The actress Isla Blair’s extraordinary, moving and uplifting story of her childhood in India and her separation from her parents.
Born in Bangalore India, during the fading days of the Raj, Isla grew up on a tea plantation managed by her father in the lush, verdant hills of Kerala, secure in the love of her parents, her sister Fiona and her adored “Ayah”. This warm, spice-scented idyll was abruptly ended when, believing they were doing the best for their daughters, her parents sent Isla and her sister “home” to boarding school. But “home” was cold, gloomy, post-war austerity Scotland – a land of liberty bodices, chilblains, icy mornings and dank, drizzly days; an alien land where for several years she nursed an astonishing secret – of which only Fiona was aware.