A Black Englishman

After losing her fiancé in the carnage of World War I, Isabel, a well-educated young Welsh woman, marries on the rebound to a man she barely knows. Isabel’s new husband, Neville, is a dedicated career soldier in the English Army in India, and she eagerly returns with him to India. While she loves the Indian countryside, she soon learns that a soldier’s wife in India has few rights and freedoms. Furthermore the class system within the English community in India in 1920 is even more rigid than it is back in England.

Isabel also quickly discovers that her husband is a sadistic brute and that they have nothing in common. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to a young Indian doctor called Samresh Singh, who appears to move freely between Indian and English society. Isabel and Sam become lovers, even though Sam also has a wife and a young son who is being educated back in England, just as he was. After their relationship is discovered, the lovers run away together and Isabel is hopeful that one day she will be able to marry Sam. However Neville, the cuckolded husband, proves to be a determined enemy and he hunts the couple down, determined to destroy them.

This epic tale of love and betrayal is loosely based on the life of the author’s maternal grandmother, Anne Webb, who went out to India after the Great War. When she was 30 she was placed in an asylum because of “inappropriate behavior” with an Indian man. Eventually she was transferred to a mental hospital in England, where she remained until her death in 1984. Be sure to have a box of tissues on hand for this poignant novel…

Starting points for discussion

1. Given that her mother had misgivings about Isabel’s marriage from the very beginning, why didn’t she try harder to stop her daughter? Discuss the relationship between these two very different women and how it changes during the course of the novel.

2. What attracted Neville and Isabel to each other initially?

3. Neville tells Isabel, “The Himalayas are not to be climbed. One looks; one does not climb.” What does this suggest about Neville’s own view of the world?

4. Isabel’s arrival in Ferozepore coincides with a tragic murder/suicide. Discuss the attitudes of the various members of the military community to this incident. How does this incident set the scene for what will happen to Isabel?

5. Mrs Pendleton tells Isabel, “ India is not a place for women. They are hated here.” Do these comments prove to be true? What are the various ways used to control English women in India?

6. Were you surprised by the ending?

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