Sophia

Author Anita Anand
Narrator Tania Rodrigues
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 17 hours and 10 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Biography: historical, political and military, General and world history, History.

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What to expect

**By the presenter of the hit podcast EMPIRE**

'Sophia is the sort of remarkable, almost unbelievable untold true story that every writer dreams of chancing upon. A wonderful debut, written with real spirit and gusto. Anita Anand has produced a winner' William Dalrymple

'A fascinating and elegantly written life of one of the unknown giants of women's suffrage' Katie Hickman, author of Daughters of Britannia

The enthralling story of an extraordinary woman and her part in the defining moments of recent British Indian history

Winner of the Eastern Eye Alchemy Festival Award for Literature

In 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs, a realm that stretched from the lush Kashmir Valley to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British, who plundered everything, including the fabled Koh-I-Noor diamond.

Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace, its grounds stocked with leopards, monkeys and exotic birds. Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace-and-favour lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashions for the society pages. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned a revolutionary.

Sophia transcended her heritage to devote herself to battling injustice and inequality,a far cry from the life to which she was born. Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the fate of the Lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the First World War – and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. She was bold and fearless, attacking politicians, putting herself in the front line and swapping her silks for a nurse's uniform to tend wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefields. Meticulously researched and passionately written, this enthralling story of the rise of women and the fall of empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her part in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.

Critics Review

Sophia is the sort of remarkable, almost unbelievable untold true story that every writer dreams of chancing upon. A wonderful debut, written with real spirit and gusto. Anita Anand has produced a winner
William Dalrymple
Anita Anand’s gripping book is a sad story of dispossession and dislocation … The story is fast-paced and thrilling … A noble book ****
Daily Telegraph
A fascinating and elegantly written life of one of the unknown giants of women’s suffrage
Katie Hickman, author of Daughters of Britannia
Vivid and compelling … Anand writes with the vigour and imaginative reach of a novelist. The many horrors of her enthralling narrative are lightened with judicious flashes of dry wit and a fine eye for detail … A gripping, emotionally powerful story
New Statesman
A groundbreaking work that at last tells the important story of Sophia Duleep Singh: unflinching princess-in-exile, doughty moderniser and tenacious suffragette. From the streets of India to the corridors of power, Sophia artfully examines the tensions between East and West; and one woman’s choice between fighting for freedom and staying silent
Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
Anita Anand has definitively restored to history one of the most important and charismatic figures in the suffragette movement. This thoroughly absorbing and deftly informative account instantly pulled me into the irresistible adventure and vitality of Sophia Duleep Singh’s defiant and innovative existence. Anand’s timely biography is a wonderful testament to Sophia’s lifetime of commitment to Indian independence and the advancement of women, and to the range and courage of her achievements
Rachel Holmes, author of Eleanor Marx
Anand is a strong, confident writer … A rollickingly enjoyable read: a comprehensively researched and zippy account of a profoundly unusual life
Evening Standard
Anand vividly paints the picture of a society girl turned revolutionary … With deftness and sensibility, Anand tells of the extraordinary contradictions at the heart of the relationship between the Queen and this family … Anand’s skill is to bring to life a character whose name does not figure in the annals of the suffragette movement
Observer
Sometimes you hear biographers complain that all the great figures have gone … In this book, her confident and compelling debut, the BBC journalist and presenter Anita Anand leaves that argument in shreds … Anand has triumphantly rescued Sophia from the pampered oblivion in which a fearful Raj sought to bury her. In doing so, she traces the excruciating double binds, emotional as much as political, that tied imperial Britain to the jewel in its crown
Boyd Tonkin, Independent Book of the Week
Anand in her latest book uncovers not just an intriguing female life, but also an important perspective on British-Indian colonial history … Fresh and well written … What a story, and what a successful telling of it
The Times
Sophia is so well researched that this is likely to remain a definitive account … Anand’s passion shines
Daily Express
Real entertainment. Shannon has continued to build on this imagined world with intricacy, and Paige’s voice comes through to deliver a suspenseful story
Washington Post
Fascinating biography-cum-history of a singular life
Independent
A terrifically absorbing read
Mslexia
Sophia and her family cannot be understood without understanding the context of developments in the British Empire in this period. Giving details on the development of Sikh traditions, revolutionary ferment in the Indian subcontinent, the British suffrage movement, the First World War, and the partition of India and Pakistan, Anand presents a comprehensive and valuable historical biography. Anand has gone into key archives at Windsor, the Museum of London and elsewhere to uncover the official records and surviving correspondence about Sophia, enriched by photographs and her own interviews. This is a necessary biography, drawing attention to the broader facets of the British suffragette movement and the depth of connections between the Indian subcontinent and Britain in the Victorian and Edwardian eras
The Times
Anita Anand’s Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary unearths the extraordinary story of a forgotten British-Indian suffragette who went from Queen Victoria’s goddaughter to militant activist
Guardian

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