Description
Book Synopsis''Sharply observed, snappily written and thoroughly researched, She Merchants provides a fabulous panorama of a largely ignored area of social history. Katie Hickman successfully challenges the stereotype of the snobbish, matron-like memsahib by deploying a riveting gallery of powerful and often eccentric women ranging from stowaways and runaways through courtesans and society beauties to Generals'' feisty wives and Viceroys'' waspish sisters. It is full of surprises and new material and completely engaging from beginning to end'' William Dalrymple
The first British women to set foot in India did so in the very early seventeenth century, two and a half centuries before the Raj.
Women made their way to India for exactly the same reasons men did - to carve out a better life for themselves. In the early days, India was a place where the slates of ''blotted pedigrees'' were wiped clean; bankrupts given a chance to make good; a taste for adventure satisfied
Trade Review
Sharply observed, snappily written and thoroughly researched, She Merchants provides a fabulous panorama of a largely ignored area of social history. Katie Hickman successfully challenges the stereotype of the snobbish, matron-like memsahib by deploying a riveting gallery of powerful and often eccentric women ranging from stowaways and runaways through courtesans and society beauties to Generals' feisty wives and Viceroys' waspish sisters. It is full of surprises and new material and completely engaging from beginning to end -- William Dalrymple
Absolutely brilliant . . . remarkable women, until now almost unknown. I was so gripped I couldn't put it down -- Antonia Fraser
Goes beneath the surface of imperial male history . . . a cast of extraordinary women. Wonderful -- Anita Anand
Fascinating . . . I was swept along by Hickman's concise chapters and her crisp, wry style * The Times *
Thrilling tales of some of our wild colonial women . . . There have been other studies of the British memsahibs but none so focused on the adventurous and unconventional, and none more conscientiously researched, historically sound and compellingly written. An excellent book -- John Keay * Evening Standard *
[A] fascinating and informative book -- Virginia Nicholson * Sunday Times *
[A] colourful, witty and elegantly written new perspective on British India through the eyes of some of the women who were there . . . Hickman gives us a wealth of entertaining details * Daily Mail *
Rich in detail and full of astonishing stories * Country Life *
Hickman deftly negotiates the shifting politics of time and place . . . Hickman has a novelist's touch -- Jane Robinson * Times Literary Supplement *
A welcome corrective to Raj-dominated, male-heavy histories of Britain's relationship with India * History Revealed *
Eye-popping and extremely readable -- Jenny Colgan * Spectator *
A history of the bolshy, pioneering British women who sailed for India * The Times *
