Noble Savages by Sarah Watling

From Goodreads

Noble Savages is the story of the four Olivier sisters: Margery, Brynhild, Daphne and Noel. Daughters of the Fabian Sir Sydney Olivier, governor of Jamaica, they were raised at the centre of the Fabian milieu, and expected to be independent and unhindered by convention. At Cambridge all four were introduced to Rupert Brooke and formed the Neo Pagan group. The youngest, Noel, would prove the love of Brooke’s life, and joined the tiny minority of female doctors before the First World War. Her sister Daphne became a pioneering educationalist who set up Britain’s first Steiner school.

Inspiring love and awe in many, they proved again and again to be ahead of their time, refusing to be restricted by the expectations of others. This book brings them in from the margins, and straddles the colonial leisure of the Caribbean, the bucolic life of Victorian progressives, the frantic optimism of Edwardian Cambridge, the bleakness of war, their links with the Bloomsbury Group, and a host of evolving philosophies for life over the course of the twentieth century.

My thoughts

You know when you go looking for a specific book, but don't find it where you're looking. Well this is how I stumbled upon this book. I was looking for the Tin Man by Sarah Winman on Borrowbox, which is a way of borrowing ebooks from Libraries. I couldn't find it but fell upon this one instead. I have never heard of the Olivier Sisters before, but something drew me to the book. In this instance it was the cover followed by the blurb.

This book took me some time to read, it's one that you can dip in and out of very easily. However saying that, I have binge read the latter half of it as I was keen to find out more about them. It was an interesting read about the lives of the Olivier sisters and their interaction with the Bloomsbury group that were well known in the early half of the 20th Century.

If you're looking for something that will give you an insight into life in the early 20th Century, this book will fit that bill nicely.  If reading on a digital format, please be aware the latter 15% approx. is an appendix/info section. I gave it a 3 stars or 6/10.