Miss Benson's Beetle: An uplifting story of female friendship against the odds

WINNER OF THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE | BEST PUBLISHED NOVELWOMAN & HOME BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR and A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'The perfect escape novel for our troubled times.' PATRICK GALE'If you’re wishing you could be in a faraway land right now, but would accept the alternative route to New Caledonia via a deliciously improbable plot, wonderful characters, sparkling sentences, and too many belly laughs to count: have I got a novel for you.' BARBARA KINGSOLVER It is 1950.In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition.She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist. Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation.They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain,