Naga Queen - Softcover

Hayton, Pauline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 149040631X ISBN 13: 9781490406312

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

In late 1930s Britain, a young woman yearns for the exciting adventures that seem to be reserved exclusively for men. “Come visit me in India,” her friend Alexa writes, and Ursula Graham Bower does, unaware that Assam is where her dreams will come true.Flouting convention, she goes to live in the jungle-clad hills with reformed headhunters, the Zemi Nagas, where she finds fulfillment and a sense of purpose by recording their culture and providing much needed medical care. Her attempts to reconcile the distrustful Zemi with the British authorities are unsuccessful, until the 1942 Japanese invasion of Burma becomes the catalyst to heal the breach.The British Army recruits her into “V” Force as a guerilla. Leading a band of Naga scouts and a platoon of soldiers, she watches the border areas. The Japanese invade India and, with British lines twenty miles behind her, the danger increases. Fearing the authorities will make her leave if they contact her, and that the Nagas will fold if she goes, Ursula signals H.Q.: “Going forward to find the enemy. Send more rifles.” The Nagas remain loyal in the most dangerous circumstances, even being prepared to die with her. They put their trust in Ursula and the authorities and the authorities trust them, and they do not fail each other. The Zemi suspicion of the British Government dissolves.As the war moves into Burma, Ursula receives the Order of the British Empire Medal for her exploits. Lt. Colonel Betts, a “V” Force officer intrigued by the idea of a woman guerilla and seeking an unconventional wife, schemes to meet Ursula. She marries him, having found a man who loves her for living life on her own terms

About this title

From the Author:

I came across Ursula Graham Bower's story while researching "A Corporal's War", a book about my father's WWII adventures. I immediately knew I had to write a book about her.
Writing "Naga Queen" changed my life. While researching Ursula's private papers, I became friends with her daughter Catriona, who now lives in New Delhi, India. Like her mother, she, too, is an adopted Naga, very much involved in improving the lot of the Naga tribes that live in remote areas.
Through Catriona, my husband and I have become supporters of  remote Magulong Village's school to enable all the children in the village to receive an education. Our involvement with Magulong and our visits to the village bring meaning and fulfillment to our lives.

About the Author:

Pauline Hayton was born in 1946 in the northeast of England and worked twelve years as a probation officer in her hometown of Middlesbrough before immigrating to the United States in 1991 with her husband Peter. They live in Naples, Florida.

 

After listening to her father's war stories and reading his tattered wartime diaries, she felt compelled to write her first book about his WWII adventures, A Corporal's War, published November 2003 and later as a Kindle book from Amazon.com.

 

While researching A Corporal's War, she stumbled upon Ursula Graham Bower's story and knew instantly that she would write a book about this extraordinary woman. Naga Queen was the result, a novel based on eight years in Ursula Graham Bower's life. (Available from Amazon.com as a Kindle book.)

 

In January 2006, the author, having twice survived cancer, went to Myanmar (Burma) to follow in her father's WWII footsteps. She wrote a travelogue about the trip: Myanmar in my Father's Footsteps: A Journey of Rebirth and Remembrance. (Available as a Kindle book from Amazon.com)

 

Hayton recently completed Chasing Brenda, a comedy/adventure novel based on a 2011 trip she made to Nagaland, in NE India. (Available from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com as eBooks)

 

Her latest book is If You Love Me, Kill Me, a story about elder care and euthanasia based on her own experiences of caring for her parents.

 

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 149040631X
• ISBN 13: 9781490406312
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 357