Mrs. Rampa speaks! The world cried out for more Rampa, and Sarah aka Ra'ab aka Mama San obliged with this slim autobiographical volume that details the life and times of the Rampa family, and their special bond with a special cat named TIGERLILY!
Mrs. Rampa sprinkles her text with quotations galore, in a flimsy New Age framing that cites Kahlil Gibran, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain and others on the topics of friendship and happiness. Like her husband, Ra'ab writes in a treacly, maudlin style, and whereas Lobsang's overriding mood was miserable, hers seems melancholy, with sad remembrance of things past. The psychedelic cover art is mismatched with the restrained autobiography, and Ra'ab notes that Lobsang often takes issue with the cover art for their books, remarking that at times he looks like a corpse! Here of course, he's some kind of weirdo cat man.
Ra'ab details her childhood, a lonely one, and her marriage to "Carl" (aka Cyril, aka Lobsang), a good match that nonetheless sees the two loners set against the world. Carl works in advertising while the couple hunker down during the Blitz. Names and faces are often forgotten in Ra'ab's memories, lending a dreamlike quality that only heightens once she finally gets around to the big reveal of Carl's transference to Lobsang. Readers looking for a blow by blow will be disappointed however, as Ra'ab spends far more time on the topic of feline constipation than on specific details of Carl/Lobsang's identity, which she says readers may find in his book As It Was! Mostly she just defends him from the ever present, ever evil Press.
In his defense, Ra'ab strenuously emphasizes that Carl's father was a water engineer, not simply a plumber, and that Carl himself never pursued that trade at all. Like her husband, Ra'ab is a true blue Britisher (despite newly attained Canadian citizenship), also defending the Royals from Press libel and spending some time on the uncertain status of the Commonwealth. Lobsang's changeover from Carl/Cyril is just another one of life's bumps in the road, to be dealt with as the Blitz or bad health.
As with her husband, Ra'ab seems happiest writing about their cats, with Siamese cats being the Rolls-Royce or Cadillac of the cat world! Like Lobsang, Ra'ab talks telepathically with Miss Cleo and Miss Taddy, their current cats, who provide much commentary on the writing of this book.
The Rampa's life together before the change is notated as PR (Pre-Rampa), by the by. Ra'ab ends her book with a plug for Lobsang's latest, Three Lives.
Like all of T. Lobsang Rampa's works, Tigerlily by Mama San is available to read and download at the official T. Lobsang Rampa website.
Corgi Books, 1978 (original pub. 1976)
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