You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This is the riveting story of Noor Inayat Khan, a descendant of an Indian prince, Tipu Sultan (the Tiger of Mysore), who became a British secret agent for SOE during World War II. Shrabani Basu tells the moving story of Noor's life, from her birth in Moscow – where her father was a Sufi preacher – to her capture by the Germans. Noor was one of only three women SOE agents awarded the George Cross and, under torture, revealed nothing, not even her real name. Kept in solitary confinement, her hands and feet chained together, Noor was starved and beaten, but the Germans could not break her spirit. Ten months after she was captured, she was taken to Dachau concentration camp and, on 13 September 1944, she was shot. Her last word was 'Liberté.'
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture starring Dame Judi Dench from director Stephen Frears, releasing September 22, 2017. History’s most unlikely friendship—this is the astonishing story of Queen Victoria and her dearestcompanion, the young Indian Munshi Abdul Karim. In the twilight years of her reign, after the devastating deaths of hertwo great loves—Prince Albert and John Brown—Queen Victoria meets tall and handsome Abdul Karim, a humble servant from Agra waiting tables at her Golden Jubilee. The two form an unlikely bond and within a year Abdul becomes a powerful figure at court, the Queen’s teacher, her counsel on Urdu and Indian affairs, and a friend close to her heart. This marked the beginning of the most scandalous decade in Queen Victoria’s long reign. As the royal household roiled with resentment, Victoria and Abdul’s devotion grew in defiance. Drawn from secrets closely guarded for more than a century, Victoria & Abdul is an extraordinary and intimate history of the last years of the nineteenth-century English court and an unforgettable view onto the passions of an aging Queen.
Britain has become a nation of curryholics - there are more than 8000 curry restaurants in Britain, visited by two million people each week. Each year, £2 billion is spent in Indian restaurants, while Marks and Spencer's sells 18 tonnes of Chicken Tikka Masala weekly. But how did Britain come to take curry so much to its heart? Where did the word 'curry' originate? When did the first curry restaurants come to Britain? And when were the first recipes produced for those who wanted to concoct the flavoursome dishes in their home? The first recipe for curry powder recorded by the English was from Mrs Turnbull, who wrote down her recipes in manuscript in the mid-18th century at her home in Hyde Park following her return from India. Today, curry is one of the most widely available meals in Britain, available in pubs nationwide, in supermarkets and in a plethora of restaurants to suit all purses and palates. Here, bestselling author Shrabni Basu traces the story of curry in Britain.
The tall, handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail, he suddenly found himself a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year, he was established as a powerful figure at court, becoming the queen's teacher, or Munshi, and instructing her in Urdu and Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown, her Scottish ghillie, the queen had at last found his replacement. But her intense and controversial relationship with the Munshi led to a near-revolt in the royal household. Victoria & Abdul examines how a young Indian Muslim came to play a central role at the heart of the empire, and his influence over the queen at a time when independence movements in the sub-continent were growing in force. Yet, at its heart, it is a tender love story between an ordinary Indian and his elderly queen, a relationship that survived the best attempts to destroy it.
Over a million Indian soldiers fought in the First World War, the largest force from the colonies and dominions. Their contribution, however, has been largely forgotten. Many soldiers were illiterate and travelled from remote villages in India to fight in the muddy trenches in France and Flanders. Many went on to win the highest bravery awards. For King and another Country tells, for the first time, the personal stories of some of these Indians who went to the Western Front: from a grand turbanned Maharaja rearing to fight for Empire to a lowly sweeper who dies in a hospital in England, from a Pathan who wins the Victoria Cross to a young pilot barely out of school. Shrabani Basu delves into archives in Britain and narratives buried in villages in India and Pakistan to recreate the War through the eyes of the Indians who fought it. There are heroic tales of bravery as well as those of despair and desperation; there are accounts of the relationships that were forged between the Indians with their British officers and how curries reached the frontline. Above all, it is the great story of how the War changed India and led, ultimately, to the call for independence.
"A new novel from the author of Oleander Girl, a novel in stories, built around crucial moments in the lives of 3 generations of women in an Indian/Indian-American Family"--
Two hundred years of shared history had a period of recess, neither country investing actively in building a contemporary relationship. The result: India does not know contemporary Britain and Britain has little idea of how the new India is emerging. The past offers a strong platform for rebuilding a new relationship, but it has to be based on an equal footing, recognizing the cultural nuances and current ambitions of both nations. Shrabani Basu, who as editor provides the overview that strings together all the essays, is also on the committee of Project 400 that commemorates the arrival of the first Indian in England and the departure from India in 1614 of the first ambassador to the Mughal Court, Sir Thomas Roe. She traces the people to people links over four hundred years that create an overlapping history of the two nations and raised the question how a relationship forged on a common love for cricket, curry, parliamentary democracy and the English language can be taken forward gainfully in the twenty-first century, at a time when both countries face uncomfortable problems as they look into the future.
Caravan of Souls is a guidebook to the Sufi path of Hazrat Inayat Khan, a spiritual philosophy of love, harmony, and beauty. It is a foundational text for all students of the path, as well as anyone interested in learning about the history of the Inayatiyya. Within these pages the reader will find the essential teachings and methods of the order and movement he founded, as well as an inspiring array of sayings, poems, songs, prayers, stories, and biographical portraits.
A transnational collection of 'Pandemic Poetry' and paintings which, among other themes, compares India with Scotland. Vibha's oil paintings complement Bashabi's evocative poetry.
The apparent glamour of the Indian Raj continues to fascinate long after the British quit the subcontinent. But along with the beauty of the Indian landscape and the privilege of servants and holidays in hill stations, British women in that vanished world faced challenges and fears that came from being an alien ruling minority. These women were at the heart of the imperial enterprise. It was their role to support the mens work, raise the children and attempt to replicate British society thousands of miles from home. They struggled in the face of heat, illness, loneliness and boredom as well as different customs, languages and religions. The distinguished historian and bestselling author Margaret MacMillan, drawing on letters and memoirs, novels and interviews, brings vividly to life their experiences humdrum, extraordinary, light-hearted, tragic at the height of the Raj, from the 1850s to Indian independence in 1947.