'One of the most exciting and
perfectly executed pieces of fiction that I have ever read' The Spectator
'Few writers have a more exact feel
for texture - of a flower, a face, a silence - and it is this that has value'
The Spectator
H. E. Bates's acclaimed novel set in Burma
During the Second World War members of a small English community are forced to flee when Japanese forces invade Burma. Paterson, the manager of a rice mill, organises the evacuation and takes with him his Burmese mistress and her young brother. The rest of the party take along their prejudices, their pettiness and their squabbles, and a small enclave of English insularity moves north through Burma. Inevitably, as the journey continues, bitterness, tension and insoluble conflict unfold... Inspired by Bates's period of service in the Eastern theatre of war, The Jacaranda Tree skilfully evokes the atmosphere in Burma during the chaos of invasion.