Treefrogs Can't Sing

British Virgin Islands 1978 to 1981

By: Lally Brown

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

I remember a poster pinned to the wall in the Departure Lounge of the British Virgin Islands airport. A beautiful picture of a sun kissed, white, palm-fringed beach lapped by a dazzling blue sea. The words read “Feel our sand between your toes and you’ll always return”. My toes had tickled the soft warm sand of Tortola for two years (see my book ‘High and Dry in the BVI’) until circumstances changed and my husband and I returned to the UK to start new lives. That poster haunted me. But after seven long years our dreams of returning to our beloved island were fading. We had a house, a mortgage, a toddler and a very new baby. We were, or so I thought, settled for life. Then one wet, windy, winter afternoon the phone rang and everything changed – we were going back! Treefrogs Can’t Sing is a delightful light-hearted memoir of three years in the British Virgin Islands with a toddler and a baby. An exotic adventure full of fun. Meet an eclectic group of characters, including the eccentric missionary who daubed huge blood-red biblical slogans on the walls of his ruined church; the Obeah Master accused of murder; the kind prisoner who befriended a toddler and taught him baseball; the rebel Catholic Priest who sang the Red Flag under his breath in protest at colonial functions; enjoy a special Tortola Christmas with a Vietnam veteran as a super Santa; cheer the colourful Carnival parade, and watch as the very first cruise ship disgorges hundreds of tourists onto our peaceful paradise island. This is a book guaranteed to make you smile, lift your spirits, and bring a little Caribbean sunshine into your life.

Living the joyful life I want.

Lally Brown moved to the exotic British Virgin Islands, where the scent of salt air hangs heavy in the Caribbean Sea breeze. For years, I’ve pleaded with my husband to move even remotely close, but he won’t budge. Why, oh why, can’t I have a life like Lally’s and her family, surrounded by breathtaking beauty and the sound of gentle waves washing away stress? Through the pages of this delightful book, the author masterfully transported me, making me feel as though I’d truly lived there alongside them.