SHE-MERCHANTS, BUCCANEERS & GENTLEWOMEN by KATIE HICKMAN

Subtitle “British Women in India” To anyone who has read about the history of India, especially during the years when the Europeans travelled there, there is a misperception that women first started settling there from the 19th century onwards. There is a stereotyped image we have of the British memsahibs …

Re-reading ”Chasing The Monsoon” by Alexander Frater

There are some books that I re-read every few years, and always with undiminished pleasure. As it so happens, several of them are about India, some of them my ritual pre-monsoon, hot-weather reading. Kim. Heat and Dust. And, of course, “Chasing the Monsoon“, Alexander Frater’s marvellous travelogue about following the …

THE NANDA DEVI AFFAIR by BILL AITKEN

Quick aside, before I begin this review. Since the pandemic started, I find myself increasingly drawn to non-fiction and the more adventurous the book, the better. Doesn’t take much deduction to conclude that I am missing travelling and especially being in the mountains, and so am compensating, by reading tales …

MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE by VASEEM KHAN

As though the fabulously creative and loveable Baby Ganesh series were not enough, the talented Vaseem Khan has now given us yet another wonderful Indian detective, and I am already a huge fan. Introducing Inspector Persis Wadia, India’s first woman detective. We are in Bombay, in the tumultuous, heady days …