The following is taken from the back cover of the book The Sun in the Morning. My review will not follow this, since I am not quite finished reading it!
In this wonderfully evocative autobiography M. M. Kaye, author of the bestselling The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon, recounts her first eighteen years in India and England. Rich in period detail and peopled with extraordinary and unforgettable characters The Sun in the Morning is a brilliant and vivid memoir of life under the Raj.
Some Reviews for The Sun in the Morning:
'This first volume of her vigorous and enjoyable autobiography is written with enthusiasm and authority'
~Sunday Times
'What for most of us is history, for Mollie Kay in this first volume of memoirs is simply real life. Starting with an impression of the stately King George V and Queen Mary on a durbar visit to India, she gives an unequalled picture of life at the popular hill station [of Simla] . . . To Mollie Kaye, India will always be home'
~Daily Mail
'Her majestic avalanche of a novel, The Far Pavilions, could only have been written by someone drenched in the colours, smells and customs of that beguiling country, and this first volume of autobiography is a hymn to the influences of a blessed childhood in God's own garden'
~Sunday Telegraph
'Although sites, houses, even whole cities may have changed or perished as completely as the Raj itself, those dusty, dehydrated crumbs of memory are freshly reconstituted here in the glowing, shimmering, indelibly bright colours of true romance'
~Daily Telegraph
My Review
Once I really got into this book, I forgot all about being on vacation, and alas, I forgot to go swimming and sailing and other cottage-like activities, for I was far, far away in India. =) As you can tell, I enjoyed this book very much! It seems only fitting that the author of my favourite books should have had such an interesting and wonderful childhood... what a memory! I can scarcely remember what I had for supper last night, let alone something that happened years ago! But M. M. Kaye not only remembers small details; she brings them to life with colour, sound, and smells pouring from every page... But of course, I am not going to say a word more about it, except that you should read it! It is only 454 pages in full (far too short in my opinion), but mercifully there are two more volumes...
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