Raj Quartet summary

Its some time since I watched Jewel in the Crown or re read the Raj books, but I remember it well. It has echoes of EM Forster's Novel, Passage to India where a young English lady accuses an Indian man of molesting her and the trial starts off bitter anger between the British and the Indians. Then the trial collapses because Ada, the young woman, withdraws her claim of sexual assault. The Raj Quartet begins with a similar situation, in that Daphne Manners is actually raped by Indian men. However she does not accuse her Indian boyfriend Hari Kumar of doing anything to her. She and he made love but then they were attacked by a gang of peasants who were excited by the situation of a white girl making love with an Indian man. Daphne tries to protect Hari but she dies in childbirth. Hari is sent to jail, and Ronald Merrick who investigated the case continues to show his bigotry and violent streak in his police work. He is a self hating homosexual, who hates Hari for being better educated than he is, and he has to believe that Indians are inferior beings. Scott himself had a drink problem and could be violent at times and while Merrick is an unsympathetic character Scott could see bits of himself in the man he created. He found India dirty and overwhelming when he first went there, but grew to love it. The character Guy Perron also has some echoes of Scott. Like Scott he went into the army as a private at the start of the War. Scott was commissioned as an officer and worked in Army intelligence. Guy becomes a sargeant. He is a liberal, supporting Indian independence as Paul Scott was. The tension between Scott's "Merrick side" and his more liberal side makes the books what they are. Merrick is not likable, but as we understand his problems, his hatred of his sexual feelings, and his anger that he, a white man, is less well spoken and well educated than the young Hari Kumar, we can see that he is both twisted and vulnerable. He resents the British army officers and political officers who have a public school education and who have the security of a comfortable life in England when they retire while he had to work his way up from a lower middle class childhood to the Indian police and then the Army. The Raj quartet has many women characters who are vital and interesting even though they are limited by their sex. Sarah is intelligent and tempted to show more liberal beliefs than the usual army daughter, but she does good work supporting her family and she tries to protect Susan against Merrick. Mabel Layton, Col Layton's elderly step mother, is not approved of because at the time of the Amritsar massacre, she gave money to a fund to help the Indian victims, while most of the army wives supported General Dyer who had caused the massacre.

Raj quartet IX

Guy is shocked but not really surprised. He always thought Merrick was sinister and he attracted trouble. His involvement in the Kumar case has angered Indian nationalists who have been trying to get at hime for years. And he was idealistic about the Raj, believing that the British would avenge him, whereas they were just keen to get out of India and leave it to its own devices. He came from a relatively poor family, and for him, the Raj was a family, whereas the other members of the colony were better off and had connextions in England to go back to. THe Laytons are planning to go back to England very soon and buy a small country home. Bronowski is pleased that the Prince's daughter Shiraz has become more westernised under Sarah's influence and that she has attracted a suitor Ahmed Kasim. Kasim is the son of a well known Indian politican who has been fighting for Indian independence all his life. Ahmed was something of a playboy and a bit of a disappointment to his father but in recent years, he has developed a sense of responsibility and is working with the Prince and Bronowski. He looks like a suitable husband for Shiraz, and his father is very pleased that he is making a success of his life now. Guy notices that Sarah seems very close to Ahmed, but she too plans to go home to England, so he presumes it is not a serious love affair. He hopes that she may turn to him when they go home. Indian independence is now very close, but the partition of the country is in Guy's view a disaster which will lead to hatred and violence. He blames the British rulers for encouraging divisions between Muslims and Hindus - feeling that they used this to weaken the Indian independence movement, but now are making a fast getaway and leaving the problems to be solved by the Indians. The Laytons are due to leave. Susan has her Ayah to look after her son, and she is carrying Ronald's ashes in an urn. Col and Mrs Layton have gone on ahead to find a house. Ahmed is escorting them and he gets on the train into their carriage (which does not please the other British) . However the compartment that he is travelling in has been marked, and Hindu activists are aware of where this prominent Muslim is sitting. After a time, the train is held up and a gang call for Ahmed to come out. Everyone is bewildered as they have not yet formed a strategy for dealing with these attacks. Ahmed goes out and is killed. So are many others. Sarah tries to nurse the injured and she feel angry and helpless that she is reduced to this feeble English memsahib role of trying unsucessfully to help when she knows it is useless. She and Guy go home to England, and she tells him that she loved Ahmed but she wasn't in love with him. But she is angry that he has died and she could not do anything to prevent it. Her country caused the trouble and divisions and they then leave it to the Indians to suffer the consequences. They get married and Guy becomes a well known academic historian - and India is just a part of their past.

