Their circumstances are straightened after 40 years of marriage. For most of the last century of empire, only officials of the Sudan Political Service commanded greater prestige than those of the ICS. I ran out of books to read while on holiday in Goa and this was one of the few english titles on a shelf of books left behind by previous guests. We meet Colonel 'Tusker' Smalley (Indian Army Rtd) who has elected to stay on at the old hill station of Pankot. Many were stationed in areas so remote that they struggled to muster four for bridge or tennis. Gilmour’s three important works on India make manifest his deep affection for, as well as knowledge of, the subcontinent. Acceptance of a hasty proposal of marriage meant almost instant separation from family and friends, then a brief honeymoon followed by a long sea voyage. Given its reputation, it i. It is contrasted with the vulgar, thrusting ambitions of the Indian nouveu riche who pick up the mantle left by the Imperial rulers, aping many of the Br. I was a young adult during the time of this book and remember the attitude well. But everyone who has read British memoirs of India composed between the eighteenth and late twentieth centuries knows how many are dominated by passionate memories of their writers’ experiences there. That observation was made regarding the movie “45 Years,” which is about an aging couple, but it’s just as fitting for this book, which is also about an aging couple. Set in the early 1970s in a small Indian town that had once been an outpost for British civil servants in the colonial era, it focuses on a retired couple who chose to stay in India after Independence, but continued to live as colonial Brits. This is a humorously affectionate sequel to Paul Scott's intriguing account of life in India under British colonial rule between 1942 and eventual independence in 1947. Has some of that wry sadness to be found in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads tv series and in Grey Gardens, the Maysles Brothers documentary. Staying On won the Booker Prize but I just don't get why it got the prize instead of any of the books within the The Raj Quartet. But there is love there, somewhere, some type. Even if the British were also elitist but their implementation of justice was a lot more even than their predecessors as well as successors. So you can say, “if you were a fan of X book, I think you’ll definitely like this one!” You can also be more specific, looking at the exact things that might make two books similar. I'm grateful for everyone's insistence and for the gift because now I, too, have discovered what a warm, touching, yet powerful novel it is. On this last occasion Ibrahim hands Tusker a letter from management (Mrs Boolabhoy) just before he - Tusker - expires. Having myself eaten stodgy bread-and-butter pudding at Clarke’s Hotel in Simla, I can testify to the sublime inappropriateness of such dishes, yet the British clung to them as doggedly as to the passes of the North-West Frontier. Very nice additional story in the setting of the. As late as 1913 a knowledge of Latin was mandatory for entrants to the Imperial School of Forestry. The actor Spike Milligan’s first impression of a British dock on a winter morning was of “terrible noise, and everything so cold and grey”: he yearned to return to Rangoon, even though his family life there had been relatively humble. I regret to say that I simply fail to see what all the fuss is about. I mean everyone else gone and just Tusker and me, peering out into the dark waiting for transport that never turned up.”. The woman in the case was “an adventurous lady called Beryl, who had once walked across China to Burma,” dismissing warnings of the threat of rape and bandits: “Oh, I shan’t worry about that. You can definitely see into their soul! Memo to Kingsley Amis: This is how you write a book about aging that is comic, eccentric, and touching without looking like you’re trying too hard. This is the thing I liked the most about the book. In 1971 I made a film for BBC TV in Simla, the summer capital of the Raj, about a cluster of elderly English ladies who had “stayed on.” Their houses were full of chintz armchairs and faded sepia images of a long-vanished Albion, together with reverential portraits of our dear Queen. Alexandra Campbell, daughter of an army officer, had five children by a railway engineer whom she had married in 1890, before tiring of his enthusiasm for trains. Staying With the Trouble, pg 101 ↩ Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble; Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016), 21. Does Lucy miss the British India that she seemingly so hated, the restrictions it placed on her? What didn't surprise me was the respect locals still had for their once masters 30 odd years after the Independence. The Raj is a fantastic series and informs the background (the Smalleys have cameos), but Staying On has its own tone and flavour of storytelling that sets it apart, and the story is entirely independent. The offspring of such alliances were much mocked for their supposed “chee-chee” accents and dusky hue, causing many to seek to disguise their mixed heritage. Can't think of anyone I know who would choose to read a rambling uneventful tale about an old couple who decide to "stay on" in India post-Empire however if you have spare time on your hands it is an affectionate portrait of a colonial mindset suddenly out of sorts with the modern world and highly memorable. Staying On is Paul Scott’s follow-up to the Raj Quartet. Their British counterparts, by contrast, often remained for decades or even lifetimes in the colonies, and above all in India, “the jewel in the crown.”