Bahamas
Biography of a Bahamian Queen, of Sorts

What's the recipe for a good island book? How about a little adventure, a juicy character and a drop-dead setting? "The Queen of Whale Cay" by Kate Summerscale has it all. "The Queen of Whale Cay" tells the story of Marion Carstairs & the Bahamian island she tamed and ruled for 40 years. She was a most eccentric woman whose best friend, odd as it sounds, was a stuffed leather doll that never left her side.

Carstairs was the Standard Oil heiress who lived life on her own terms. As part of an elite lesbian culture of the 1920's & 30's (that included such creative personalities as Eileen Gray & Gertrude Stein), Carstairs met with increased public disdain for her sexual exploits. Her escape was the 800 acre Bahamian island she impetuously bought in 1934.

It took a particular mind-set to take on this wild and remote island back then. But Carstairs had the energy and a vision for her island she called Whale Cay. Shaping it into her own little country, Carstairs hired cheap labor from nearby islands and went about creating her empire. Dense vegetation was cleared & roads built. A general store, a school and workers' cottages were constructed. A chapel was erected, complete with its own eccentric priest from Capri. Carstairs own home resembled a grand Spanish villa.

The islanders considered her their mistress. Carstairs demanded total loyalty & civility from her islanders. To insure law & order, she developed a small militia. Islanders loved & feared her. Some even believed her doll-companion was an Obeah (voodoo) symbol.

As Whale Cay became her empire, her lifestyle became history. Carstairs entertained her friends and lovers lavishly, including Marlene Dietrich, for whom she had a cottage built. Even the Duke of Windsor, as Bahamian Governor in 1940, visited Whale Cay. Stylish to the hilt, Carstairs wore a naval uniform for dinner. She planned clever games for her guests, including "dress-up" and play-acting, creating her own fantasy world.

Read the book and after, if you're really curious, you can vacation on Carstairs island and stay in her Great House, through unusualvillarentals.com Of course, she won't greet you at dinner (she sold the island in 1975 and has since deceased) but you can see what's become of the lifestyle she created on Whale Cay almost 70 years ago.

Whale Cay developers have been trying to remake the island into grand estates, incorporating what Carstairs left behind. Promised are a marina, health facilities, a restaurant & concierge services, along with other amenities to make an elite planned-community. To date, not much of this "vision" has been realized. And to be sure, the "vision" realized by "The Queen of Whale Cay" herself is something you could only find in a history book nowadays....or is it a fairy tale?