FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS THE INSANE LIFE OF AN ENGLISH SMUGGLER IN BOMBAY

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS THE INSANE LIFE OF AN ENGLISH SMUGGLER IN BOMBAY

Author: Godfrey Joseph Pereira

Publisher:

Published: 2021-12-20

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9789354472237

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Description Midnight, 15 August 1947. As India's tryst with destiny reverberated across the world, Charlie Strongbow, born in Bombay, a renegade Englishman, mercenary, philosopher and schizophrenic, began his own bizarre journey. While nascent India floundered and struggled, Charlie, along with an English goon called Thommo, a devious accountant named Willie, a vicious Portuguese temptress, Dona Maria, and twenty British desperadoes, took possession of Cross Island near the Bombay Docks. Here they functioned in illegal harmony, bound by no rules and no principles, and set about building a black-market trade between Southampton and Bombay. There was no stopping Charlie-but for memories of his own past filled with the misery of childhood abuse and guilt at having abandoned his daughters. As he drank himself to senselessness and let his inner demons take over, Detective Desai, a man Charlie had destroyed, raised an unrelenting war against Cross Island. But the severest blow of all would be struck by Dona Maria... Based on true events, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is an utterly gripping novel- the disturbing, astonishing story of an Englishman who won everything but lost his soul on a no man's land in the Arabian Sea.


FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS THE INSANE LIFE OF AN ENGLISH SMUGGLER IN BOMBAY

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS THE INSANE LIFE OF AN ENGLISH SMUGGLER IN BOMBAY

Author: Godfrey Joseph Pereira

Publisher:

Published: 2021-12-20

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9789354472237

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Description Midnight, 15 August 1947. As India's tryst with destiny reverberated across the world, Charlie Strongbow, born in Bombay, a renegade Englishman, mercenary, philosopher and schizophrenic, began his own bizarre journey. While nascent India floundered and struggled, Charlie, along with an English goon called Thommo, a devious accountant named Willie, a vicious Portuguese temptress, Dona Maria, and twenty British desperadoes, took possession of Cross Island near the Bombay Docks. Here they functioned in illegal harmony, bound by no rules and no principles, and set about building a black-market trade between Southampton and Bombay. There was no stopping Charlie-but for memories of his own past filled with the misery of childhood abuse and guilt at having abandoned his daughters. As he drank himself to senselessness and let his inner demons take over, Detective Desai, a man Charlie had destroyed, raised an unrelenting war against Cross Island. But the severest blow of all would be struck by Dona Maria... Based on true events, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is an utterly gripping novel- the disturbing, astonishing story of an Englishman who won everything but lost his soul on a no man's land in the Arabian Sea.


Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom

Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom

Author: Ramachandra Guha

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2022-01-20

Total Pages: 615

ISBN-13: 0008498784

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‘A narrative of startling originality ... As discussions of Britain’s colonial legacy become increasingly polarised, we are in ever more need of nuanced books like this one’ SAM DALRYMPLE, SPECTATOR ‘Fascinating and provocative’ LITERARY REVIEW


ESCAPING THE LAND

ESCAPING THE LAND

Author: Mamang Dai

Publisher:

Published: 2021-12-20

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9789354470837

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Description Combining history, myth and contemporary politics, Escaping the Land is a saga of a beautiful but sometimes turbulent land and its people. Acclaimed poet-novelist Mamang Dai takes us on an unforgettable journey from the land of Kojum-Koja, a sacred place beyond time, to the formation of the modern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Maying, a woman who has lived away from the state, returns in order to write a history of the people she has known and who have shaped her land. As she speaks to them and leafs through old records, a myriad stories and destinies unfold-an ancient flood and a lake full of stars; conflict and curiosity that led to the establishment of NEFA (North-east Frontier Agency); hardy men and women like Lipun, who walked the highest mountain passes and thick forests establishing connections with remote tribes; the 'rainman', who can read the elements because he is so closely tied to them; Umsi, who has to go far away in order to know herself; and Lutor, the shaman's child, who can feel the pulse of his people, even when he is disillusioned with public life. But there are also land and forest mafia, corrupt politicians in cahoots with violent militants, and friends who can turn foes to satisfy their ambitions. Maying recoils from the murky theatre of the modern state, but realizes, too, that 'our hearts are taken, given, mistaken, lost' but 'what is never lost is the original obsession that was a dream of love'. Lyrical, vital and epic in scale, Escaping the Land is the story of a people and a place that is, like the best novels, the story of all humanity.