite as fresh as his first book on his life abroad, but it still filled my appetite for seafaring and propelled me into an age and place in the Pacific that I could not have reached otherwise.