Rough Music By Nadine Sutton

This is a long story, available on Amazon. It is set in the 1970s and based on the lives of country and country rock musicians of that era. Its about 2 men who are good friends, and are trying to get their band from the small time to the big time. The constant touring and hard work puts strain on both of their marriages and annoys the other members of the band. Its not a Happy ever after story, but I hope people will like it.

Raj Quartet VIII

Bronowski tells Guy that they had to cover up about Merrick's death, since it would lead to dangerous riots. He has often been taunted by Indian nationalist activists who have followed him about, because of his part in the tormenting and abuse and imprisonment of Hari Kumar. Hari is not interested in any of this, he has become a fairly reclusive man, making a living teaching. But Merrick has had people drawing pictures of bicycles (A bicycle was involved in the Kumar case) or attacking his car. He became rather paranoid about this in recent months, and threw himself into his police work. Susan was away for a time with the child, and Ronald was alone. He had a fall from a horse, and claimed that a man had startled his mount and caused the fall. Bronowski goes on that he beleives Merrick was a self hating homosexual (He himself being gay) and that he was attracted to young Indian men but his racism and self hatred made him angry and unhappy because he wanted what he could not have. He abused Hari Kumar because he was attracted to this young man whom he thought of as inferior. Guy has talked to "Sophie" Dixon about Merrick earlier and he'd worked out that he had homosexual feelings but could not tolerate them in himself. He also learns from what he has found out that Merrick was snooping in the army psychiatrist's office, to look at his files, because the psychiatrist was seeing Susan about her nervous problems. He read the confidential data, and was able to give Susan the impression that he understood her very well instinctively, and she was so fragile that it made her fall for him. Susan has told Guy that Merrick used to have to go in disguise into the bazaars to find out what was happening among the Indians and that there were a lot of young men coming to the house looking for a job, but Merrick did not usually offer any work to them. Guy is sceptical about this, and Bronowski tells him that there were boys who came, who might have been activists who were planning to punish Merrick for his part in the Kumar Rape case - but that he doubted if Merrick really went about in disguise to hear what was being said in the town. It seems that Merrick did finally allow a boy who had come looking for work to stay, and Bronowski believes that he finally gave way to his own homosexual urges and slept with him, and the whole experience upset him, because he could not admit that he was attracted to boys and to Indians whom he considered inferior. He was found dead in his bed and Bronowski and the police covered it up, saying that he had been injured in the riding accident and that he died from those injuries a little later. Bronowski says that he felt sure Merrick hoped that the British would avenge his death and kill Indians, and generally make him a hero in death, but the Raj were eager to cover it up and for the British to get out of India without too much trouble.

Raj Quartet Part VII

Susan and Merrick get married... He is a good stepfather to her son, young Edward, and he seems to keep Susan calm. The Laytons are close to retirement and thinking of going home to England. Then Merrick is offered a job as police chief in the Princely state where Susan was married. The Princes advisor is a Russian emigre, Count Bronowky, who tries to help the prince to modernise the state, but who worries about unrest and violence which is beginning to happen all over India, as the state prepares to become Independent of British rule. He admires Merrick and thinks he can do a good job of controlling riots and violence. A couple of years after the war, Guy Perron goes to India to cover the granting of independence..and he finds to his surprise that Merrick has just died after a riding accident. Sarah is staying at his house, and she has become friends with the princes daughter Shiraz. Guy is pleased to see her again, but when he asks her what happened to Merrick, she is reluctant to talk about it. He learns the story from Count Bronowski.

