Articles

Anne de Courcy on ‘The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj’
Friday 3rd May
7.30pm at St Peter’s Church, Oundle

The Fishing Fleet was the name given to the countless young ladies that travelled to India during the Raj in search of excitement and adventure. A hectic social life greeted them on
arrival, with tiger-shooting, parties and balls, and with men outnumbering women four to one, romances and marriages were frequent - but after the honeymoon life often changed dramatically. Anne de Courcy explores the reality of life for these young adventuresses on the other side of the world, and with the help of diaries and letters rescued from attics she brings this forgotten era vividly to life.

De Courcy was women’s editor on the London Evening News in the 1970’s, and has written
regularly for the Evening Standard and Daily Mail.Her previous works include ‘The English
in Love’, ‘The Viceroy’s Daughters’, ‘Diana Moseley’ and ‘Snowdon’. The film rights to ‘The Fishing Fleet’ have been secured by Ridley Scott’s company Scott Free London.

Jason Lewis on ‘Dark Waters’
Saturday 18th May
7.30pm, St Peter’s Church, Oundle

Jason Lewis is an award-winning adventurer, author, and sustainability activist specializing in human-powered expeditions. In 2007, he became the first person to circumnavigate the Earth without using motors or sails: walking, cycling, and inline skating five continents, and kayaking, swimming, rowing, and pedalling a boat across the
rivers, seas, and oceans. Taking thirteen years to complete, the 46,505-mile journey was hailed “the last great first for circumnavigation” by the London Sunday Times.

Jason will be talking about his new book which is called ‘Dark Waters’ and is the first part of a trilogy entitled ‘The Expedition’. During his journey he survived a terrifying crocodile attack off Australia’s Queensland coast, blood poisoning in the middle of the Pacific, malaria in Indonesia and China and acute mountain sickness in the Himalayas. He
was hit by a drunk driver and left for dead with two broken legs in Colorado and incarcerated for espionage on the Sudan-Egypt border

Rosie Thomas on ‘The Kashmir Shawl’
Friday 21st June
7.30pm, St Peter’s Church, Oundle

Rosie Thomas will be talking about her latest book ‘The Kashmir Shawl’ and how her love of travel and adventure has inspired much of her writing.While researching ‘The Kashmir  Shawl’ she travelled the same routes as the ancient pashmina trade, crossing the Himalayas from Ladakh to the Vale of Srinagar in Kashmir. She is one of only a few authors to have won twice the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Rosie Thomas is the author of a number of celebrated novels, including the bestsellers ‘Sun at Midnight’, ‘Iris’ and ‘Ruby and Constance’. Once she was established as a writer and her children were grown, she discovered alove of travelling and mountaineering.
She has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, spent time on a tiny Bulgarian research station in Antarctica and travelled the Silk Road through Asia In ‘The Kashmir Shawl’, characters and settings are beautifully portrayed in
this dramatic romance that first follows newlywed Nerys from Wales to a new and excitingly different life in 1940s Kashmir, and then their granddaughter who later embarks upon the same journey to uncover some life-changing truths.

Tickets to any of the above events are £7 (£5) from Oundle Box Office, 4 New Street,
Oundle, PE8 4ED on 01832 274734 or online at www.oundlefestival.org.uk Any queries contact Helen Shair at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or telephone 01832 274134