Jenny Balfour-Paul's Books

Deeper Than Indigo

Tracing Thomas Machell, Forgotten Explorer

By: Jenny Balfour-Paul

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Deeper Than Indigo

Tracing Thomas Machell, Forgotten Explorer

By: Jenny Balfour-Paul

Set on the edges of time, this intriguing odyssey, part biography, part memoir and part historical detective story, has a magical extra dimension. Tracking Thomas, an elusive young man of the past, the author follows him out of the British Library to the China Seas and remote islands of Polynesia, to Indias plantation lands in the days of the British Raj, and through the deserts of Arabia. Finding she is often in her own footsteps too, can she span what seems an unbridgeable gap between the known and the unknown and solve a mystery? A unique and enthralling love story."--Publisher's website

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Page Count

246

Publisher

Medina Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1909339709

ISBN 13

9781909339705

Indigo in the Arab World

By: Jenny Balfour-Paul

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Indigo in the Arab World

By: Jenny Balfour-Paul

The role indigo has played elsewhere has been fairly well documented, but in the case of the Arab world, little or no thorough investigation has been previously undertaken. Sets out to provide comprehensive coverage of the subject from its earliest history to the present day.

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Page Count

322

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1136603247

ISBN 13

9781136603242

Mary, Queen of Scots

NOW A MAJOR NEW FILM

By: Jenny Wormald

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Mary, Queen of Scots

NOW A MAJOR NEW FILM

By: Jenny Wormald

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, has long been portrayed as one of history's romantically tragic figures. Devious, naïve, beautiful and sexually voracious, often highly principled, she secured the Scottish throne and bolstered the position of the Catholic Church in Scotland. Her plotting, including probable involvement in the murder of her husband Lord Darnley, led to her flight from Scotland and imprisonment by her equally ambitious cousin and fellow queen, Elizabeth of England. Yet when Elizabeth ordered Mary's execution in 1587 it was an act of exasperated frustration rather than political wrath. Unlike biographies of Mary predating this work, this masterly study set out to show Mary as she really was – not a romantic heroine, but the ruler of a European kingdom with far greater economic and political importance than its size or location would indicate. Wormald also showed that Mary's downfall was not simply because of the 'crisis years' of 1565–7, but because of her way of dealing, or failing to deal, with the problems facing her as a renaissance monarch. She was tragic because she was born to supreme power but was wholly incapable of coping with its responsibilities. Her extraordinary story has become one of the most colourful and emotionally searing tales of western history, and it is here fully reconsidered by a leading specialist of the period. Jenny Wormald's beautifully written biography will appeal to students and general readers alike.

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Page Count

371

Publisher

Birlinn Ltd

Published Date

ISBN 10

0857903500

ISBN 13

9780857903501

Deeper Than Indigo

Tracing Thomas Machell, Forgotten Explorer

By: Jenny Balfour-Paul

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Deeper Than Indigo

Tracing Thomas Machell, Forgotten Explorer

By: Jenny Balfour-Paul

The author's quest begins when the word 'indigo' draws her to the illustrated journals, now in the British Library, of Victorian explorer Thomas Machell. She finds her life to have striking echoes of his, not least his travels to and within India, a career in indigo, and a passion for journal writing. She is also intrigued by his aspiration to write 'a novel in the form of an autobiography' and by his quirky watercolor sketches. Machell of Crackenthorpe, born in 1824, first demonstrated his yearning for adventure when only twelve, and at sixteen left the family rectory to follow his dream of traveling to the East. By chance, he witnessed many important historical events, including the infamous 'First Opium War' and the 'Indian Mutiny'. He spent most of his adult life in India; the author follows him to indigo plantations of rural Bengal and Bangladesh, to coffee estates in Kerala's Malabar Hills, to unexplored regions of central India and to the city of Calcutta. Machell also traveled up the Indus River to Kashmir and the North-West Frontier and undertook an intrepid sea voyage with Muslim merchants. When the author voyages aboard the last freighter to take passengers from UK to India, she faces the same threat of pirate attack in the Red Sea as Machell. She also follows in his wake by cargo ship to the most remote Polynesian islands, setting for his passionate love affair, and she seeks his colorful descendants in the New World. This remarkable tale of East-West connections brings to life the untold story of a spirited outsider at the height of the British Raj. Serendipity, intuition and an enchanting relationship, as well as the author's quest to uncover the missing years of Machell's life, give this book its magical extra dimension. Thomas Machell, explorer, writer and artist, was born near York in 1824. As a teenager he sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India and on to China where he experienced the 'First Opium War'. His next voyage was around Cape Horn to the Polynesian Islands of the Marquesas, on a ship carrying coal and guano. Returning to India, he worked in indigo in Bengal, coffee in Kerala and with bullock transport in central India. He also traveled up the Indus to the North-West Frontier and Kashmir and in the Arab world by land and by sea with Muslim merchants. He died in India in 1864, aged 39.

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Page Count

320

Published Date

ISBN 10

1909339563

ISBN 13

9781909339569

Book's by Jenny Balfour-Paul

Deeper Than Indigo

Deeper Than Indigo

Indigo in the Arab World

Indigo in the Arab World

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots

Deeper Than Indigo

Deeper Than Indigo

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