Review: Handle With Care by Shreya Sen-Handley

Shreya Sen-Handley’s Handle With Care is a delicious documentation of her offbeat travels and culinary exploits around the world with her British husband, two children, and their dog.

Her rambunctious adventures, which are “dished up with love and mischief”, span bustling international capitals from New York to Paris. But what really sets this travelogue apart are her quirky tales from locales like the Greek island of Corfu, home to Gerald Durrell, the author of My Family & Other Animals.

She includes her journeys from childhood, the trips from her home town Kolkata to touristy destinations in India, which will tickle the funny bone of those who have travelled in the India of the 1980s and 1990s. Like all Indian families back then, her father saved on hotel costs by insisting on staying with relatives, howsoever unknown.

She fondly recalls a trip to Delhi and Rajasthan, when she played chess on the train with her quintessential Bengali uncle: “I was the college champion at chesh? Presidency College, no lesh!” On the same trip, her family stayed in Delhi with an aunt, an artist and a Bohemian soul, who was perhaps as uncomfortable and lost in her own house as her guests. “Like a large and exotic bird, she was extravagant in all that she did, providing entertainment to all,” she writes.

The travel stories that take the reader’s breath away are the ones prompted by the author’s love for literature. The unfamiliar and outlandish destinations, which most travel writing dictated by the travel industry, knows little about.

Traversing Britain in search of Sherlock Holmes, she visits Baskerville Hall, where Arthur Conan Doyle set The Hound of Baskervilles. Much to the family’s delight they are invited to have tea on the private property and can hear a hound in the background. Sen-Handley writes that Conan Doyle was a frequent guest of the Baskervilles, but at the family’s request, set the story in faraway Devon “to ward off tourists”.

In Dorset, where Thomas Hardy wrote “searing tales of love and loss”, they visit Max Gate, the author’s last home, and a stately place purportedly belonging to the Mayor of Casterbridge. In the pretty village of Haworth, where the Brontes – Emily, Charlotte, Anne and their brother Branwell – spent much of their lives, Sen-Handley can feel their presence: “They would likely have dropped into the same upbeat bakery, the same cheerful post office, and the park full of flowers in full bloom on their daily rounds.”

The adventure with her friends, who shared her love of architecture and “nursery rhymes”, and the group re-seeing London through these ancient tunes is captivating.

The family’s visit to Corfu is particularly special. Gerald Durrell’s mother Louisa decided to make Corfu her home after her husband died in India. The island reminded her of a vibrant India and its warm people. The Sen-Handleys, who travel on a tight budget and often wonder in jest if they should start a literary tour company after they retire, saw an “amorous connection” with this “posh but penniless, globetrotting English family”.

The author’s preteens Syon and Ayana, both avid readers of Enid Blyton, are thrilled to visit Corfe Castle in Dorset, which, transformed into the castle on the imaginary Kirrin island, is the setting for Five On A Treasure Island.

After Luna, their dog, becomes a part of the family, they are suddenly short of travel ideas. “How does one go on holiday with a pup?” The Sen-Handleys decide to go to Whitby and Wye Valley – the former has “cheerful dog bakeries and boutiques”, and the latter is home to the Hay Book Festival. Since dogs are not allowed at the festival, Sen-Handley and her husband take turns to explore the town with Luna and sift through books with their children.

Often, the family returns from these trips with “arms full of literary loot”. It’s not easy to travel with kids. “Just chilling is not even an option on holidays… you have to be clown and circus ringmaster, chauffeur, cook, and cleaner, guide, nurse, and health and safety officer, teacher, friend, philosopher, and, of course, parent,” the author cautions.

She gives sane travel tips too: Don’t buy every guidebook, do your own research, watch a film set in your destination, talk to people who have visited, and make an itinerary, but you don’t have to stick to it. Follow your heart and passions. “The best things happen when you leave it a little to chance. It is in those moments of serendipity and unexpected delight that you find yourself. And even the courage for a new life,” she offers.

Some of the chapters have been featured in various publications. “My aim was to tell you stories you could relate to… So, there is little striving after scholarly verisimilitude, though the occasional fact may have crept in.” Sen-Handley is being modest and facts are obviously not occasional. A resident of Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, the legendary town of Robin Hood, she wrote this book “through a transformative phase of her life when she discovered she is autistic”. She also reflects on her violent first marriage.

This is Sen-Handley’s third book after Memoirs of My Body (2017) and Strange (2019). To quote Ruskin Bond, there is “never a dull moment”. He even compares her travelogue to Robert Louis Stevenson’s travel writings.

Her travels haven’t been without trouble. She recalls with humour her lifelong “trouble during transit”. This includes getting locked up in a washroom in Oman, with her flight about to take off, thorough body-checks in New York post-9/11 (while her English husband is spared), and a Greek immigration official declaring he has never seen an Indian passport – “my little blue book of horrors”. Sen-Handley’s account of travelling to Bangkok in the 1980s with jaggery and getting stuck at passport control is hilarious as is her description of landing at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport back in the day when it seemed as if it was “designed for cinematic exploits than safe travel”.

Which brings me to my little own adventure while reading this page-turner. I was so engrossed that I didn’t realise that my house was on fire. But as in Sen-Handley’s often chaotic tales, everything ended well and I lived to tell the tale.

Lamat R Hasan is an independent writer. She lives in New Delhi.

