Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

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It is the kind of biography that I love because it gets you so close to the people/person described, particularly Sophia. She edited her school newspaper, won prizes for her writing, then graduated in English literature from King’s College London, and found her way into television. I learned a great deal about Indian colonialism and the suffragette movement from this well-written and engaging biography.

Sophia’s unique life gives a really striking individual perspective on the transformative social upheavals of the early 20th century. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use.Sophia Duleep Singh is simply the central character allowing Anand to document various moments in history ranging from the formation of the Punjab Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh through to the early years of the Second World War. It is incredible how completely a literal princess, who sat next to Besant and Pankhurst on the stage at meetings, has been airbrushed out of the suffragette story. Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the fate of the Lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the First World War - and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. I feature as a newsreader in the 2018 Hollywood film The Spy Who Dumped Me and in a 2019 episode of Black Mirror.

At one point she became a famous socialite and fashion icon; then a successful dog breeder and show competitor; and then abandoned it all to throw herself into the suffragette cause (she was never prosecuted for her militant activities because of her connection to her godmother Queen Victoria).

The BBC broadcaster Anita Anand tells the beguiling story of Sophia Duleep Singh, from exile in the Suffolk country estate of Elveden to the suffragette battleground of Westminster, via various trips to her ancestors’ home. Those people brought to life what I was learning in dusty files and once-classified documents in British archives.