A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar (39 page)

BOOK: A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar

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She paused for a moment in front of the departure board. The platform numbers flipped and her train came up: platform 19. She made her way on to the train and found an empty seat near the window. She put the cage, covered in a small blanket, on the seat next to her. The moment of disorientation, when it is impossible to tell whether it is the platform moving or the train, when it could just as well be the platform dragging backwards to the past, or the train rushing forward to the future, seemed to last an extended time. She was suspended; but then the sun came through the window, warming Frieda like an old friend. Battersea Power Station sang a goodbye. The tide in the Thames was low, and like her, wending to the sea. There was a card in Frieda’s pocket: on the front a picture of a woman in a grey dress leaning out of a window, looking out. On the back, written in beautiful, calligraphic handwriting,
I took the Leica. Come and find me and I shall give it back insh’ Allah
and below it, a drawing of a curious-looking bird, with a small beak and long spindly legs. The owl made a rustling movement. Frieda touched the cage, ‘We’re here,’ she said, ‘and soon, not long now, we’ll be there.’

Acknowledgements

Many, many thanks to friends, colleagues and family who have supported and helped me along the way: Ali Smith, for giving me courage a long time ago; early Goldsmiths readers Tamera Howard, Louise McElvogue, Blake Morrison, Maura Dooley and Stephen Knight; Chris Gribble and Becky Swift (the New Writing Ventures prize and The Literary Consultancy reading gave me the best possible start); Sara Maitland – and Zoe – for timely wit and wisdom; Arts Council England for a research and travel grant which enabled me to visit Kashgar; Gemma Seltzer and Kate Griffin (and thank you Kate for the help with the Serebriakova painting); Tamara Sharp and Beijing-based journalist Paul Mooney for advice on Kashgar, and the anonymous Chinese girl who helped me to leave Xinjiang Province when riots flared up in Urumqi and Kashgar; British Council friends all over the world, in particular Jonathan Barker (a very big thank you), Hannah Henderson, Sinead Russell, Susie Nicklin, Kate Joyce and Vibeke Burke; Elizabeth White for letting me stay in the most beautiful library in Yemen; Cathy Costain for looking after me in Cairo; Tony Calderbank for expert advice on Arabic calligraphy; Laila Hourani for a wonderful friendship (I hope that one day soon you will be able to return to your beautiful Damascus); Emma House for being
the
best travel companion; Nasser Jarrous for gracious hospitality in Lebanon; Salah Saleh, Amer Rifat and Hussein Mazeh for kindness in Sana’a; and Peter Clark for a wonderful trip around the Gulf in the footsteps of Ibn Battuta.

Much of my research into Missionary travel writing, diaries and journals was conducted at the China Inland Mission missionary archive at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Thank you to the diligent archive staff and likewise staff at the British Library. Thank you to my agent, Rachel Calder, for immense support – both editorially and in life! – and my talented editor Helen Garnons-Williams for enthusiasm and a sharp eye. Erica Jarnes, Alexandra Pringle, Amanda Shipp, Katie Bond and Nigel Newton have all made me feel very welcome at Bloomsbury. Thank you too Bloomsbury USA, in particular my very lovely US editor, Nancy Miller and Michelle Blankenship, George Gibson and Peter Miller for such a warm response to my book; Sarah Greeno for the beautiful cover; and cartographer John Gilkes for Evangeline’s map.

I am very grateful to my parents, John and Lynda Joinson, and Dave Joinson, for so much help and support over the years, and to Florence McKinney, Neville Joinson, Jean Joinson (recently passed away) and the rest of my family. Thank you friends of old for your long-term faith: Alice Khimasia, David Parr, Stephanie Cole, Helena Rebecca Howe. Much of this book was written while my children were very tiny and so thank you to Woodrow and Scout for coming along, bringing with you chaos, wonder and love. Above all, thank you to my husband, Ben Nicholls, for everything. I wrote this book for you.

A Note on the Author

Suzanne Joinson works in the literature department of the British Council, and regularly travels widely across the Middle East, North Africa, China and Europe. In 2007 she won the New Writing Ventures Award for Creative Non-Fiction for ‘Laila Ahmed’. She is studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, and lives by the sea on the South Coast of England.

Extract on p. 4 is from “Here the Birds’ Journey Ends” © Mahmoud Darwish,

The Butterfly’s Burden
, translated by Fady Joudah (Bloodaxe Books, 2007)

manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case

of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address

Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Joinson, Suzanne.

A lady cyclist’s guide to Kashgar / Suzanne Joinson. — 1st U.S. ed.

p. cm.

ePub ISBN: 978-1-60819-832-0

1. Women missionaries—Fiction. 2. Women—Social conditions—20th century—