Paper Boats in the Monsoon – Life in the Lost World of Anglo-India
Author: Owen Thorpe
About the Book
Indian Independence in 1947 fired the starting gun for the great Anglo-Indian exodus from India. These half-caste children of the Raj were never going to fit in – they were an unwelcome reminder of the colonial past and they insisted on being different. They took with them a unique, vibrant and free-wheeling way of life, now lost forever to India. Owen Thorpe describes in colourful and hilarious detail his boyhood chasing kites and chameleons, fighting the native lads, threatening the monsoon storms and eating his weight in food each day. He recounts his experiences in a barefoot orphanage and as unwilling boarding school prisoner of the grim Brothers who ran his remote hill school. All was not plain sailing as his teacher parents moved from school to school and finally abandoned him to India as they emigrated to England. He survived to work his way through college strumming a bass guitar and singing in the famous Calcutta pop scene of the 1960s as well as patronising the posher local opera, drama and motor sports groups. He found employment working for a national newspaper, where he and his colleagues were subjected to weekly attacks by howling mobs who disagreed with its editorial policy. He also spent his evenings broadcasting on radio. Finally, he reluctantly joins the Anglo-Indian exodus only to find that getting out of India is harder than he realised. He hires a lawyer to bribe and lie his way out of the country and joins his old family in England – this time accompanied by a family of his own. The book is an affectionately observed portrait of a unique culture and its entertaining characters. The author has a sharp eye for detail and a keen appreciation of the quirkiness of being an unwelcome guest in his own country.
295 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); published by Trafford Publishing Canada; catalogue #07-1056; ISBN 1-4251-2965-1
UK: 8 plus 2 postage
Europe: Euros12 plus Euros3 postage
Canada: C$16 plus C$9 shipping
Australia: A$18 plus A$11 shipping
USA: $16 plus $9 shipping
The book can be ordered through Mr. Thorpes website at: www.owenthorpe.co.uk
at a discounted price.
The book can also be ordered (unfortunately at no discounted cost) :
On-line from Trafford Publishing; orders@trafford.com or trafford.com/07-1056
On-line from Amazon.com
From Waterstones or Borders bookstores
Or from any reputable bookstore – who will be able to get it ordered for you.
Please Note: copies of this book are not stocked in the shops.