Theo and Maud Miller, the children of wealthy and influential Scottish parents, are transported as teenagers from Great Britain to the sweltering and up-and-coming British colony of Kenya. While Great Britain is enduring a time of major social change post World War One, Kenya is home to the British aristocracy who are not ready to give up the old ways.
Theo, the protagonist of this story. is ready to come of age. When he meets Sylvie and Freddie, glamourous expatriates, he is keen to seem older than his fourteen years. He gets in with Sylvie and Freddie (and their respective spouses, although Sylvie and Freddie are not so secretly having an affair), much to the chagrin of his parents.
Social and political tensions are the backbone of this story. While Theo is more than ready to embrace the aristocratic, white privileged lifestyle of his peers, and chase the enigma that is Sylvie, Maud soon takes a different route. She readily acquires a social justice mindset but finds herself lonely in this endeavour.
The older Theo gets, the more he finds himself entangled in a web of secrets that binds his social group together. He never stops pursuing Sylvie, despite knowing the danger that she presents, not least because of other men who chase her. Meanwhile, in Britain, the fascists are on the rise and their politics reach Kenya, and soon thereafter adopted by this "Happy Valley" set. Despite being thousands of miles away, Britain's tensions are keenly felt in Kenya, where the elite are all too desperate to preserve the old ways.
The books builds slowly to an explosive crescendo at the end, one I didn't see coming, but after finishing the novel I appreciated much more how the author had written the story almost like a pressure cooker. Even in the colonial outpost of Kenya, which represents the heyday of the British Empire, they were not immune to the global political tensions, which affects both the national stage and the personal relationships.
I don't know what genre I would put this in, but it probably fits best into a period drama. I had no idea what to expect of it, but it was an expertly written story with plenty of questions and drama running throughout.
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