00:06Hi, I'm Emma, the author of The Colour of Dust and Sunlight. The novel is inspired by
00:10my grandmother, Eleni Jones, who left Cardiff in the late 1930s to follow her fiancé to
00:15India after training as a nurse and midwife. Soon after her arrival, the life she believed
00:21she was stepping into unravels. The story follows as she learns to navigate the rhythms
00:25and the realities of life in India set against the Second World War, the crumbling of the
00:30British Empire and the events that would eventually lead to partition. It's a story of love, resilience
00:35and survival in a world going through a huge amount of change. I hope you really enjoy the novel. Thank
00:40you.
00:43It began with an album of old photographs, their corners curled and edges soft with age. My
00:49grandmother, Eleni, had never spoken to me about her years in India, but when I began to piece
00:53together her story, I realised how much had been left unspoken and how extraordinary her life had
00:57really been. Like my mum and like me, she was strong-willed, determined, adventurous and quietly
01:02rebellious in her own way. She left Britain in the late 1930s to follow her fiancé across the world to
01:08India at a time when journeys were made not by text or plane, but by ship, weeks at sea with
01:13nothing
01:13but faith and hope to bridge the distance between hearts. Her story unfolds in a world without
01:18technology, without shortcuts, a world where love, heartbreak and courage travelled by a great steamer,
01:23sealed an ambulance and carried across oceans. It's a story of adventure and loss, bravery and trust,
01:29war and faith, all bound together by a belief in something bigger than circumstance, the power to
01:34enjoy, to love and to begin again.
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