Valerie Britton-Wilson: GSV’s British in India circle’s guest speaker on Tuesday 18th March at 7:30 pm.
I think many Family Historians fantasise about discovering a suitcase containing a trove of one’s ancestors’ love letters! Melbourne-based author, Valerie Britton-Wilson did just that. And to add to the interest, Valerie’s forebears include French, Irish, Italian, British and Indian lines.
In her book, “A Touch of India”, Valerie tells the story of her mother, Pearl, a young Anglo-Indian woman, determined to become a journalist, in Bombay (Mumbai) towards the end of the second World War. She met, and ultimately married, a Chindit officer who was on leave from the extraordinarily dangerous and challenging fighting behind the Japanese lines in the jungles of Burma.
Eventually Valerie’s parents migrated to Australia and had to negotiate around the remnants of the White Australia policy. Valerie herself became an academic, but a trip to India in the late 1990s aroused in her a fascination with that country. She started a textile and clothing importation business, bringing Indian clothes and fabric, with all their charming irregularities, to the Australian market.
Valerie has continued her love affair with India and has very interesting insights into what is happening in modern India and its colonial past. She will be talking about a very recently completed trip to India as well as her book, “A Touch of India: Chutney Mary, Charming Irregularities and an Unlikely Romance” which is available to view in the GSV library.
Valerie’s talk will be of interest to those interested in India, tourism, textiles, family history (aren't we all?), religions, caste, and what it meant to be an Anglo-Indian. She herself is a perceptive and amusing storyteller. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear her story with the British in India circle on Tuesday 18th March at 7.30 pm. Simply go to the Events Registration page and sign up!
Clare Claydon
Convenor
British India Discussion Circle