Mary Puxley
edited by Molly Titus
ISBN 978-1-896496-68-9
208 pp, photographs, soft cover, $20 plus s&h
Copies of this book may be obtained from:
Molly Titus, email: mollytitus@eastlink.ca
Mary Robertson Sedgewick marries Jimmy (H.L.) Puxley in Toronto in 1932, a week after her 20th birthday, and heads to India, where she lives and writes letters for the next 13 years. In these letters she introduces us to Ronald, Joyce, Gladys, Betty and Reg, as well as Tula Ram, Hira, Ayah, and Mahaj; and to Aryan Samajists, rajahs, the low caste and the wealthy, big game hunters, professors, Indian civil servants, and intrepid women. She takes us from the dusty plains to the waterfalls and heights of the Himalayas; from the city of Agra to the “excitement of real jungle.”
An encounter with German sailors from a cruiser in Bombay, Chamberlain’s infamous speech on the wireless, and English relatives plastering the nursery fireplace against a gas attack foreshadow the upheaval to come. With the words “don’t worry” to her mother (and perhaps to herself), Mary downplays the anti-imperial ferment and the very real possibility of a Japanese invasion of India. Set against a backdrop of momentous world events, the letters — vivid, perceptive, compassionate, witty and informative — draw the reader into a world which remains forever fascinating.Although we hear Jimmy’s voice in one or two of his surviving letters, most of the Letters from India are Mary’s. Many characters turn up on their pages, not the least of which is Mary, the letter writer herself. The letters have been selected and edited by Mary and Jimmy’s daughter, Molly Titus.
