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The Fishing Fleet

Husband-Hunting in the Raj

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The Fishing Fleet

By: Anne de Courcy
Narrated by: Greta Scacchi
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About this listen

 From the late 19th century, when the Raj was at its height, many of Britain's best and brightest young men went out to India to work as administrators, soldiers and businessmen. With the advent of steam travel and the opening of the Suez Canal, countless young women, suffering at the lack of eligible men in Britain, followed in their wake. This amorphous band was composed of daughters returning after their English education, girls invited to stay with married sisters or friends, and yet others whose declared or undeclared goal was simply to find a husband. They were known as the Fishing Fleet, and this book is their story, hitherto untold.

For these young women, often away from home for the first time, one thing they could be sure of was a rollicking good time. By the early twentieth century, a hectic social scene was in place, with dances, parties, amateur theatricals, picnics, tennis tournaments, cinemas, gymkhanas with perhaps a tiger shoot and a glittering dinner at a raja's palace thrown in. And, with men outnumbering women by roughly four to one, romances were conducted at alarming speed and marriages were frequent. But after the honeymoon life often changed dramatically: whisked off to a remote outpost with few other Europeans for company and where constant vigilance was required to guard against disease, they found it a far cry from the social whirlwind of their first arrival.

Anne de Courcy's sparkling narrative is enriched by a wealth of first-hand sources - unpublished memoirs, letters and diaries rescued from attics - which bring this forgotten era vividly to life.

Read by Greta Scacchi.

(p) 2012 Orion Publishing Group©2012 Anne de Courcy Europe Great Britain Marriage England Sports
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Most relevant

What did you like most about The Fishing Fleet?

These stories are about an amazing time in history lived by equally amazing people

What other book might you compare The Fishing Fleet to, and why?

Heat and Dust because it evokes the same sense of an era

What about Greta Scacchi’s performance did you like?

Greta delivers

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The quest for romance

Fascinating

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A carefully researched and well read book about a little known 'marriage market'. Warning: there are descriptions of tiger hunts, which some may find a little distressing, in this book.

More fascinating social history

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it goes on and on from one anecdote to another with no depth and drive to the story. I have up after , chapter four as there was no character with whom I could anchor the study

so biring

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.