Shreya Sen-Handley’s Handle With Care is a delicious documentation of her offbeat travels and culinary exploits around the world with her British husband, two children, and their dog.

Her rambunctious adventures, which are “dished up with love and mischief”, span bustling international capitals from New York to Paris. But what really sets this travelogue apart are her quirky tales from locales like the Greek island of Corfu, home to Gerald Durrell, the author of My Family & Other Animals.

She includes her journeys from childhood, the trips from her home town Kolkata to touristy destinations in India, which will tickle the funny bone of those who have travelled in the India of the 1980s and 1990s. Like all Indian families back then, her father saved on hotel costs by insisting on staying with relatives, howsoever unknown.

She fondly recalls a trip to Delhi and Rajasthan, when she played chess on the train with her quintessential Bengali uncle: “I was the college champion at chesh? Presidency College, no lesh!” On the same trip, her family stayed in Delhi with an aunt, an artist and a Bohemian soul, who was perhaps as uncomfortable and lost in her own house as her guests. “Like a large and exotic bird, she was extravagant in all that she did, providing entertainment to all,” she writes.

The travel stories that take the reader’s breath away are the ones prompted by the author’s love for literature. The unfamiliar and outlandish destinations, which most travel writing dictated by the travel industry, knows little about.

Traversing Britain in search of Sherlock Holmes, she visits Baskerville Hall, where Arthur Conan Doyle set The Hound of Baskervilles. Much to the family’s delight they are invited to have tea on the private property and can hear a hound in the background. Sen-Handley writes that Conan Doyle was a frequent guest of the Baskervilles, but at the family’s request, set the story in faraway Devon “to ward off tourists”.

In Dorset, where Thomas Hardy wrote “searing tales of love and loss”, they visit Max Gate, the author’s last home, and a stately place purportedly belonging to the Mayor of Casterbridge. In the pretty village of Haworth, where the Brontes – Emily, Charlotte, Anne and their brother Branwell – spent much of their lives, Sen-Handley can feel their presence: “They would likely have dropped into the same upbeat bakery, the same cheerful post office, and the park full of flowers in full bloom on their daily rounds.”

The adventure with her friends, who shared her love of architecture and “nursery rhymes”, and the group re-seeing London through these ancient tunes is captivating.

The family’s visit to Corfu is particularly special. Gerald Durrell’s mother Louisa decided to make Corfu her home after her husband died in India. The island reminded her of a vibrant India and its warm people. The Sen-Handleys, who travel on a tight budget and often wonder in jest if they should start a literary tour company after they retire, saw an “amorous connection” with this “posh but penniless, globetrotting English family”.

The author’s preteens Syon and Ayana, both avid readers of Enid Blyton, are thrilled to visit Corfe Castle in Dorset, which, transformed into the castle on the imaginary Kirrin island, is the setting for Five On A Treasure Island.

After Luna, their dog, becomes a part of the family, they are suddenly short of travel ideas. “How does one go on holiday with a pup?” The Sen-Handleys decide to go to Whitby and Wye Valley – the former has “cheerful dog bakeries and boutiques”, and the latter is home to the Hay Book Festival. Since dogs are not allowed at the festival, Sen-Handley and her husband take turns to explore the town with Luna and sift through books with their children.

Often, the family returns from these trips with “arms full of literary loot”. It’s not easy to travel with kids. “Just chilling is not even an option on holidays… you have to be clown and circus ringmaster, chauffeur, cook, and cleaner, guide, nurse, and health and safety officer, teacher, friend, philosopher, and, of course, parent,” the author cautions.

She gives sane travel tips too: Don’t buy every guidebook, do your own research, watch a film set in your destination, talk to people who have visited, and make an itinerary, but you don’t have to stick to it. Follow your heart and passions. “The best things happen when you leave it a little to chance. It is in those moments of serendipity and unexpected delight that you find yourself. And even the courage for a new life,” she offers.

Some of the chapters have been featured in various publications. “My aim was to tell you stories you could relate to… So, there is little striving after scholarly verisimilitude, though the occasional fact may have crept in.” Sen-Handley is being modest and facts are obviously not occasional. A resident of Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, the legendary town of Robin Hood, she wrote this book “through a transformative phase of her life when she discovered she is autistic”. She also reflects on her violent first marriage.

This is Sen-Handley’s third book after Memoirs of My Body (2017) and Strange (2019). To quote Ruskin Bond, there is “never a dull moment”. He even compares her travelogue to Robert Louis Stevenson’s travel writings.

Her travels haven’t been without trouble. She recalls with humour her lifelong “trouble during transit”. This includes getting locked up in a washroom in Oman, with her flight about to take off, thorough body-checks in New York post-9/11 (while her English husband is spared), and a Greek immigration official declaring he has never seen an Indian passport – “my little blue book of horrors”. Sen-Handley’s account of travelling to Bangkok in the 1980s with jaggery and getting stuck at passport control is hilarious as is her description of landing at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport back in the day when it seemed as if it was “designed for cinematic exploits than safe travel”.

Which brings me to my little own adventure while reading this page-turner. I was so engrossed that I didn’t realise that my house was on fire. But as in Sen-Handley’s often chaotic tales, everything ended well and I lived to tell the tale.

Lamat R Hasan is an independent writer. She lives in New Delhi.