A tantalising time-slip novel set in LONDON
Novel set in LAGOS and SOMERSET
10th March 2025
This Motherless Land by Nikki May, novel set in Lagos and Somerset.
In the latter half of 2024, I had seen innumerable references to this novel, overwhelmingly positive responses to the gifted storytelling of this author. Therefore, I was delighted to read it as one of the six shortlisted titles for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2025 (Fiction With a Sense of Place).
The novel is set over a period of 20 years, commencing in 1978 and it tells the story of two cousins from very different backgrounds. As a child, Funke is growing up in Lagos and Liv is living in Somerset (in Haselbury Plucknett – and yes, it’s a real place). Lizzie, Funke’s mother and Margot, Liv’s mother are sisters, but they have never really seen eye-to-eye and indeed they are very different personalities – so there as been virtually no contact between the two sides of the family.
Funke experiences a life changing event and her father, in his wisdom, decides to send her off to live with her white family in England and she spends 8 years there before another life-changing event up-ends her plans once again. If everything had gone to plan, she would have gone on to study medicine at Bristol University but as it is, she finds herself on a medical path in Nigeria. History repeats and the cousins fall out of contact.
Nikki May and TF’s Tina
When Funke originally arrives in England, she is welcomed with open arms by her cousin of similar age but as she settles in, she has to get used to overt and covert racism and she is forced to rename herself Kate. She nevertheless finds an inner strength to withstand the racial slurs that pretty much went unchallenged in the 1980s.
This is a coming-of-age novel, juxtaposing two cultures and countries, that bowls along at a beautifully crafted pace. The characters are well rounded and the story, as it pans out, is so well put together reflecting time, cultural and societal mores. I can really see why this has been a very popular read in 2024. The setting of Lagos develops particularly in the last fifth or so of the novel, Somerset can be hard to identify although there is a real sense of Britishness.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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