Publisher's Synopsis
This is an absorbing historical detective story that starts with just a name and a date on a 17th century gravestone in a beautiful, isolated spot on the island of Nevis. In 1985 June Goodfield was shown the tomb of Philippa Prentis Phillips by a gentle Nevisian who owned the land. The words he spoke raised many questions and triggered this quest. He said, "She loved it up here. I come up every day to talk to her and when I die I am going to be buried here too." Why did he say this of a white woman whose descendants might well have owned his ancestors as slaves? Who was Philippa? And why has she acquired such iconic status that people still trek up to Saddle Hill to talk to her? Using authentic historical records and living testimony as her guides, the author has traced Philippa's elusive trail and uncovered a romantic saga of a dramatic life where tenacious courage and unflagging energy overcame appalling odds. This is an inspiring tale of a dirt-poor English woman and how she came to a live and die in a place as foreign to her as another planet. There, triumphing over danger and adversity, she helped lay the foundations of the present day Caribbean society.
