Born a Teaplanter's daughter in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1941, and evacuated with her mother to southern Africa during the war, Melosina Lenox-Conyngham acquired early on a taste for travel and an interest in life's curiosities, qualities well illustrated in this gathering of her writings. Here be memories of school holidays spent with an aunt in Cork, the dubious pleasures of church in Carrigadrohid, the eventful history of the Cork and County Club, sketches of life in the family home in Ravensdale, County Louth, where generations of the Lenox-Conynghams have lived, in which we learn of the mystery of the magic tap and an unusual form of family funerals. Her years of service as Secretary to the Butler Society lent her expertise at rallying the clan as well as a special interest in key figures from Kilkenny local history: Canon Carrigan, author of the History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory; William Colles, creator of the Maddoxtown Marble Works; Walter Butler, who played a key part in the Thirty Years War as the assassin of Wallenstein.
Vignettes of Irish social life introduce us to houses never sold and fill readers in on the eventful history of the Duchess of Devonshire. Some of the most intriguing essays detail travels to remote parts of the globe, to Yemen, the home of the legendary Queen of Sheba, to Nagaland in the far north-east of India, or to Timbuktu in Mali. But even if only a visit to a restaurant in Barcelona where food is served entirely in the dark, or to an artists' centre high in the Pyrenees, the amused gaze of the writer brings the experience vividly to life. Many will remember Melosina's voice from RTE's 'Sunday Miscellany', where several pieces were first broadcast, or have read them in 'An Irishwoman's Diary' in The Irish Times. Though all of her essays convey her distinctive slant on life, relatively few were directly concerned with its personal aspects. Some of these are selected here and include a moving account of her experience of cancer, from which she eventually died in October 2011. Edited by her niece Sophia Grene, 'A Life in Postcards' is divided into several sections, each introduced by members of the family or friends, who round out a sense of the writer's life.
Melosina Lenox- Conyngham's writings are rich with a delightful sense of humour and her ironic, quizzical pleasure in the world is contagious. This anthology is a joy to read.
