True tales from history: A 1920s diary and letters reveal the life of a gutsy American expat in British Raj India.
In 1926, 29-year-old Gladys — a physical education teacher — sails from America to British Raj India to marry Ken. Her old high school friend from Walla Walla Washington, Ken now works for the government as a forest engineer in the elephant logging camps hired by the government of India.
Their jungle honeymoon begins a seven-year tale of adventure, love and loss as they then live in Madras, Ooty, and finally the penal colony of the Andaman Islands with their toddler.
Gladys and Ken defend villagers from tigers and crocodiles, attend royal affairs with a viscount and maharaja, and live among convicts. Snakes, panthers, scorpions, etc. offer ever-present dangers, as do rebelling Indians who resent British rule and servants who formerly killed unfaithful wives.
Author Laurie Winslow Sargent is currently writing Gladys’s story, based on 100 letters, photos, passports, even family film reels from the 1920s and 1930s. If you love historical, romantic, adventurous stories, follow posts on this site to hear future news about that!
Here’s a taste of what life was like for Gladys.
Stories posted so far:
A Sure-footed Dhurzee & a Sly Cook
This story caught the attention of a reporter in India, Prutha Bhosle with the Midday News. Her story was: American Author Traces Her Ancestors’ Love Story Through Letters ~ A North Carolina-based author relies on a trunk full of letters from 1920s India and Google Earth to reconstruct a love story of her ancestors for an upcoming book~
Laurie