Raj Quartet VI

THe war is close to an end by now and Susan has been released from her hospital but she's still nervy and not very stable and she is seeing a psychiatrist. Sarah finds that by now Merrick has weaseled his way into their family circle and she's afraid of him. In the course of his work, he drives an Indian soldier to suicide, taunting him that he had abandoned his oath to the King, when captured, and shamed himself and his regiment. Sarah meets another young officer, Guy Perron who went to the same school as Hari Kumar, and joined up as a private soldier. He has now become a sargent in Army intelligence, and he comes into contact with Merrick. He too dislikes Merrick and thinks he is sinister. Barbie has had a breakdown, and is now in a hospital. Sarah likes Guy Perron and wonders if someone like him could tell her something to Merrick's discredit, so that she could use it against Merrick. She can see he's courting Susan and its scary that she seems to be taken with him and may well marry him for security. Guy and Sarah spend time together and he tries to wriggle out of having Merrick as his boss. Through family influence, he manages to get an early discharge and he's soon to go home to England, where he hopes to become a historian. He and Sarah make love, but she is committed to looking after her family. Her father is released from his POW camp and returns to India, and Mildred and Susan both need her help.

Raj quartet V

Merrick recovers from his injuries, but he has to have an artificial arm. He gets a desk posting where he can use his police training to investigate Indian Prisoners of War who were captured in Burma and who were persuaded by their captors to renounce their allegiance to the British empire and join the Japanese. He has a natural taste for bullying and questioning. Meanwhile Hari has been questioned by the British, as he is detained indefinitely under a wartime Security act. He tells them that he was sexually assaulted by Merrick. Horrified, they cover this up but it takes time before Hari is finally released. He is alienated now from the British and his fellow Indians and expects to lead a lonely life, with the loss of Daphne and his child being reared by Lady Manners. Ronald spends some time in hospital having treatment, and there he meets a British OR soldier called "Sophie" Dixon, a gay man who likes joking and camping, but is a kindly nurse to the soldiers in hospital. He likes Merrick at first, but finds out that he ill treated a young homosexual soldier, who has just been coming to terms with his sexuality.

Raj quartet IV

Ronald's injuries cement the friendly relations between him and the Laytons. Susan asks him to become godfather to her baby when it is born and Sarah feels obliged to keep seeing him when he recovers. There is tension between Old Mrs Mabel Layton and Mildred. Mildred has become a drinker, feeling lost without her husband, and she turns to a young officer and has an affair. Susan's baby is born, and it is a boy. She seems odd and withdrawn and Sarah worries about her. Then she wraps the baby in a lace cloth and sets fire to it. The baby is not harmed but she is clearly having a breakdown and is taken to a hospital. Mildred seems detached from her daughter. When visiting Merrick, Sarah stayed with Fenny Grace, her mother's sister and met some British officers. Fenny worries that Sarah does not get much of a social life so she is keen to offer her niece a bit of fun and encourages her to go out with one of the officers, James Clark. However Sarah also rather fed up with her limited life, decides to lose her virginity to him. Mildred discovers that her daughter is pregnant. She is furious with her sister for not watching over her better. She tells her to sort out the problem and arrange an abortion for Sarah. Sarah has the operation and finds herself being entangled between her mother and old Mrs Layton and Barbie. When Mrs Layton dies, Barbie is more or less thrown out of Mabel's house, Rose Cottage, by Mildred. She tells Mildred that Mabel had wanted to be buried next to her husband. Mildred ignores her pleas about this, as it is very hot and she wants the old lady buried as quickly as possible and she resents the lower class Barbie interfering.

