Catherine Raynes: Shattered Lands and The Heir Apparent

Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple  

A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. 

As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait – were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the ‘Indian Empire’, or more simply as the Raj. 

It was the British Empire’s crown jewel, a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the world’s population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. Its people used the Indian rupee, were issued passports stamped ‘Indian Empire’, and were guarded by armies garrisoned in forts from the Bab el-Mandeb to the Himalayas 

And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a legacy of war, exile and division. 

Shattered Lands, for the first time, presents the whole story of how the Indian Empire was unmade. How a single, sprawling dominion became twelve modern nations. How maps were redrawn in boardrooms and on battlefields, by politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi, by kings in remote palaces and soldiers in trenches. 

Its legacies include civil war in Burma and ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and Northeast India, and the Rohingya genocide. It is a history of ambition and betrayal, of forgotten wars and unlikely alliances, of borders carved with ink and fire. And, above all, it is the story of how the map of modern Asia was made. 

  

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage  

They would always choose the Crown over their family. It was the pact they made for the honour of wearing it. 

Lexi Villiers is a 29-year-old Englishwoman doing her medical residency in Hobart, working too hard, worried about her bank balance, and living with friends. It's an ordinary, happy kind of life, and getting even better, because as the dawn is breaking on New Year's Day, Lexi is about to kiss the man she loves for the very first time. 

But by midnight, everything will change. Because Lexi is in fact not an ordinary young woman. She is Princess Alexandrina, third in line to the British throne—albeit estranged from the rest of her family and living in voluntary exile on the other side of the world. But following a terrible accident which has claimed the life of her father and her twin brother, Lexi—the black sheep of her family and, until this moment, always destined to be the spare—is now the heir apparent, first in line to the throne once her grandmother, the elderly Queen, dies. Called back to do her duty, she arrives in London to a Palace riven with power plays and media leaks, all the while guarding painful secrets of her own, not knowing who she can trust. 

Palace waters are treacherous, rumours are rife, and selling each other's secrets is a family tradition. And with the Crown just within her grasp, Lexi must choose what bonds she will keep ... and what she is willing to leave behind. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks That Be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Catherine Reigns, our book reviewer, is here with her reads
to recommend this weekend. Hey Catherine, Hey Jack. We're going
to begin with a new book by Sam Dalrymple. It's
called Chattered Lands, and it's a history of modern South
Asia told through five different partitions. In that name, Dalrymple
will be very familiar to fans of history around India.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
That's right, because his father, William writes a lot of
history around this area. And Sam's taken on the story
of the Indian Empire and how this single dominion becomes
twelve nations and how the maps you know, in boardrooms
and battlefields and politicians and kings and all of the
soldiers and all of the people that change this and

(00:56):
resulted in the formation of the twelve states that we
see today. And it does cover five partitions. It starts
in the British Raj and begins with Aiden and Burma
and then being separated from the Indian Empire, and then
ending up in the West and East now Bangladesh and
Pakistan's division. And it begins with the petition of Burma,
and that's sort of where the nationalism sort of rears

(01:17):
its sort of bloodthirsty head, I guess, and proceeds through
that partitioning of the Arabian Raj and then dealing with
the petition as we kind of know it now and
ending in nineteen seventy one, and you get lots of
narrative in here. Darwynp has gone through and interviews and
diaries and first hand accounts and really tries to sort
almost personalize that that narrative. And it's really violent what happens.

(01:42):
And there's really three figures I think that stand out.
There was Jena and mount Bountain and Patel and Gena Cuts,
this real tragic figure in his personal and political life.
And then there's Shadia Patel, who just was peirs to
actually be just an awful man. And then mount Batten,
who history has probably been kind to in this book

(02:03):
really isn't and how he divided the empire, and lots
of stuff that he did could have been avoided and
certainly less bloodshed, and you know, we're having dealt with
things with a little bit more foresight and empathy. And
it's really interesting the past and the regions and the boundaries.
And I have to admit this is not a subject
that I am well versed in, but I found it

(02:23):
fascinating and the research seems really outstanding, and the start
of writings similar to his dad's, you know, it's you know,
that narration and feels like you just kind of going
through It never feels like a dry history or reading
a textbook. It's fascinating.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh, very good. Okay, that's Shattered Lands by Sam Drymple.
Next up The Air Apparent by Rebecca Armitage.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
So for something completely different. This novel uses some very
loose reference to some historical figures and it centers on
this girl, Leslie Villas, and she's built this life in Tasmania.
She's working as a trainee doctor and sharing a home
with her friends and sort of you know, living a
reasonably good life. But actually her brother, her twin brother,
is the heir to the British throne once her father passes,

(03:08):
and so while she's in the middle of a residency,
the real unthinkable happens and her father and brother are
killed in a tragic accident, and she finds herself returning
to England as the heir of the throne, and her
grandmother gives her twelve months to decide whether she should
take the crown or return to her life. And there's
all sorts of great characters in here. There's an uncle
who's desperate to take over and will do anything. There's

(03:30):
a sister in law with a devastating secret, and of
course a powalace full of treachery and rumor. And there's
lots of family drama and mystery and characters and lots
of the stories told with the kind of flashbacks and times,
and it's a really good tale. And it's got wit
and humor and the spectacle of the monarchy and this

(03:50):
alternate British royal family where at least half the members
you could probably pack as to who their real life
counterpart will be. And I didn't think. I went into
this with kind of like, oh yeah, okay, I'm not
sure about this, and I was surprisingly hooked by novel
and a writing's brilliant and interesting and this great human story.

(04:11):
It's well worth a read.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Oh very good. Okay. So that's the Heir Apparent by
Rebecca Armitage Catherine's first book, Shattered Lands by Sam d Rymple,
Like she interviewed William d Rymple his father a few
weeks ago. You can see that on YouTube. It's like,
William d Rymple is just such an amazing communicator. So
if Sam is anything like his old man, I'm sure
that Shattered Lands is an amazing, amazing book. As well

(04:33):
as as well as writing, of course, he hosts the
Empire podcast, which has to be one of my all
time favorites.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks B from nine am Saturday, or follow
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