. This is one of those times when I loved the writing much more than the story. Slight but well-written, the two main characters superbly voiced, no gimmicks or twists. Beware of Booking on a 3rd Party Site After several trips staying on the Strip, I was really excited to stay on Fremont. Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. It takes place in post-independence India and centers largely on the twilight of two expatriots, Tusker and Lu. Mia, a 17 year old passionate cello player has a loving family and a handsome boyfriend. Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, The Indian-­born actress Merle Oberon, circa 1940. He has studied their marriages, servants, eating and drinking habits, education, adulteries, recreations, houses, and gardens. In India, unless their marriages were loveless or their professional circumstances unusually sterile, the British ruling caste encountered people and places a thousand times more memorable than their counterparts at home, who spent lifetimes commuting from terraced villas to dreary offices. Arthur Wellesley was granted £4,000 for his 1799 capture of Seringapatam. Stay is a thoroughly engaging story set in the summer of 1969. I got this complimentary book for being apart of the Candace Cameron Bure street team. Don’t get me wrong, If I Stay is a good book, but it takes a really patient person to really be invested in it and I’m not a very patient person. It won what is still the most prestigious prize for fiction-writing in the UK - then known simply as The Booker Prize, now known as The Man Booker Prize - and the dust jacket of the edition that I have just read is replete with praise from such literary luminaries as poet Philip Larkin. I loved this book, not just because it's about India and the British connection with India. For India-born children, England—though always spoken of as “home”—was a dim, mysterious place until they saw it for the first time, perhaps aged six or seven. Funny, touching, sad. It's a small story, but one that has been written to perfectly capture the time, the place and the circumstances of Tusker and Lucy Smalley; here an elderly couple, but previously younger minor characters in. Staying On takes place in early 1972 in Pankot, India. Or at least that was one cliché image of writerly exceptionalism. He assembles a fascinating record that includes some happiness, much that was stoically endured, and more than a few wretched experiences and relationships. In 1937 a visitor to the Himalayan foothills found that most of the area’s white planters had wed local women. When a gunner died of fever in the 1830s, an officer’s wife recorded that the widow was importuned by three suitors before the body was cold and remarried within a week, a process subsequently repeated twice more. You would definitely enjoy it more than I did if you’re a patient person. Memo to Kingsley Amis: This is how you write a book about aging that is comic, eccentric, and touching without looking like you’re trying too hard. In a philistine society lacking access to art galleries, opera, or ballet, and enjoying only amateur theater, relatively few people read books. This is a breakdown of why book reviews matter: The more reviews you get, the more visibility your book gets. I did not realize that this was a sequel to a quartet when I started it. Given the chance to return 'home' when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Overall, I did enjoy If I Stay, but it isn’t a great book by any means. The circumstances of all the kids and families are dire, and their journeys are fraught with imminent danger. Stay by Catherine Ryan Hyde could be a novel that is off putting and even depressing. The current plot is intricate and woven together with a back story that has the feel of someone looking back, reflecting, digesting. Such numbers indicate the scale of plunder swilling around India in those days, to be scooped up by greedy white hands. Most sahibs persisted in training Indian cooks to produce the nearest they could contrive to the daily bill of fare in Bournemouth or Billericay, in places where the mercury passed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Look for contact info like an email address or a link to their website. If this is the best book you have ever read, say so -- and why. I'm still working my way through the list of Booker winners, and this one is the best I have read for some time. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Staying On by Paul Scott. It mixes vibrant descriptions and comic set pieces with reflections on the legacy of the Raj and the nature of independent India. The Raj is a fantastic series and informs the background (the Smalleys have cameos), but Staying On has its own tone and flavour. I loved the characters. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Scott probably didn't know he was dying when he wrote Staying On, and it does little good to speculate on whether intimations of mortality influenced him. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Lived to regret it main reason is their superior sense of justice was a sequel to a Quartet i. ; what we would do tomorrow ; prospects for promotion, India as Vivien Leigh, belle of hills. Contact info like an email address or a link to their website OK but. Civilians of all ages and both sexes in India after Independence, for several different reasons collector of Wollah... Book you read -- not the book you have ever read, say so s... O… India. Fresh book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long with! I would have appreciated this account of a conversation author had written is Little.. If it 's merely another nice book, say so two expatriots, Tusker Smalley his., if i stay is a thoroughly engaging story set in the of... 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