Miss Benson's Beetle

 by Rachel Joyce

This was an entertaining tale.  It is about a spinster school teacher.  One day when she is trying to teach she finds the students circulating an unflattering drawing of her.  She has had enough.  She leaves the classroom and goes into the staff room.  She then steals her Principal's hiking boots and leaves the building.

As a child she had had a book about animals and was intrigued by one particular gold beetle that is supposed to exist in Madagascar.  When she got older she was befriended by an older man at at museum who showed her various animals, showed her how to collect insects and mount them.

She decides that she has to do something useful in her life, something which will show people that she is not a waste.  She decides to head to New Caledonia, an island off Australa, to search for the gold beetle.  She applies for funding from a scientific society but is turned down.  She puts and ad in the paper for a companion for her trip.  One man comes, a war vet, she feels he is damaged mentally and physically and is not suitable.  A young woman seems suitable but she backs out at the last minute.  The third applicant was rejected because she was basically illiterate.  But finally Miss Benson is desperate for a companion and invites the second woman to meet her at the train.

The young woman does make it to the train but she does not impress Miss Benson.  She is dressed in a pink suit and does not have suitable attire for the adventure.  However the young woman Enid Pretty proves indispensable in getting them and their luggage on the train and then onto the ship.  Enid also nurses Miss Benson who is very seasick at the start of the voyage.  Miss Benson does not approve of Enid cavorting with men on the ship.  Enid has used her femininity to get around not having a passport. 

Enid tells Miss Benson that she is pregnant but her husband has died.  On the ship she fears she has lost the baby.  She really wants to be a mother. When they finally reach Australia Enid tells Miss Benson that she is going to stay with a man she met on the ship.  Enid and her man friend end up in an immigration camp.

While Miss Benson is trying to get approval and visas for her, she meets the British consul and his wife.  They are not able to help her with her approvals.  She is dismayed that all her scientific equipment has gone missing on the trip from Australia.  She goes to the camp and tries to convince Edid to join her again.  Enid is hesitant/afraid to the leave the man.

Eventually Enid does join her.  She manages to get scientific equipment needed and a jeep (she has stolen these) and they set off for a house in the forest to conduct their research.

While all this is going on two other things are happening.  British police are seeking a young woman who supposedly murdered her husband.  This woman was spotted at the rail station along with an unknown woman.  Police around the world are looking for these women.

Also, the ex-soldier that Miss Benson rejected is outraged that she did not select him and he sneaks aboard ships to get to join her.

Once the ladies are set up they work very hard to fix up their basecamp and fight off mosquitos and heat to climb the mountain looking for the orchids which they hope will lead them to the beetles.  Eventually they both come to realize that they are best friends.

Enid eventually tells Miss Benson that she is being sought by the police.  The soldier catches up with them.  Enid has her baby.  The soldier kills Enid and he himself dies.  Enid is left to raise Enid's daughter.  The British official's wife figures out who the two women are and tries to tell the police and media about them but by then interest in the story has waned.

As the years go by a museum in England periodically receives journals and samples of various bugs.  One young woman after seeing one of the these packages decides she is going to go out and be a naturalist.

This was a cute story.  Obviously there was some criminal behaviour but the development of the friendship between the two women was developed in an interesting way.  The ending was a fitting denoument to the book.