A Touch of India: Chutney Mary, Charming Irregularities and an Unlikely Romance

(Paperback)

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In A Touch of India, Valerie Britton-Wilson discovers the challenges and charms of modern India whilst uncovering the life of her mother Pearl, a young Anglo-Indian woman growing up in end-of-Empire Bombay.
Pearl was a journalist with the Times of India in the 1940s who unexpectedly fell in love with a brilliant Cambridge pianist on leave from fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Burma.

The author soon finds herself falling in love with India, which resulted in her launching a textile and clothing business.

Pearl's descriptions, and the discovery of touching love letters, are interwoven with the author's experiences over two decades of working in this sometimes difficult but always fascinating country. There is a search for an elusive ancestor, a tragic dowry murder and insights into being a Chutney Mary (of mixed blood). A touch of history, a touch of travel, a touch of textiles, of humorous and touching anecdotes and much more....

Author Bio

Melbourne writer Valerie Britton-Wilson has a PhD in social psychology and written three previous non-fiction books. She has spent the past two decades visiting India after setting up a small business with handwoven cottons and hand-block prints in a range of limited edition clothing and accessories.