The Jewel in the Crown

“English is the language of a people who have probably earned their reputation for perfidy and hypocrisy because their language itself is so flexible, so often light-headed with with statements which appear to mean one thing one year and quite a different thing the next.” Whenever I run into someone......more

You'll only find 4 and 5 star reviews for The Jewel in the Crown on this site. And it is, indeed, a towering achievement. Towering! Magnificent! So ... er... what went wrong for me? Do you remember James Joyce said that if Dublin burned down he wanted them to be able to rebuild it by reading Ulysses,......more

"Imagine, then, a flat landscape, dark for the moment, but even so conveying to a girl running in the still deeper shadows cast by the wall of the Bibighar Gardens an idea of immensity, of distance, such as years before Miss Crane had been conscious of standing where a lane ended and cultivation beg......more

Back in the late 1960s and 70s, many young people in the UK and other Western countries were fascinated by the East, and especially by India. The search for meaning in life, something greater and mysterious, ran through youthful consciousness. Self-development was at its core; nothing to do with car......more

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the most awesome novel which I have read about British India. The story is gripping: the language poetic ("the indigo dreams of flowers fallen asleep", to recall a phrase which lingers in the memory): and the characterisation near flawless. Even af......more