Kingfishers Catch Fire

Sophie Barrington Ward, without a husband, with two children and very little income, is faced with making a new life for herself.

Friends beg her to go back to the security of Camberley. But the aunt who knows her best says, “Sophie will do as she likes. She always does.” What she likes, in this case, is to stay in India — and not the Westernised India either, but in a tiny villa in the beautiful Vale of Kashmir. Sophie is determined to make a home in this Eden, and to live with the Indians and like it. Pundit Pramatha Kaul, her wise landlord, shakes his head. Profit David, her merchant friend, warns her. But Sophie remains unruffled.

Then matters quietly begin to go wrong…