Martin Wray

Under the Cotton Tree Martin Wray

Colonialism: bad, bad, bad word. Nothing good to say about it. Really?



For a pugnacious Scottish policeman seconded to Sierra Leone Police Force as part of British aid, it is his misfortune to be present when the largest diamond robbery in history occurs on 3rd November 1969 and sparks begin to fly when he rubs up against the new reality post-independence.

At the same time, he takes over the case of the murder of a prostitute, refusing to allow her crime to be consigned to the dustbin without investigation, alienating the expatriate community in the process.




Secret police, Lebanese diamond dealers, a naked madman, a medicine man addicted to his own herbal remedies, a sex-bomb in the British High Commission, ready to use her body to further her future - these are just some of the kaleidoscope of people who live and die or flourish and fade in the shade of the Cotton Tree. Inspired by true events, the book is a sad commentary on a country that should have been one of the richest in Africa and is now the poorest.



The Cotton Tree in Freetown (otherwise known as the Kapok Tree) is the oldest living tree of its kind in Sierra Leone and stands as a symbol of freedom to the freed slaves who were returned to Sierra Leone. It owes its longevity to the softness of its flesh which has limited commercial uses, one of which is the box used to contain Camembert cheese.