A House Called Askival by Merryn Glover

review by Maryom

For over 20 years Ruth Connor has been estranged from her family - travelling the world and living anywhere so long as it isn't back home in India. As a child growing up in Mussoorie in the north of the country, she always felt that her parents' hospital and missionary work took precedence and she only held second place in their affections. Now, with her father dying, she's heading back there - to try to bridge the gulf between them and to face the dreadful events that led to her leaving...

A House Called Askival is a mix of family epic and historical fiction -  a story of family conflict set against the backdrop of the greater conflict that is India's recent history. Three generations of American missionary family, the Connors, have lived at Askival, situated in a formerly-splendid Hill Station where the wives and families of the British Raj escaped from the heat of India's dry season. Their lives have been shaped by India, its people, its devastating poverty and violent upheavals, and both Ruth and her father are haunted by tragic events in the past.
The story starts as Ruth returns home after a 24 year absence, but progresses through flashbacks to her own and her father's childhood and teenage years, giving hints to the reasons behind their falling out and the guilt that both have carried for years, teasing the reader along, but saving the big reveals till very near the end (as you'd expect).

The star of it really is India - its sights, sounds and smells, and turbulent history from Partition to the death of Indira Gandhi. The life-changing events that occur to both James and Ruth happen while India is in a state of lawlessness - for James, it leads to dedicating his life to serving India, regardless of personal sacrifice; for Ruth, it severs the final link that tied her to India and her family, and she can't leave quickly enough.

 Just occasionally I thought there was a little too much obsession with the minutiae of 'school-life', at the expense of moving the plot forward. Boarding school I imagine can be a very insular place, a closed community wrapped up in its own concerns and priorities, but even so I found Ruth amazingly ignorant of events in the outside world. Maybe in part this was a plot device to explain the background of politics and racial tensions to the reader but it did make Ruth seem very blinkered and undeserving of sympathy.

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Freight Books

Genre -  Adult, historical fiction

The Maharajah's General by Paul Fraser Collard

review by Maryom

After fighting in the Crimea - under one alias - Jack Lark is heading to India under another. In the filthy army hospital after the Battle of the Alma, Jack recovered from his battlefield wounds but James Danbury didn't. Never one to let an opportunity slip past him, Jack takes on Danbury's identity and rank, and sets out for Bhundapur to take up his new posting as a captain in the 24th Foot regiment - where Jack soon finds himself at the heart of a different sort of conflict.
 In keeping with the policies of the British East India Company, the commanding officer in Bhundapur, Major Proudfoot, has his eyes very firmly set on taking control of the local Maharajah's kingdom, and both sides are threatened by bandits lead by the fiercesome fighter The Tiger. Jack, of course, is also under the threat of having his deception exposed, and his loyalties are further torn by an independent young Englishwoman and  an exotic Indian princess. When the trouble really kicks off, which side will Jack support?

As might be expected from the first Jack Lark novel The Scarlet Thief, The Maharajah's General's is an action-packed swashbuckling sort of adventure - filled with the clash of cold steel in skirmishes and hand to hand fighting.
Jack is a charismatic hero, striving to better himself through unorthodox means - and one for whom the stifled society of the British enclave has no time. Jack has come to acknowledge that his talent lies in warfare - to a certain extent in planning and strategy but primarily in killing. Unfortunately he can't wait for the normal route to advancement but 'helps' himself along the way by adopting others' identities - with the threat of discovery always hanging over him. This time there's a more caring side of him is on show; he's less self-serving and concerned only with his own advancement but torn between loyalties - the Maharajah who befriended him, and his countrymen who are out for his blood - and, although influenced by the attraction of the Maharajah's daughter, also showing an appreciation for the arts and culture of the society his superiors seek to crush.
Unlike The Scarlet Thief which was set against the real events and battles of the Crimea, The Maharajah's General is a fictionalised amalgam of the sort of events which happened all over India in the mid-Victorian era, so while not factually true it gives a good feel of the period, of British policies and Indian opposition, within the framework of a compelling, page-turner story.

For an introduction to Jack Lark and his world read this special blog post from the author, Paul Fraser Collard

Maryom's review -  4 stars

Publisher - Headline 
Genre - Historical fiction, action adventure, 

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Under the Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen

review by Maryom

Under The Jewelled Sky is the story of Sophie Schofield who, shortly after WW2, goes to India where her father has taken up a post as doctor in the court of a wealthy maharajah. There she finds her first love and bitter heartbreak.
Ten years later, she is heading back to India but this time as the wife of a junior, but very ambitious, diplomat, Lucien Grainger. The India she encounters this time is very different to the one she knew before but the country still has the ability to stir up the past and all the forbidden emotions from then.

