By John Kampfner
The BBC broadcaster Anita Anand tells the beguiling story of Sophia Duleep Singh, from exile in the Suffolk country estate of Elveden to the suffragette battleground of Westminster, via various trips to her ancestors’ home. Anand vividly paints the picture of society girl turned revolutionary and her father, who spends most of his years fulminating against the British and wanly plotting against them.
Anita Anand interview – Caroline Sanderson more
BBC history magazine : What to expect from 2015 – more
The National : Fascinating story of granddaughter of Ranjit Singh –Â Steve Donoghue
“Anita Anand’s sparkling, wonderful new biography… It’s an extremely picturesque and fascinating story, one that Anand beautifully saves from the footnotes of history. Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary brings its strong-willed subject marvellously to life as she seeks out a purpose in the wake of the Empire.” more
Books to get excited about in 2015 – more
“A vivid and compelling biography… Anand writes with the vigour and imaginative reach of a novelist”
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Book Highlights for 2015. More
An Indian princess who became a suffragette in furs
A comprehensively researched and zippy account of a profoundly unusual life
“Sometimes you hear biographers complain that all the great figures have gone. They must either revisit the over-documented giants of the past or else make do with vaguely interesting obscurities. In this book, her confident and compelling debut, the BBC journalist and presenter Anita Anand leaves that argument in shreds… Anand has triumphantly rescued Princess Sophia from the pampered oblivion in which a fearful Raj sought to bury her.”
