The Crown: The official book of the hit Netflix series

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Finally, though, I just couldn't stand the company of the British colonial class in India, they were a hideous gaggle of superannuated racists so I abandoned this very remarkable and undoubtedly brilliant novel with relief. In both cases, they are stories of the Siva cycle of destruction and rejuvenation (or creation), so entwined they not only can't be separated, but sometimes can't be told apart. The next thing I would like to complain about is the length of many of the sentences. Paul Scott was evidently a major fan of the late Henry James and he likes to run amok with those clauses - there's a kind of effete machismo about the long sentence. It can be fun but it can so very easily be too much of a good thing. Dig the following (he is talking, as he always is in this book, about race relations) [note, the maidan is a public space in the town] :

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India is The Jewel in the Crown. It signified the Crown's most precious dominion of the Victorian era- its control, forced conformity, "civilizing" and exploitation of India. Robert's other books include biographies of the gangster Meyer Lansky, Princess Grace of Monaco and a study of Sotheby's auction house. He co- authored The Year 1000 - An Englishman's World, a description of life at the turn of the last millennium. In 2002, the Golden Jubilee Year of Queen Elizabeth II, he published Royal (Monarch in America), hailed by Andrew Roberts in London's Sunday Telegraph as "compulsively readable", and by Martin Amis in The New Yorker as "definitive".

And in its amazing approach to style. Look at the second sentence of my quote above; it is deliberately involuted writing, whose phrases curl in and around each other in a manner both dense and rich. I quoted that first sentence because it is such a clear summary of the book: the rape, the context of events, and the setting: the fictional town of Mayapore in British-ruled India in 1942. But as I read on, I find that it is the second, more difficult, sentence that is the more significant. For that is what Scott achieves, to paint a complex, many-faceted portrait of "the continuum of human affairs," out of which the story emerges almost by accident, in passing glimpses in a rear-view mirror.

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Unlike Wide Saargasso Sea, Paul scott casts a wider net to encompass not only social aspect of British reign in India but also explores class warfare within British Indians and the slowly brewing times of revolution.Set in a country on the brink of war and weary of colonial rule, gang rape of a young British woman associated with a young Indian man shakes the apparent stillness that seemed to have covered the vast lands. It stops being a case about a British and an Indian; the investigation takes a different turn when the British woman, Daphne, mentions possibility of a Muslim to be present during the heinous act. The case takes a completely different turn when he So it was not surprising that critical acclaim was slow to come. My own reading was in the late 1970s, and by 1984 a television series had been made of the four novels, a series which starred many famous actors and introduced a few who today are household names. For fourteen hours, spread over three months, the nation was gripped by this part of our history; shameful and noble by turn. It was a gamble, but one which was a huge success. It sparked a huge wave of nostalgia for the British Raj, and an interest in romantic writers such as M.M. Kaye. People were fascinated by the dynamics of the relationships, by the idea of a small country ruling such a huge one, encompassing such vast differences and variety. But the constitutional aspect was played down. People did not want politics and law courts. The novelty aspect was uppermost. Glamour and squalor. The “stiff upper lip” British, the majestic rajahs, the English Officers’ clubs and the cool, haughty memsahibs. The traditions of India. This is what came across very well in the dramatisation of “The Raj Quartet”, under the general title of the first novel, The Jewel in the Crown. The story line was gripping too, and once seen, it remains a series which is not easily forgotten. The Jewel in the Crown is a long novel, focusing on the rising power struggle in India. The tensions between the Indian population of the fictitious town of Mayapore, and the British civil and military authorities are high. Not only is British rule beginning to waver, and be considered as inappropriate even by some of the British themselves, but there are complex additional tensions, due to political, racial and religious differences. It is surprising that such a book can hold the attention, since there is no attempt at mystery or tension, but merely a carefully balanced and largely neutral account, giving equal weight to all points of view, and showing how misrepresentations, partisan beliefs, ambitions and resentments influenced the events portrayed. For of course although this is a time capsule, a snippet of time, the human condition itself is timeless.Scott uses many different styles to tell his story. Some parts are first person “spoken” accounts told to the researcher, some are third person narratives, some take the form of letters between characters, or official reports, and some come from Daphne’s journal. In the third person sections, where it’s written, presumably, in the author’s own style, the language is frequently complex, rather spare and understated at the moments of greatest emotion, but often with lush beauty in the descriptive passages, creating a wonderful sense of this town and the surrounding country. In the other sections, Scott creates individual voices for each of the narrators, suited to the form they’re using, and he sustains these superbly so that one gets a real feel for the personalities behind even the driest and most factual reports.

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Have you seen the Netflix show The Crown? They have done a stunning job bringing to life the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. If you, like me, have watched the show and wondered where they blurred the lines between fact and fiction, this is a book you'll be wanting to read. Written by royal biographer and show historian Robert Lacey, this official companion feels authoritative and thorough as it digs into each episode and the history behind it. Along either side of Siva's space, in the appropriate postures: Ludmila, who ferries the dead and understands, "For in this life, living, there is no dignity except perhaps laughter" (p.133). And Deputy Commissioner Robin White who understands "the moral drift of history" (p.342), and its matrix of "emotions," "ambitions," and "reactions." And his wife, who understood Daphne's motivations, and her sacrifice. Reading the original first novel, The Jewel in the Crown now, it seems even more like a piece of history long gone, with perceptions we find mind-bogglingly patronising, and so alien to our modern view that they are hard to grasp. The British largely viewed their role in India as “nurturing” another culture until they were politically mature enough to govern themselves. But during the Second World War was a time of political unrest in India. For years the British had promised to leave India to govern itself, but when World War II broke out, Britain feared that the Japanese would invade India if they left. The Indian leaders, in particular the Mahatma Gandhi, demanded that the British quit India, but because they considered the time to be militarily dangerous for India, the British administrative and military establishment actively tried to suppress any unrest in the towns. This free classroom guide is designed for educators working with K-5 students and can be used in settings such as schools, church groups, or after school programs. It includes: Daphne, in a posture of courage in search of wholeness (think Siva's destruction/rejuvenation), will be placed a foot in the waters, ready to give herself over to the flow, whatever may come, as there is no bridge capable of crossing (p.142).the old Queen, (whose image the children now no doubt confused with the person of Miss Crane) surrounded by representative figures of her Indian empire: princes, land owners, merchants, money-lenders, sepoys, farmers, servants, children, mothers, and remarkably clean and tidy beggars...An Indian prince...was approaching the throne bearing a velvet cushion on which he offered a large and sparkling gem”. It is exactly right…” replies the elder woman, drawing on all the experience of her 43 years as Queen. “To do nothing is the hardest job of all, and it will take every ounce of energy that you have. To be impartial is not natural, not human. People will always want you to smile or agree or frown, and the moment you do, you will have declared a position, a point of view — and that is the one thing as Sovereign that you are not entitled to do. The less you do, the less you say, or agree, or smile…” There is a salvation of a kind for a boy like him. He is the leftover, the loose end of our reign, the kind of person we created -I suppose for the best intentions...