Review: Handle With Care by Shreya Sen-Handley

Shreya Sen-Handley’s Handle With Care is a delicious documentation of her offbeat travels and culinary exploits around the world with her British husband, two children, and their dog. Sen-Handley writes that Conan Doyle was a frequent guest of the Baskervilles, but at the family’s request, set the story in faraway Devon “to ward off tourists”. In Dorset, where Thomas Hardy wrote “searing tales of love and loss”, they visit Max Gate, the author’s last home, and a stately place purportedly belonging to the Mayor of Casterbridge. In the pretty village of Haworth, where the Brontes - Emily, Charlotte, Anne and their brother Branwell – spent much of their lives, Sen-Handley can feel their presence: “They would likely have dropped into the same upbeat bakery, the same cheerful post office, and the park full of flowers in full bloom on their daily rounds.” The pretty village of Haworth in UK, where the Brontes – Emily, Charlotte, Anne and their brother Branwell – spent much of their lives. Sen-Handley’s account of travelling to Bangkok in the 1980s with jaggery and getting stuck at passport control is hilarious as is her description of landing at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport back in the day when it seemed as if it was “designed for cinematic exploits than safe travel”.