Mrs A’s Indian Gentlemen.
We recently put out a post about a novel, called The GWR Girls, whose setting is the Works and in the railway village. In this post we’re bringing to your attention another novel also with a GWR setting. Though published a few years ago, you might not have come across it and we think it’s a great read.
By Dawood Ali McCallum, this Swindon-set book is written by a chap that lives in Swindon and it’s even dedicated to Swindon. So there’s plenty to love there is there not?
It’s a lovely read. It’s full of gentle humour and it’s so great reading street names and buildings that we’re all familiar with.
Much of the action takes place Inside. And in the Queen’s Tap, the GWR Railway Village and the Mechanics’ Institution loom large in the book. As does the GWR Park or Faringdon Road park – gratingly spelt Farringdon. I’m trying to let it go as I’m so enjoying the book. And I’m sure you will too.
‘How, in 1943, might railway engineer Imtiaz ‘Billy’ Khan, logistics supremo Vincent Rosario and maths prodigy Akaash Ray find themselves in Swindon? Lodging with the well-intentioned Mrs A, hilariously navigating bland food, faulty toilet cisterns, secret assignments and a mutual distrust of one another?
In the Covid times
Our trustee, Angela Atkinson, first encountered this book during the 2020 Spring Festival that formed the pandemic substitute for the festival of literature.
Here on YouTube is the online interview, by Matt Holland, with the author.
You can find the book on Amazon here. And the central library shop might have it.
‘Sparkling with wit, Mrs A’s Indian Gentlemen is a rollicking tale of misadventure that delightfully portrays what happens when cultures collide.’
