The book A Parcel of Ribbons is now available on Amazon Kindle
You can of course still buy the paperback from Amazon or Lulu.com and other outlets which has the advantage of being a physical book and of having the index. Kindle format still does not support indexing although it does include the illustrations. The footnotes from the paperback are converted into endnotes for Kindle and I have made some minor corrections, mainly of typos. Some of these arose because I transcribed many of the letters using Dragon Naturally Speaking software, which is extremely impressive (no I don’t have shares!) but occasionally produces some oddities, a few of which I missed when proof reading.
One piece of information not in my possession when I wrote the book was that Robert Lee junior did not die at Lisbon as much later members of the Bevan family believed but in fact, like two of his brothers before him, shot himself. It is no wonder that Favell Bourke Lee, by then Mrs David Bevan, sought consolation in evangelical religion. For three out of six siblings to die by their own hand was a terrible burden for the family to have to bear.
Despite this shadow that fell over the family in the nineteenth century, their eighteenth century letters remain full of life, hope and insight into the interactions between Britain and Jamaica and the lives led in London by returning colonists.
Congratulations, Anne! I hope lots of people take up this new way of enjoying your book. And how satisfying to be able to update it with new information, even if it is as sad as the death of Robert Lee. Not to mention those typos which slip past even the most meticulous proofreader.
Thanks, Frances. It was good to be able to update the errors I know about – of course I’m sure there must still be some I’ve missed – there always are!
I think all genealogists aspire to write something like “A Parcel of Ribbons” and I am no exception. My family name was Mune and I am descended from William Mune who left Scotland as a boy in the 1860’s and ended up growing sugar in Fiji. I’ve never been able to find his father, even though he was also called William Mune, so was interested to see that you mentioned two Mune brothers, one of whom was William in your book. I hope you don’t think I am being offensive if I ask whether you were sure of that spelling when you transcribed those letters? This is very important to me – I’ve chased people who called themselves Mune in several different areas only to find that they are actually Muir or Mure or Munn or even Milne. I’m still hoping that one day I’ll be able to produce a book a little bit like yours. Congratulations on a wonderful publication.
Dear Jennifer,
Thank you for your kind comments.
I did actually check the spelling of the name of William Mune and now believe he was actually William Mure. I have corrected the spelling in the Kindle edition.
I’m sorry this means that this is no help for you in your search for your William Mune.
Good luck in your continuing hunt.
kind regards,
Anne
Beverley M Anderson
Although born in South London, England, my parents are Jamaican. My family and I have been trying to trace some of our ancestral lines. We believe that we have located one significant ancestor. Her name is Mary Johnston Rose “a mulatto”. I ordered your book from lulu and was disappointed to find that your book “A Parcel of Ribbons” does not have a page of contents and starts on page 119. I found in the index at the back of your book, all the Rose’s and the Wynter’s , who I believe are distant relations of ours, however they were supposed to be found between pages 1-118. I would like to know if page 1-118 are covered in a part one, or is this some kind of mistake on the part of lulu? I feel very disappointed.
Dear Beverley,
I am really sorry to hear that you have been sent a faulty copy of my book, which does indeed start well before page 119. There should be title and copyright pages and five preliminary pages (including Contents) before the Prologue which starts at page 1. The final page is 363 followed by one blank leaf.
I can only suggest you get in touch with Lulu and ask for a replacement copy as soon as possible. Please let me know if they do not respond promptly.
kind regards,
Anne
So glad to hear Lulu replaced the faulty copy so quickly.