One man's empire

By Geoffrey Bird

Subjects: Tea trade, Sri lanka, fiction, Plantations, Fiction, historical, general, Fiction, History

Description: When John Butler learns that his late father has left him nothing in his will but a sprawling coffee plantation in far-flung Ceylon, he grudgingly decides to sail there from his home in Manchester in order to sign the deeds, sell the estate and pay off his vast gambling debts. But taunted by brutal plantation owner William Paget, John rashly determines to keep the estate. Soon after his arrival, however, a storm destroys the already blighted crop. Just as John is about to throw in the towel, he discovers among the ruined trees a sturdy crop of tea bushes. Soon Butler's tea plantation is thriving, he has fallen in love with a local girl and he is starting to feel at home in his new life. But John has made an enemy in William Paget, and the older man will stop at nothing to see his rival's business fail.