Loot! Look what our ancestors brought back from India.
When we were in India last month, we kept seeing signs in the various historical sites we visited suggesting that a lot of good stuff had been taken by the British in the 19th century and was now tucked away in various London museums. Back home, we decided to go to...
The Last Mughal
If you read last week's blog post about Delhi’s Red Fort, you will have seen a reference to William Dalrymple’s book The Last Mughal. I started reading this before we went to India, read some more while we were there, and then came home and finished it. From which you...
The Red Fort
More from my trip to India... One of the things I was particularly looking forward to seeing was the Red Fort in Delhi. I am particularly interested in the events of 1857, commonly referred to in England as the Indian Mutiny. My book, Cawnpore, is set during...
Jack and Jill Went Downhill
Another book review from me. It's a bit of a change from the sort of book I usually write about, being by R J Gould who, according to Amazon, writes contemporary fiction about relationships or, bluntly, romances. Jack and Jill meet on their first day at university and...
British India to 1857: The Rise and Fall of the East India Company
If you follow me on Twitter or read last week's blog post, you'll know I'm just back from a holiday in India. I'd like to blog about India while the country is still top of my mind. Last week I did touch on how the war of 1857 (the Indian Mutiny or the First War of...
A taste of India
I'm back from three weeks in India. We went out with an Indian friend who has been talking about us visiting the country together for around 20 years. Finally we all decided that we're not getting any younger and if we were going to do it, we should do it now. It was...
Fouetté: Ailish Sinclair
I’ve been away for a few weeks and I’m well overdue a review of Foutté, the last book in Ailish Sinclair’s trilogy, A Dancer’s Journey. I’m quite glad to have had a few weeks to digest this one because Foutté is a wild ride. The first thing to say is that the book is...
Precious Words
Years ago I started blogging (originally on Blogger at https://thewhiterajah.blogspot.com/) and I wanted to prove that I could produce something every week. I think I sort of hoped someone would notice that I can turn out a regular column and that I might get some...
2023 Book Reviews
Every year I point out that this is not a book blog but every year there seem to be so many reviews... 2023 has been a comparatively quiet year with only 11 books. Click on the titles to go to the full-length reviews. As ever, the majority of the books reviewed are...
The Shadow Network: Deborah Swift
We're almost halfway through January and Deborah Swift's latest is published next month so now seems a good time to get my review out. The Shadow Network takes us back to the world of WW2 espionage that she introduced in The Silk Code. This story features Neil...