The head-hunters referred to in the title are the Dayaks in Sarawak. The author was born in a well connected English family. Her father seems to have been offered all sorts of attractive jobs; most of which he refused. He did, however, become that administrator of Windsor Castle which was, and still is, one of the residences of the British Royal Family. The King and Queen became Uncle George and Aunty Mary to the author. She played with Prince Edward, Prince Albert and their sister Princess Beatrice. Prince Edward became King Edward VIII until he married Mrs Simpson. It seems he had his own mind even as a child. Prince Albert (Bertie) later became King George VII. She mentions that whereas King Edward VII had been a pretty liberal parent to his children, his son, King George V, had been a strict disciplinarian. As a young woman the author had some literary success. She had some stories published and she moved in the literary circles of George Bernard Shaw who was a life long friend and mentor. It so happened that the Ranee of Sarawak, Margaret Brooke, a neighbour, ran a female orchestra for the purpose of assembling a collection of young ladies for the purpose of introducing them to her three sons. The eldest son was Vyner Brooke, who took an immediate fancy to the author. Presently, they were married. Just to briefly recap some of the events covered in my earlier passage on “The White Rajah”. James Brooke, an English adventurer turned up at Sarawak and put down an insurrection against the Sultan of Brunei. In gratitude, the Sultan ceded to James Brooke the territory of Sarawak. Thus James Brooke became the ruler of his own kingdom. James Brooke had no children so he was succeeded by his nephew Charles Brooke whose wife was Margaret Brooke. Charles Brooke ruled for many years and made great progress in establishing trade links with the outside world. A disconcerting habit of Charles Brooke was his habit of relieving himself off the veranda of the astana in front of his guests. The old Rajah was injured in a fall from his horse but he recovered enough to return to England where he died. Vyner Brooke became the third Rajah of Sarawak and the author became the Ranee. The Rajah truly loved his people in Sarawak, particularly the Dayaks, although he tried to reform their head-hunting ways. He saw the purpose of his life as service to his subjects. As all good times come to an end, the Japanese arrived in 1941 but Vyner Brooke had managed to escape to Australia just in time. The author says that the people suffered terribly under the Japanese. However, the Dayaks had their own little game. They sent the young girls to the pool to bathe. When the Japanese soldiers came out to watch them, the Dayaks lopped off their heads. After the war the Rajah was persuaded by his advisors to cede Sarawak to the British Crown in return for the payment of a million pounds which should have been enough to support him and his family indefinitely. However, his daughters, and their husbands, had an insatiable appetite for money and it soon went. The author, the Ranee had been vehemently opposed to ceding Sarawak. The Rajah and the Ranee became virtually estranged. She had said earlier in the piece that in spite of his shyness there was no doubt that the Rajah had a roving eye. He had admitted to her that whenever they went to a social gathering he asked himself, in respect of each of the ladies present; will she or won’t she? The Ranee had to go to live with her daughter in the West Indies on account of the arthritic pain she was suffering in the English winter. It was there that she admitted, after 25 years without sex, to a few illicit affairs. The Rajah himself was having more than a few illicit affairs. However, the Ranee was confident that the Rajah would never divorce her and she got on well with his “other ladies”. The author did not say in her book, but it is reputed from another source, that Vyner died at the age of 87 in the arms of his 17 year old mistress. He must have been something of an embarrassment to his family. One wonders how he got like that. Could it be that he was able to indulge too freely in Sarawak. I think the Ranee died in 1971, shortly before or after her book was published. I thoroughly enjoyed her story about real people in another time and place. It was enthralling from beginning to end even though just short of 200 pages in length; short and sharp. I consider myself lucky to have been able to get a loan of what was probably the last copy in the public library system.