Dear Reader,
After his father’s death, Joshua thinks that he doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s a feeling many of us have, perhaps if we’re foreign, perhaps just if we’re different. It’s certainly something I experienced when I was Joshua’s age – which is maybe one of the reasons for writing this book.
When I was eleven I was sent away from the tropics where I lived, to go to boarding school in Wales. School was fine, but for the first two years I didn’t see my parents. I stayed with relations in the holidays, but it was confusing; they didn’t do things the way we did at home, and I didn’t know where I belonged – a bit like Joshua when he discovers his background.
After being in a hot, tropical country where all the colours were bright and the smells were strong and the sea just there for the swimming, coming to Europe was like being dumped in an icy bath in a grey room. It took me some time to get used to it, but later I grew to love it. And if it was hard for me, who had experience of living in Britain before, imagine how difficult it might have been for Joshua who had never travelled anywhere, who wouldn’t have known what to expect.
As Joshua found out, people can be peculiar about other people who aren’t the same. Joshua thought being adopted would solve his problems. In the end, though, he decided to stay where he was, to acknowledge what he was, even if it was a bit different.
It’s good to be a little different from each other. Wouldn’t the world be dull if we were all the same?
Best wishes,
