Reading Sapphire Widow by Dinah Jefferies based in Ceylon - Sri Lanka...love books where you can share the research the author has done.... the book takes us into a Cinnamon plantation... all the time I read this I keep visualising Otty Hill station and Niligeris tea plantation... ....but now curious on Cinnamon ...
"The gentle coastal hills of southern Sri Lankan are especially suited to the growth of cinnamon. A variety of laurel, Cinnamonum Zeylanicum, “true cinnamon” is more or less exclusively native to Sri Lanka. It is not to be confused with the cheaper and inferior “cassia” which is sometimes sold as cinnamon in North America.Cinnamon was valued as a spice in classical times; and, later on, achieved a reputation for rarity and expense. Eulogized in poetry from the Song of Solomon to Michael Ondaatje, more than any spice it has become subject of romance. Even now the aroma of cinnamon being peeled to create the "quills" induces a feeling of well-being tinged with sensuality.I have finished this well written story... and I am very moved by the bathing scene ... I cannot be a spoiler to the novel but for those that get the book see how you feel in this scene.
The Portuguese were led to this part of world in search of cinnamon, cutting out the Arab middlemen. In those days it was gathered from wild trees, but, as the Dutch succeeded them, the first plantations were attempted, which then flourished.
Cinnamon remains a major export of Sri Lanka, and its use in both cooking and medicine are being increasingly appreciated. Still peeled in the time-honoured way by our own peelers, it retains a sense of enigma and romance." from an old website http://www.mirissahills.com/queen_of_spices.html
Dinah Jefferies website and her is the synopsis of Sapphire Widow
Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child.
While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind. Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. The plantation casts a spell, but all is not as it seems. And when Elliot’s shocking betrayal is revealed, Louisa has only Leo to turn to…
