Two under the Indian Sun: A Memoir

‘A charming book memorable…’ —Sunday Times When World War I began in 1914 sisters Jon and Rumer Godden - aged six and seven respectively - left England to join their parents in Narayangunj a village in Bengal. There the sisters led an idyllic life: they put up plays; wrote books; and spent summers in Coonoor Mussoorie Kashmir and Darjeeling. And in a memorable journey they spent a week on the Hooghly sailing home from Calcutta via the Sundarbans. It was also in Narayangunj that the idyll soured - just before they left for England in 1919 and the sisters grew apart after a fistfight over the affections of a man. Written with a child’s candour and wide-eyed sense of wonder Two under the Indian Sun is not just a remarkable chronicle of a shared childhood but also a vivid picture of everyday life in India of the early 1900s.