Raj quartet III

Ronald tries to get in with the Laytons and pay court to Sarah as she is single. She is uneasy with him. After the marriage Teddy and Ronald are posted to Burma, and Susan becomes pregnant. She lazes around, while Sarah does war work. The Laytons are on uneasy terms with Col Layton's stepmother, who lives in Rose Cottage, an attractive house, which Mildred hopes to inherit some day. Old Mrs Layton does not much like her stepson's wife. She takes in a paying guest to keep them a bit at a distance. Its an elderly lady called Barbie Bachelor, who used to be a missionary teacher. She is retired and considered not quite a lady by the Laytons and their friends. Barbie is lonely and fond of old Mrs Layton, and she's aware that Mildred does not like her. Several months after the wedding, the Laytons are told that Teddy has been killed in action and that Merrick who was with him, was badly wounded. Susan is very upset and he family are nerous that she is showing signs of instability. She never seemed that fond of Teddy, but now she persuades Sarah to go and visit Merrick in hospital. Sarah agrees to go and finds that Merrick is very badly injured. His face has been burned and his arm has to be amputated. She wishes she could feel more sympathy for him but she finds him unnerving.

Raj Quartet II

Daphne and Hari have a row, but then they make up, late at night and make love in a darkened garden. After their lovemaking, they are attacked by a gang of Indians and Daphne is raped. Hari is considered the chief suspect since he is Indian and he's arrested by Merrick. Daphne says that she knows the rapist gang were Indian peasants... and it was not Hari. However the local British are outraged that an English woman should be raped by Indians, and she knows there is very little hope for Hari. She finds she is pregnant after the rape and she decides to keep the child. Hari is tortured by Ronald Merrick and sexually abused. He is imprisoned and Daphne has the baby. It is a girl, whom she calls Parvati, but she dies in childbirth. Lady Manners, Daphne's aunt who brought her out to India takes care of the baby, and is snubbed by the British. Lady Manners takes a holiday in the hills with the baby, and to her surprise she has a visit from Sarah Layton, an army officer's daughter who is also holidaying nearby. Sarah's father is a prisoner in Germany and his wife Mildred is a rather snobbish, unemotional woman, is on holiday with her 2 daughters, Sarah who is intelligent and a little unconventional and Susan who is younger and more willing to fit in with the prejudices of the Raj colony. Susan is engaged and Sarah does not seem to attract many men. Sarah sees the baby, and talks to Lady Manners, who is amazed that anyone should visit her now that she is rearing a half Indian child. Soon afterwards, Sarah and her family go to one of the Princely states, where Teddy Bingham Susan's fiance is stationed for their wedding. The best man is ill and unable to do his role, so Teddy invites another officer to stand in. The officer is Ronald Merrick. He has managed to get into the army and is trying to weasel his way into the upper crust Army set.

Paul Scott and the Raj quartet.

The 4 novels of this series cover the British in India during the War and afterwards. Daphne Manners is an English girl, rather plain and a bit clumsy, who goes to India during the war and takes up volunteer work. She lives with an Indian lady, Lady Chatterji, and meets a woman who takes in the sick and dying and nurses them. Sister Ludmilla is reckoned to be mad by the British colony, and they are snobbish about Indians. Daphne becomes friendly with Hari Kumar, who works on a local newspaper. He has been brought up in England and finds the Indians so different that he cannot get on with them.. but he is looked down on by the British. Daphne goes out with him but it is difficult. She is also courted by Ronald Merrick, an Englishman who is in the Police service but who comes from a relatively poor background. He too is looked down on by the wealthier British, but he is still treated as one of the elite. Daphne does not like him much but feels sorry for him. He is arrogant and likes being in the police, but he wants to get into the army which is of higher status.

Available on Amazon

I have 2 stories which are available on Amazon. Both are set in the country music world. Beds and Blue Jeans is a story set a few years ago, about a bar singer in Nashville... who has a girlfriend and a baby, and is trying to make his way in the music world. Rough Music is set in America around the late 70s, about a country rock band who are beginning to have some success and do a lot of touring. The 2 lead singers are both married and find that the music life affects their marriages. These are not happy ever after stories, but I hope they are a good read. Look on Amazon.

North and South Part III

Margaret's mother dies and her father dies soon after. She leaves Milton and goes to live with her godfather, who is reasonably well off. She also visits her cousin Edith in London. She has begun to develop feelings for John Thornton. On a visit back to her parents' old home, she realises how hard poverty is for farm labourers and the like and becomes less romantic about the countryside. In London, she goes about socially but she also does social work. She receives a proposal from Henry Lennox, a relative of Edith's but she does not love him. In Milton, John has financial troubles. The strike and variations in trade leaves him losing money. Margaret hears of his troubles and since she has now inherited her godfather's fortune, she offers to buy up the mill and he can rent it from her and manage it. She finds that he has become friendly with Nicholas Higgins, although they disagree about politics. John proposes to her and she accepts him.

