Overview

'I am truly a child of both countries and both cultures.' Born to an Indian father and an English mother, Jamila Gavin's childhood was divided between two worlds. Her earliest memories are of India, where she lived in a crumbling palace built for a prince, and learned to steal sugar cane and suck mangoes. But she would spend much of her childhood in England, where she picked blackberries, got chilblains, and learned to recognise doodlebug bombs. And between the two there were unforgettable journeys, by bullock carts and tongas, crowded trains and romantic P&O liners. A touching and very personal recollection, with a backdrop of world-shaking events, from the Blitz of World War II to the struggle for Indian independence and the assassination of Gandhi. Illustrated with the author's own delightful photographs.

Author

Jamila Gavin is the author of Coram Boy (Whitbread Children's Book of the Year 2000, and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), The Wheel of Surya, The Eye of the Horse, The Track of the Wind, The Singing Bowls, The Wormholers, and several other works of fiction for children, including Coming Home, a story about Divali, one of Hodder Wayland's Celebration Stories. She lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

More like this