Books, Reviews, writers

A Warm Hearted Tonga Classic

Appears Again-But Twofold

I believe that in America Patricia .edyard’s first book was published nder the title of Tonga, A Tale of le Friendly Isles, but I knew the ook as Friendly Island, the title by 'hich the UK edition was published y Peter Davies in 1956. It turned ut that most people knew the book

s Friendly Island—certainly all the

eople that I met—because it soon ecame something of a classic.

It was a quiet classic. It was never dected as Book of the Month; as ir as I know it was not widely in the world’s newspapers; ut those who read it sold themselves Dmpletely to the charm of Vavau, ic Kingdom of Tonga’s northern roup, where resided in a small white ouse on the headland Patricia Led ard and her Scots husband Farquhar latheson, the government medical fficer, and where Patricia wrote >vingly and penetratingly about life i her village of ’Utulei.

She told of how as an American lissionary teacher she arrived in onga, fell in love with Tonga and arquhar at the same time and larried them both, and how the lathesons made their life among ic people. She told of weddings, f royal visits, of births (including ic birth of her own daughter), of a ;rrible hurricane, and of the small each school she started. It was a ook that captured the spirit of the bngan village, and all of us who ;ad it wanted to go to Tonga.

I went to Tonga in 1958, and in r avau of course I sought out the Lithor and Farquhar. They were as had expected—two people with omfortable hearts, contented, pro uctive and at ease. They shared n underplayed sense of humour, Imost a droll humour. Patricia Led ard, Mrs Matheson, became one of IM’s widely distributed correspon ents and her occasional pieces have ppeared in PIM over the years since.

Meanwhile, there were many Ganges in her household, including le death of Farquhar. (“The illage people quarrelled,” she re-

calls in a foreword to her new, soft cover edition of Friendly Island, “and out of my sorrow I loved them; for they quarrelled over whose part of the cemetery he would be buried in.

Our wise town officer opened up a new section for our household and there overlooking the harbour that he loved, he lies.”) There were many changes, too, in Tonga, including the death of Queen Salote, full independence for the king dom, air services to replace the regular monthly call of the Tofua, and even a hotel on the point opposite ’Utulei ... a hotel with a fine name, Port of Refuge—the name that Maurelle, Spanish discoverer of Vavau, gave to the area.

Earlier this year Pacific Publica tions decided that Patricia Ledyard’s Friendly Island had been too long out of print, and that a new generation should share her view of Tongan life

—hence the reprint of the book, with a new foreword by Pat.

The new edition happens to co incide with a new hard cover book by Pat, published by Robert Hale in London, called ’Utulei, My Tongan Home—which is a restating of her life there over the last 20 years, with some new chapters. It covers much of the same ground as her original classic.

So it happens that Ledyard fans can enjoy, in the one year, almost the one month, her original warm hearted story in a cheaper edition, and a new book. Most people will want both. I recommend them both.

Stuart Inder

(FRIENDLY ISLAND, by Patricia Ledyard, published by Pacific Publications, (Aust) Pty Ltd, GPO Box 3408, Sydney,

$3; ’Utulei, My Tongan Home, By

Patricia Ledyard, published by Robert Hale, London, £stg3.)

The Mathesons, photographed in Vavau in 1958 . . . "two people with comfortable hearts".