This tale of three young British women going to India to seek their fortunes in the late 1920s has become a worldwide bestseller after making it on to Richard and Judy’s summer reading list in the UK. Richard and Judy are a married couple who host a TV show on England’s Channel 4 and getting their seal of approval means your book will appear in every bookshop window you pass.
When author Julia Gregson saw this for herself, she knew she’d made it, and quietly took herself off to Fortnum and oason’s for a glass of champagne. And she was right to celebrate – her first book sold about 5000 copies, while this one has sold somewhere in the vicinity of 300,000 and rising. once I heard about the quiet glass of champagne I was pretty sure I’d love her book, and I was further delighted to find out that Julia is not some 12-year-old ingénue fresh out of a posh university but a glamorous 61-year-old who once modelled clothes for a famous designer, interviewed John Lennon, and worked as a jackaroo (although not all on the same day).
East of the Sun follows Viva Holloway, an inexperienced chaperone, as she travels by sea to India with three charges: Rose, a nervous bride-to-be, setting off to marry a man she barely knows; Tor, Rose’s best friend and bridesmaid, keen to escape the smothering disappointment of her overbearing mother; and Guy Glover, a disturbed young man abandoned by his family. Drama aplenty awaits the three women in a Bombay that is rapidly changing and against this aromatic backdrop of a very different world, they each negotiate the pitfalls of love and life.
If you are looking for an uncomplicated yet enthralling read that transports you to a time when there’s no better way to escape a bit of racial tension than having a gin and tonic on the verandah, East of the Sun is just the ticket.
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