KITTEN LADY

I'd like to mention the American Kitten Lady, Hannah Shaw and her work for animals. She has several rescue animals in her home, including pigs and goats. She works at TNR (Trap Neuter Return), taking in cats who live rough and neutering them and sending them back, safe from having more and more kittens. She recently rescued 3 kittens who were very tiny and weak and they are now growing strong.

Rector's Daughter IV

Mary finds that her friendship with Kathy cools a bit, and then she has an operation to fix her mouth, which works, restoring her good looks. Kathy is well meaning, but she finds her other friends more fun than Mary. Mary's father dies, and she is deeply upset. She goes to live with an aunt, in a suburban part of London and has a more fulfilling life, seeing some writers whom she finds too Bohemian.. and getting involved in a local church. She rarely sees Herbert and Kathy, who now have another son. He loves his wife, but accepts that she is silly at times and can't live up to his intellectual level.. but she is devoted to him and tolerates his seeing old college friends for more interesting conversation. Some time passes and Mary becomes ill. She dies only in her 50s. Her life has been lived for others, and she is worn out. After the funeral, Mr Herbert confesses to Kathy that he kissed Mary once and that he loved her, but that he loves Kathy as his wife. She is upset but decides not to be resentful of her memory.

Rector's daughter III

Kathy decides to go for a holiday in France with her sister in law, and she meets a young man there who flirts with her. She is getting more and more fed up with her husband and she toys with the idea of running off with her admirer. Herbert is not very sorry to have a break from his wife. Kathy goes on with her flirtation, and then finds that she has an abscess on her mouth. She is told she will need an operation. In England, Mr Herbert spends more time with Mary, and one day kisses her. She feels guilty for loving a married man but she still can't help herself. Kathy has her operation and to her horror it goes wrong. Her mouth's nerves are damaged and it leaves her with a distorted face which mars her looks. She is desperately upset as she knows that her beauty is the only thing that makes her interesting. She wants to die, and finds that her friends on the Riviera are embarrassed and avoid her. Mary does not know what to expect when she hears that Kathy is coming home. When she gets home Herbert pities her because she is being very brave about her disfigured face. He tells her that they can try another doctor and try to put it right. THen she finds she is pregnant. She feels a bit better because she hopes that even if she has disappointed Herbert by her lack of brains, she can give him a son. Mary feels pity for Kathy and since Kathy begs her to visit, she comes to see her often. THey become more friendly and Kathy gets through her pregnancy and has twin boys.

Rector's Daughter Part II

Mary has a passionate nature, in spite of her being dismissed as dull and churchy by many people and she is falling deeply in love with Mr Herbert. Then he writes to her to tell her that he has become engaged to a young upper class girl called Kathy Hollings, who is beautiful and charming. However she is not very clever and she dimisses people who are below her in class. Mary can't believe that Herbert has fallen in love with Kathy and abandoned her when she was hoping he would propose. She does not exactly dislike Kathy but she thinks that she is silly and vulgar and not up to Herbert's intellectual level. He marries quickly and for a year he is infatuated with his wife. She tries to adjust to life as a clergyman's wife, but she loves hunting and social events and horses, and still hangs around with some of her society friends, including her sister in law who are spoiled and selfish and who dimiss country clergy as nobodies. Soon Herbert finds himself getting very dissatisfied with his bride, she irritates him by her vulgar silliness, her slangy conversation and her habit of singing saucy songs at village concerts and sniggering in church. Herbert and Kathy begin to quarrel. She feels irritated at his condescending ways and he feels foolish for having fallen in love with her.

