Elizabeth Manson bar was not only related to those you read about and children and the doubt adventure books she herself lived such a life when historical figures in family friends or household names and ancestors you know you have a blessed existence from royalty to adventurers to doctors that made a difference Elizabeth Manson bars family tree read like a Who’s Who and I loved it all it was so good her ancestors have bumped elbows with the man who started the first women’s medical college in Egypt, her grandfather found the cause for malaria, another Great great grandfather was at the forefront of many Chinese political battles, her mother met her father while being a historical Fannie girl in South Africa during the first war and The author herself lived on a tropical island growing up and was even chased by an elephant and lived to tell about it. this is just a small sample of the great stories in the book. This book is well researched and even more well written. When it was over I wished it would’ve been longer I hope these books become a trend because I found it all so very interesting miss bar has a family tree one can be proud of, as she should be. This book was a great idea in a great execution of that idea a truly fun and interesting read! I want to thank troubadour Books and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This is an extraordinarily rich and detailed look at a family devoted to medicine and research over several generations. It is intimate and revealing and particularly poignant because of the author's direct descent and close proximity to members of the Manson, Blessig, Thurburn and Bahr families.
In these pages one is transported to China, Mexico, Switzerland, America, Egypt, Russia, Kenya, Liverpool and the Fiji Islands, but it is much more than a travelogue - it gives one glimpses of Empires rising and falling, war and famine, cannibals on Suva, disease and death at Gallipoli, and the awful human toll of the Spanish 'flu - and through it all the never ending quest to find ways to treat infection and find cures. This evocative tapestry is a backdrop to colonial life and all the personal joy, hardship, pain, grief and triumph of those involved.
The writing is skillful, engaging, endlessly fascinating, and I hope the author has many more adventures to recount.

I stopped reading halfway through. Although the title is about mosquitos and other adventures, the book was mostly about other adventures. I had requested this book because I thought that there would be a reasonable discussion of mosquito-borne disease, ordinarily a very rich area for discussion. The book is mostly a family travelogue, which was not compelling. The writing was choppy and I frequently couldn’t follow which member of the family was being discussed. I also found the author’s attitude to be one of superiority, with an inadequate discussion of the harms of colonialism. Thank you to Netgalley and Troubador for the digital review copy.