M. M. Kaye (1908–2004)
Author of The Far Pavilions
About the Author
M. M. Kaye was born on August 21, 1908 in Simla, India to British parents. She wrote numerous books during her lifetime including Death Walks in Kashmir, Later than You Think, Shadow of the Moon, Trade Wind, The Far Pavilions, The Sun in the Morning, Golden Afternoon, and Enchanted Evening. She show more also wrote and illustrated children's books including The Ordinary Princess. She died on January 29, 2004 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by M. M. Kaye
House of Shade Omnibus: Death in Zanzibar, Death in Andamans, and, Death in Kashmir (1959) 15 copies
[Unknown works] 2 copies
Insel im Sturm 1 copy
Potter Pinner Meadow 1 copy
BLACK BRAMBLE WOOD 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Kaye, Mary Margaret
- Other names
- Kaye, Mollie
- Birthdate
- 1908-08-21
- Date of death
- 2004-01-29
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Simla, India
- Place of death
- Lavenham, Suffolk, England, UK
- Places of residence
- India
Kenya
Zanzibar
Egypt
Cyprus
Germany (show all 7)
Pevensey, Sussex, England, UK - Occupations
- historical novelist
mystery writer
illustrator
autobiographer - Relationships
- Kaye, Sir John William (grandfather's cousin)
- Awards and honors
- Colonel James Tod International Award, Maharana Mewar Foundation (2003)
- Short biography
- Mary Margaret ("Mollie") Kaye was born in India into a family of military officers and statesmen that had served the British government for many generations. Sir John William Kaye, one of her grandfather's cousins, was Political Secretary of the India Office and the author of the classic histories of the Indian Mutiny and the First Afghan War. Another cousin, Edward Kaye, commanded a battery at the 1857 Siege of Delhi and was later made a Lieutenant General. Mollie Kaye was born in Simla, the summer capital of the Raj, and spent the cool months of the year living in Delhi. In her obituary, the Guardian said, "[S]he was raised by servants, speaking Hindustani before English, while playing around gun emplacements and dodging her ayah to listen to storytellers in the Delhi bazaar. Like Kipling's Kim, she thought herself Indian, 'just a member of a different caste in a land of castes'. " After education at boarding school in England, Mollie returned to India. In 1945, she married Major-General Goff Hamilton of Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides; the couple had two daughters. Her husband's military postings took Mollie all over the world, and she juggled her duties as a mother and an officer's wife with her writing under the pen name M.M. Kaye. Her 3-volume autobiography is called Share of Summer and comprises The Sun In The Morning (1990), Golden Afternoon (1997), and Enchanted Evening (1999).
Members
Discussions
April 2022: M. M. Kaye in Monthly Author Reads (July 2022)
Reviews
The beginning was bumpy but a fun read when you're in the mood for a 50s-era romantic suspense mystery. It has lots of rich people, colonialism, brash Americans, plucky young woman in a bind, communists - all set in foreign airports and an exotic island (I'm imagining Grace Kelly and William Holden in the movie...)
I watched the TV mini-series around the time of the 1984 Olympics (made a change from watching "V"!) and whilst the events are in a different order here, it is essentially the same story.[return][return]Ash is born in India to English parents, who are killed during an uprising when Ash is still a young boy. He is rescued by his nursemaid, who passes him off as her son, since he is dark enough to pass as a native. His new mother gets a job in the palace of a maharaja, and Ash becomes the bodyguard/playmate of his favourite son. He is also followed around by the baby half-sister of the prince who has developed a crush on him. Ash makes enemies of some of the royal household by protecting the prince, and as his second mother lies dying he finds out that he is really english and must go back to his homeland.[return][return]Back in England he is taught to be a proper sahib, although he always feels that the Indians are hard done by. After passing his army exams, he is sent back to India. One of his duties is to escort two princesses to their new palace for their marriage. During the trip he realises that one of the princesses is the one who followed him around as a child, and he is pulled back into the politics and the murderous enemies who stalked him as a child. Against his better (or worse) judgement he leaves Anjuli and Sushila with their new husband, and continues to perform as a Sahib in the English Army.[return][return]Finally he gets word that Anjuli's husband has died and has insisted on Suttee - a practise made illegal by the british, but still practised, where the live brides are placed on the funeral pyre of their husbands and are burned to death. He races back to rescue Anjuli, but cannot rescue Sushila, and has to kill her on the pyre. Then there is a big rush to escape and Ash leaves the army to live with Anjuli in the mountains.… (more)
Lists
Favourite Books (1)
Read These Too (1)
Princess Tales (1)
All Things India (1)
Comfort Reads (1)
BBC Big Read (1)
1970s (1)
Sense of place (3)
Nifty Fifties (2)
My TBR list (2)
Female Author (2)
Favourite Books (1)
Murder Mysteries (3)
Sonlight Books (1)
Allie's Wishlist (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 32
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 8,286
- Popularity
- #2,918
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 214
- ISBNs
- 328
- Languages
- 15
- Favorited
- 37
Don't get me wrong, the book has merit. It's a gripping story right from the start--I felt immediately invested in the protagonist, Ash, and his surrogate mother, Sita, and could not put the book down until I knew what happened to them. Once the narrative gets its traction, it doesn't slow down (with one notable exception, which I'll get to later). It's a 955-page novel, and I finished it in a week.
It also beautifully evokes the time and place in which it is set. I think that's the novel's greatest strength: it brings the India of the 1860's - 1870's to life by weaving together fictional elements with historical events, cultural/religious traditions, and geographical details. It's the richness of those details and the complex portrayal of historical events that make this book worth reading. For example, I was surprised by how the novel treated the British colonization of India--how through Ash (who, because of his situation, has "one foot in each camp") we see the systemic violence and arrogance of colonization, the way in which it damages the colonized country/peoples; but we also see the inherent humanity of the colonizers. That same complexity is brought to bear on other historical events throughout the book, and that is the book's great strength.
That being said, the book also has a great and glaring weakness: the aforementioned badly-developed romance. If the rest of the book is complex, the romance is quite the opposite. And the problem is, the romance isn't just bad, it's lengthy. The narrative spends a good two-thirds of its time on "developing" this angst-ridden romance between Ash and his childhood friend, Anjuli ("Juli" for short). It's a shallow, melodramatic affair that would only be a minor drawback if it weren't so damn long. But because the book spends so much time on it, it's impossible to ignore it and focus on other (far more interesting) events. This is where the story dragged the most for me.
Worse than that, their relationship is... well, gross, for lack of a better term. At best it's highly unhealthy, and at worst it's downright abusive. In practically every scene they have together, Ash gets physically domineering and abusive with Juli (the number of times he's described as shaking her by the shoulders until her teeth rattle would actually be laughable if it weren't horrible). He thinks and speaks a great deal about how much he loves her, and then proceeds to treat her with little to no respect. Ash is definitely at his worst in his scenes with Juli, and their relationship marred my experience with the rest of the book. Individually, they're both interesting characters, but together... yikes.
As I said at the beginning, it's a decent book that, were it not for the badly done romance, could have been a great book. It's a worthwhile read if you can stomach the romance.
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