New Writing North

Thomas Stamford Raffles, the charismatic founder of Singapore and Governor of Java, remains a controversial figure. His own end was sad, though his fame was immortal. In Raffles: The Man in his Moment, the first biography of him for over 40 years, Victoria Glendinning charts his prodigious rise within the social and historical contexts of his world. From the late 19th century when the Raj was at its height, many of Britain’s best and brightest young men went out to India to work. With the advent of steam travel and the opening of the Suez Canal, countless young women, suffering at the lack of eligible men in Britain, followed in their wake. In The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj, Anne de Courcy tells the untold stories of those women. Recorded on Friday 26 October 2012 at Durham Book Festival. For more information about the festival, see http://www.durhambookfestival.com.