Alison McQueen has cleverly constructed a tale of dark family secrets that moves between the here and now of the late 1950s to the past of a decade earlier, weaving the two time-lines together seamlessly.
The characters are all sharply drawn individuals - not merely the main 'triangle' of Sophie, Lucien and Jag but the supporting cast of gossipy bored ex-pat wives or the Maharani in her splendid isolation are all brought to life on the page.
Sophie's story plays out against the magnificent backdrop of India - or rather of four very different aspects of it  - the fairytale like setting and splendour of the Maharajah's palace, the squalor and desperation of refugee camps following the partition of India and Pakistan, the rarefied life of British embassy staff cut off from the reality of India and the peaceful setting of the Nilgiri hills. All of these are described so vividly that I felt I was there.
A very enjoyable read and a newly discovered author that I'd like to read more from.

A slight aside thought is that although this novel definitely falls under the historical fiction category I've heard such a lot about India from my father's time spent there during WW2, that it feels strange to consider a period after then as history.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars 
Publisher - Orion 
Genre - adult, historical fiction

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The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran

 review by Maryom

The Hope Factory is the story of two people from different ends of the social spectrum who share a common goal - to improve their life.
Anand is the owner of a factory which makes car body parts. He's affluent, lives in a spacious modern house with his wife and two children, thinks of himself as a 'modern' Indian, not held back by superstitions or out of date ideas about caste. He's hoping to clinch an important deal with a Japanese firm but expansion of his factory is vital to this and to buy the necessary land he comes up against the culture of bribery and back-handers that he refuses to be part of.
Kamala on the other hand works in Anand's house as a cleaner. She's a widow with a teenage son to support. They live in one small room and share their water supply and bathroom facilities with other lodgers. Her finances are stretched in all directions. She'd like her bright clever son to go to a better school which would open up wider opportunities for him - but such a thing requires money and meanwhile the demand for building land is pushing up her rent. All Kamala's hopes rest on the whim of her employer and his wife.

The Hope Factory is vivid portrayal of life in today's India, highlighting the inequalities of life there while showing the underlying similarities - a sort of modern, literary, Indian 'Upstairs, Downstairs'. It's set in Bangalore, a vibrant, noisy city, bursting at the seams, ever growing and expanding, often at the expense of its inhabitants. The plot concentrates on the lives of  business-man Anand and his maid, Kamala and their parallel attempts to better their lives. The obstacles they face are different but come down in the end to the need to have money before you can make more.
There are many themes explored throughout the novel - the clash between old and new methods, Eastern and Western ways; the enormous gap between poor and wealthy - but it is above all a very readable, enjoyable story. The characters are well drawn, believable individuals - the sort you feel you could transport out of the novel to elsewhere and know how they'd behave and react. Both Anand and Kamala gained my sympathies for their persistence, particularly Kamala whose life has been harsh almost beyond belief.

Although the author has published short stories before, The Hope Factory is her debut novel - and another amazing book from Tinder Press.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction, literary

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Empire Of The Moghul : The Tainted Throne by Alex Rutherford

Review by The Mole

This, the fourth book in the Empire Of The Moghul series, deals with the reign of Jahangir and later his wife, Mehrunissa. It's difficult to summarise the book without giving away plot as there are so many plots and subplots. The Moghul Empire is a well documented time and accounts of these events stretch from English records by Sir Thomas Roe and others to the memoirs written by Jahangir and others at his court.

Apart from using some of these accounts Rutherford also travelled through areas of India for his research. Events have been 'modified', time frames are not true to life but essentially the story is true to history - or at least truth from a gleaned perspective.

The Moghul Empire is a period of history I have learned from popular myth and epic cinema and so this story came as a surprise to me. The Moghuls could be barbaric but also had a code of civilisation that was very strict.  Punishments would be terrifying but rewards could be extreme too.

All this comes to life in the story of Jahangir's reign as emperor and, later, Mehrunissa's taking control leading to family fights and feuds and blood letting on an enormous scale. I found myself taking sides and cursing some of the characters involved.

I enjoyed this book far more than I expected and would recommend this to anyone into historical fiction and doesn't mind a bit, well a lot, of warfare.

Publisher - Headline
Genre - Adult Historical Fiction

Buy The Tainted Throne (Empire of the Moghul) from Amazon

The Honey Gatherers by Mimlu Sen

Travels with minstrels
review by Maryom

The Bauls with their particular blend of music and mysticism are traditionally itinerant musicians of Bengal living on the alms given by the villages they pass through - hence their name of honey gatherers. Theirs is a life style under threat in modern, increasingly urban India.
This book follows Mimlu Sen's discovery of them and their culture. Born and raised in India, after a period of political activity including time spent in prison she left home first for London, then Paris where she lived for several years and her two children were born. Strangely it was in this city on the opposite side of the world that she discovered the music of the Bauls, and her future partner, Paban Das Baul, at a concert. Instantly attracted to them, she gave up her Parisian life and moved back to India. She tells of travelling with the Baul singers and musicians throughout Bengal, hitching lifts, balancing on the top of trains, joining them at festivals and melas and eventually setting up home with Paban Das Baul and trying to find a way to bring their differing life styles together.
This was a more personal account than I had expected and I felt the author assumed the reader to have more knowledge of Indian music and customs than I have, but nevertheless a really interesting book, capturing the sights and sounds of Bengal and its people.

Maryom's review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Rider
Genre - Adult Non-Fiction


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