Rector's Daughter

this is the story of Mary Jocelyn, a clergyman's daughter who lives in a dull fading little village called Deadmayne. Her mother is dead, her older sister, who had mental difficulties, dies young and her older brothers all fall out with their father and go to live abroad, so she is very lonely. She has one or 2 friends of her own class but she is very painfully shy, and her father who is elderly and a very clever man, puts her down all the time. Her best friends are the village people and the servants at the vicarage who are very fond of her. Mary loves to read and does some writing, but her father criticises her work and only wants her to do the traditional work of the Vicar's wife or daughter, teaching Sunday school etc. When she is in her 30s, a clergyman, WIlliam Herbert comes to work in the parish and as his father was a friend of her father's, she grows friendly with him. He seems to like her and she begins to believe that she has found a man who might love her.

FM Mayor

Flora Mayor was a not very prolific writer who lived in the UK. She was born in Surrey in 1872 - her father was a professor of classics and an Anglican clergyman. She had a twin sister Alice who was very dear to her. She was intelligent and her father gave her a good education, sending her to college which was unusual at the time. However she did not do very well at college - spending a lot of her time enjoying herself. Her family were not too well off, and she tried to earn her own living. She was interested in the stage and tried to get into acting. However she did not have any success though she took classes and joined shaky touring companies. She found the actors were rough and not very refined, and began to give up hope of succeeding on the stage. She started to write stories and began to have some small success. She had an admirer, Ernest Shepherd, who wanted to marry her but it took him some time to get a job in India, which meant that he could support her. Alice was rather jealous of losing her sister. Then in 1903 Ernest died of typhoid while they were planning their wedding. Flora did not have any more chances of marriage. She lived with Alice for the rest of her life. Her health was not very good and while she wrote a couple of successful novels, she did not write a lot. She died in 1932 and Alice survived her for many years. Her best known novel is the Rector's Daughter which is about a very shy Victorian girl who lives with her elderly and difficult father in a village in the country. He is a scholar and a clergyman and he seems indifferent or hyper critical to all his children. I'll blog about her novels soon.

North and South Part II

Margaret does her best to like Milton Northern... but she finds it difficult. She meets some of the mill owners at a dinner and finds the women are very boastful. She tries to like John Thorton her father's pupil but she does not like his arrogance and hard hearted demeanour. He does not like his workers to oppose him and claims that he made his way up from poverty so they should be able to do the same. She is cool with him but he finds her attractive. She meets some of the mill workers, and finds it hard to understand them. She is shocked by their organising themselves to strike and not work, and she finds she is snubbed by Higgins, one of the more intelligent workers, when she offers to visit his 2 daughters. She does not seem to have a role as the vicar's daughter, visiting and helping the poor. The Northern folk are too independent for that. Margaret becomes friendly with Nicolas Higgins and his daughters and begins to understand why they have to organise a union and strike... When a strike happens, Margaret protects Thornton from the milling crowd, and he thinks that that means she is in love with him. Then he sees her at the railway station one night with a young man and begins to think she is in love with someone else and seeing him secretly. The truth is that Margaret's brother, Frederick who was in the Navy, led a mutiny because of ill treatment on his ship and he has now had to live abroad and she has to keep his visit to England secret. He comes back to see his mother who is increasingly ill and then goes back to his new home. During his brief visit, he knocks down a man who has gone to the police about him, and Margaret tells lies to cover this up. John knows she is lying but he backs her up.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

This is one of Gaskell's earlier social problem novels. It is set in Manchester though the name is not used. Margaret Hale, the pretty cultivated daughter of a vicar, finds that her father has begun to have doubts about his religious beliefs, and feels he cannot go on as a Church of England priest. (Mrs Gaskell's father, a Unitarian minister resigned from his position because of religious doubts). He has to give up his living and find another job. Mrs Hale is a nervous sensitive woman who is upset by this development. Margaret is also distressed at her father giving up his work and even more so to learn that the family are going to have to move from their pretty parish in Southern England, to move up North and live in an industrial city. When she sees Milton Northern she is depressed at how ugly it is, and worries that it will be difficult to live there. Mr Hale finds that some manufacturers who have worked their way up from poverty to wealth, are keen to get some of the education they missed out on as boys. THe finds a pupil, John Thornton, who has a mill and who wants to study the classics.