Sun in the Morning

by Elizabeth Cadell

The narrator describes the experiences of her friends, Poopy and Marise, growing up in Calcutta, and meeting again after the war as young women in a changed land

Genres: Fiction, India

Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Violet Elizabeth Vandyke was born on 10 November 1903 in Calcutta, British Raj, daughter of British parents, Elizabeth Lynch and Frederick Reginald Vandyke, a colonial officer. During the Great War she studied music in London, but refused a musical career and returned to India where she married in 1928 Henry Dunlop Raymond Mallock Cadell, and they had a son and daughter. After she was widowed ten years later, she returned to England.

Elizabeth wrote her first book 'My Dear Aunt Flora' during the Second World War in 1946, there after producing another 51 light-hearted, humourous and romantic books which won her a faithful readership in England and America. In addition to England and India, many of her books are set in Spain, France, and Portugal. She finally settled in Portugal, where her married daughter still lived.

She died on 9 October 1989, aged eighty-five.

Reviews

[Camellia Hamdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spanking good read, and ranks (to me) amongst some of the nicest coming-of-age books I've read and loved. Although light in style and might, to some, seem over-simple, the characters and places are skilfully drawn and as alive and fresh as today. You will walk down the streets of colonial India (or maybe dash down them in a carriage), meet its people, and see it all through the observant, unprejudiced eyes of a very matter-of-fact and immensely likeable young girl. Humour abounds; the kind that finds you smiling to yourself from ear to ear. To sum it up, a really feel-good read.

[Rebekah]

Started to listen to this on audio, and unfortunately had to call a halt. I could not understand the narrator. She had a lovely voice, but it was so posh and not well modulated. I could only understand about 80% of what she was saying. Will try again someday on Kindle. The narrator was the author's granddaughter, which might account for it.

[Seawitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m always fascinated by stories of those who grew up as ex-pats and in particular during British colonialism of India. I assume this book is part memoir as the author grew up in Calcutta.

This is a story of friendship and coming of age mostly, but also creates a sense of that time for foreigners making their home in Calcutta and Darjeeling. Elements of race and inter-marriage are also introduced.

I found the part set in Darjeeling especially captivating and had to pause to look up photos of the city, the snowy Himalayas and the Toy Train. It made me get a teeny bit of wanderlust as I’ve never been to India and although I’d decided those travel days were over, realized I could still be convinced to make the difficult journey there if only for the views from Darjeeling.

Beautifully written and an easy and delightful read.

I decided this was really a 5 star book. Why not? I liked every bit of it.

[Jannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully drawn and charming.
I was just disappointed that there wasn't an adult chapter

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly charming

Early in the book when she and her friend first encounter Marise she writes that “We both liked her very much. Today- nearly thirty-six years later- we still do”

Given that the action of the book otherwise takes place much earlier and the thirty-six years brings the heroine to the approximate time the book must have been written I wonder whether there was a real life Poopy and Marise.

I would like to think so.

[Christine Goodnough · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting, true-to-life account of girls growing up in India during the time of English rule there. The three girls who become fast friends are all sympathetic, especially the one who narrates the story. We never do learn her name, but she reveals her own character and describes her two friends so well.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of Cadell's books as a teen but my library must not have had this one, which I enjoyed:

https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am re-reading all on this author's books that I can find (Thriftbooks.com has been great) and am enjoying them. The story pace is easy to slow, just day-to-day living in small English villages, no gory murder descriptions, no really horrible bad guys, no graphic sex (and mostly only slight referrals to that anyway)..brings back a lot of memories from years ago reading.

Just started another of Ms Cadell's books, set in India, that feels like the people in it could have been neighbors to this group...

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you ever wonder what it was like to live in India during the British Raj? Well, Elizabeth Cadell lived that life, and she wrote books about it. In this book, a young woman relates stories about her childhood and her friends, who are her lifetime friends. And about that innocent happiness that finally changes as friends marry, life will never be the same. When learning to write, we are told to write about what we know. Clearly, Cadell took the train from Calcutta and changed to the Toy Train as she went to Darjeeling. So many things to be interested in as one reads this book.

[Toni Wyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a young English girl who lives in India with her family. She meets other English girls and a family of Indian children and forms friendships.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Depressing book, but okay in the beginning. Interesting life of English expatriates in India.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming

Written with EC's usual style and wit, this lightly fictionalized memoir tells of life for the well-to-do Brittish under the Raj. Don't expect a sharp expose on Brittish/Indian relations, Cadell comes with the blinders of her class and upbringing. Nevertheless, she has a eye for detail and a love of her fellow men and women, that lifts this story. If you like Cadell, this book goes a long way toward showing that her characters originated in her early life in India. Both her love of eccentricity and her depiction of female friendship, two, in my opinion, of her greatest strengths, are shown to have come from childhood experiences. Great easy read for fans of the light romance.

[Ruth A. Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of her best

If you read a lit of Elizabeth Cadell, you naturally think of her light romances, engaging humor, the occasional gentle mystery and her happy endings and think that it is her light touch and her charm that keeps you coming back. You either forget, or don't notice what a very good writer she is.

This book will remind you. It is a memoir of her girlhood in India that is as sunny, charming and entertaining as any of her novels. Think how unusual that is - an autobiography that is straightforward, unselfconscious and not permeated with the pseudopsychology that makes current ones so tedious and annoying.

It's also fun to read her own story and recognize the heroes and heroines of her novels.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Cadell's depiction of her life in early 1900s India. It was an interesting depiction of the time; I felt that it gave a decent description of a cross-section of society instead of focusing on the wealthier layer of the British in India that is sometimes seen in books and films. I did feel that the ending was abrupt, but then her endings usually are.