Some years ago, I came upon a number of diaries and letters which revealed a story I had known nothing of until then: the remarkable life of Jemimah Charlotte Augusta Fairfax, the sister of my grandmother, Frances Mary Louisa Fairfax.
Among these papers were references to her years in Calcutta, to the people she knew there, and to a friendship which, in time, became something far more profound. They offered glimpses of a world very different from our own, and of a young woman whose choices were to change the course of her life.
The surviving documents provided the inspiration for this story, but where the papers fell silent, I have allowed imagination to supply what history could not. The result is a work of historical fiction, in which I have sought to recreate something of the people, places and atmosphere of the early nineteenth century.
This is, therefore, my interpretation of Jemimah’s story: a story of affection, courage, divided loyalties and the search for a life of one’s own.
Jemima Hartford
1905