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Leaves from the Fig Tree
Raised by eccentric grandparents at Annesgrove, an Irish stately home, Diana Duff grew up surrounded by family ghosts, banshees and buried treasure. At 18, Diana entered the glamorous world of 1950s Kenya, becoming a stand-in for Grace Kelly before embarking on a career as a nurse. After marrying a young officer in the Colonial Service, Diana spent her nights shivering and alone, gun in hand, as the Mau Mau rebellion threatened to engulf her. Moving to Tanganyika, Diana went on to found the first inter-racial nursery school in East Africa before a transfer saw the family shifting to South Africa in the 1960s at the height of apartheid.
318 pages, Paperback
First published July 29, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 3, 2021
This book was completely outside of my normal reading genre but it has changed my views on memoirs. The book follows Diana the daughter of an Irish land owner born in Johannesburg and left to be raised by aristocratic grandparents in Ireland from the age of 2. Diana live a colourful and nostalgic life but feels the world is changing and she needs to see it. Leaving her strict upbringing behind Diana goes to Africa in search of the father she barely knows and adventure. Exposed to many cultures and tribes Diana navigates a turbulent Kenya and South Africa during apartheid leading change in her community for her family. I was on a rollercoaster ride with this book with is vivid descriptions of her estate in Ireland and the colourful characters and old ways in which she was brought up. To then traveling to Africa, her jobs including nursing and being Grace Stand in to running a multiracial school and then pushing back on apartheid in Johannesburg. I loved this book with its beautiful storytelling, I felt like I was experiencing this for myself. I highly recommend this book.
February 2, 2015
This is a quite amazing biography. Diana was abandoned by both parents and brought up by aged and eccentric grandparents in a large Protestant house in Catholic Ireland. She had few friends her own age, and spent most of her time alone or with the servants. Perhaps it is not surprising that she needed to escape to Africa, where she lived most of her adult life in extraordinary circumstances.
The book cover talks about Irish charm combined with the exotic appeal of Out of Africa, and I expected an African book. But in true Irish tradition, it is half and half. The first half is a fascinating insight into Irish life after Partition and before The Modern Troubles. We get wonderful character studies, against which the author almost paints herself into insignificance. It works very well. In the second half, however, I felt that I wanted to know more about the author's emotions. Like Karen Blixen (Out of Africa) Duff lived with the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya, but 40 years later, at the time of the Mau Mau uprising. From Kenya she moved to Tanganyika, and on to South Africa in the days of apartheid. Along the way she worked as nurse and teacher, got married and had four children. And yet her account never becomes really personal and she plays down the threat of violence that must always have hung over her. I suppose she belongs to a class and an age in which it was bad form to bare one's soul, but I wanted to see more of Diana Duff's soul. We merely see glimpses, especially in connection with encounters with her estranged family.
Undoubtedly she was a resourceful and courageous woman. She describes how she challenged the inflexibility of apartheid, on one occasion making history. The stories of the Africans she meets, and their customs and way of life, are well told, but the prose never reaches the heights of Out of Africa. Amazing events, but for me the book never fulfils its potential.
The book cover talks about Irish charm combined with the exotic appeal of Out of Africa, and I expected an African book. But in true Irish tradition, it is half and half. The first half is a fascinating insight into Irish life after Partition and before The Modern Troubles. We get wonderful character studies, against which the author almost paints herself into insignificance. It works very well. In the second half, however, I felt that I wanted to know more about the author's emotions. Like Karen Blixen (Out of Africa) Duff lived with the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya, but 40 years later, at the time of the Mau Mau uprising. From Kenya she moved to Tanganyika, and on to South Africa in the days of apartheid. Along the way she worked as nurse and teacher, got married and had four children. And yet her account never becomes really personal and she plays down the threat of violence that must always have hung over her. I suppose she belongs to a class and an age in which it was bad form to bare one's soul, but I wanted to see more of Diana Duff's soul. We merely see glimpses, especially in connection with encounters with her estranged family.
Undoubtedly she was a resourceful and courageous woman. She describes how she challenged the inflexibility of apartheid, on one occasion making history. The stories of the Africans she meets, and their customs and way of life, are well told, but the prose never reaches the heights of Out of Africa. Amazing events, but for me the book never fulfils its potential.
October 23, 2014
This women lived through 3 distinct cultures that no longer exist. Aristocracy colonialism and apartheid and lived
June 12, 2019
Interesting read!
Very descriptive and made the reader feel like you were really there! I wanted the book to continue as I was enjoying it!
Very descriptive and made the reader feel like you were really there! I wanted the book to continue as I was enjoying it!
September 21, 2019
A very interesting autobiography.
November 7, 2022
A wonderful memoir, beautifully written. Loved it.
June 12, 2016
Enjoyed this memoir/travel story very much indeed. It has its own charm while set in Ireland, in the stately home of the writer's grandparents, and becomes even more interesting when as an adult she travels to Africa where she was born and lived as a toddler. Her life story takes her to exotic place in Africa where after some adventures as a single woman, she marries and becomes a mother, she opens a multiracial preschool in Tanganyika. But before that I really found interesting what she wrote about her experiences in Kikuyu, when the Mau Mau rebellion was happening. A brave woman.
After Tanganyika the family was relocated to South Africa where she relates interesting stories about the apartheid regime. Altogether I thought it was a book well worth reading and in parts I was spell bound and could not put the book down, delighted to have read it. The author has a lovely way of story-telling. I would recommend it as a light weight but excellent social history of periods of a certain section of Irish life as well as life in Africa, and especially in South Africa.
After Tanganyika the family was relocated to South Africa where she relates interesting stories about the apartheid regime. Altogether I thought it was a book well worth reading and in parts I was spell bound and could not put the book down, delighted to have read it. The author has a lovely way of story-telling. I would recommend it as a light weight but excellent social history of periods of a certain section of Irish life as well as life in Africa, and especially in South Africa.
December 8, 2010
This was fascinating. I really liked the first part of the book which described growing up in Annes Grove her family home. The later part of the books was interesting but not as gripping. I think it was because in the early parts Diana Duff described the characters she came into contact with in a lot more detail which made it more interesting for me. I suppose that was because she didn't meet so many people as a child so she could write about the ones she met in more details (Annes grove seemed to be in a rural part of Ireland). Overall this was a well written and interesting account of Diana's life.
December 30, 2013
A fantastic narration that tracks the steps of the author from scenic but quiet and cold Ireland to vibrant but tough Africa, Diane writes so lightly about some of the more serious war-troubled history of the world thus acquiring a great balance in her book. I think subconsciously my desire to go visit these places has grown stronger just from her beautiful descriptions. Read this book and you will be rewarded.
May 22, 2016
I'm not normally one for autobiographical memoirs, but this book really stuck with me. It was beautiful to read and learn about all the different countries and cultures that she experienced over the course of her life. I would definitely recommend!
September 22, 2012
Memoir written in a sprightly style. Enjoyable, readable.
July 29, 2016
The only reason I gave it such a low rating is because I found it hard to follow. I struggled through reading it & I'm still not 100% sure I understood everything.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews