Pamela Mountbatten, 78, the younger daughter of the Mountbattens (Louis and wife Edwina), has co-authored a book titled “India Remembered.” Pamela accompanied her parents to India at the age of 17 and spent 15 months here. This book is her personal memoir of the time she had in India, in the corridor of power. The co-author of the book is Pamela's daughter named India Hicks (Interesting first name!) Ms. Hicks is an ex-model and author of two other books.
India Remembered
Category: Non-Fiction
Author: Pamela Mountbatten, India Hicks
Publisher: Roli Books
Price: Rs 1495
ISBN : 9781862057593
To purchase: [Link]
� The book is extracted out of the personal diary that Pamela maintained.
� It includes some letters by prominent leaders like Gandhiji and Clement Atlee.
� It includes her father's deliberations of the Indian leaders and kings.
� Pamela writes that although her mothers had many lovers, her affair with Nehru had no physical dimensions.
� The book projects her mother Edwina a heroine and describes how she loved India and helped Indians during partition riots.
Excerpt from the back cover of the book:
India Remembered is a pure evocation of this key period of India and Pakistan‘s history. Using diary entries and extracts from the meticulously kept family photo albums as documentary evidence, this book is a brilliantly informative read and a chance to witness first hand a generation of characters whose actions were to change the fate of two nations.
Some interesting facts which I came across:
1. Title of the Book:
There is another book with the same title. ‘India Remembered’: an account written in 1982 by Barbara Donaldson of her life in the UP, first as a child and later as the wife of an I.C.S. Officer (J.C. Donaldson, C.I.E., M.C.). [Ref]
2. Pamela’s views about Gandhi, Nehru and Patel:
"Gandhiji was such a marvellous person that the moment you met him, he had such a twinkle but he was so simple with people that you know one was just delighted to meet him."
When Nehru, the urbane idealist, would go off at a passionate tangent, Patel would say, "don't go ahead of the people so far; come back, take them with you."
3. The way the Mountbattens died:
Lady Mountbatten died at age of 58 on February 21, 1960, while in sleep. She had just returned from a visit to India. To the surprise of many, a packet of letters from Nehru was found by her bedside!!!
Lord Mountbatten was holidaying at his summer home in Republic of Ireland. Members of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) were aware of Mountbatten’s movements. Despite security warnings, on 27 August 1979, Mountbatten decided to go sailing in his pleasure craft. The IRA had earlier fitted a radio controlled bomb which was detonated, killing Luis and some other family members; a sad end to an eventful life.
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