Cancelled: Book Launch: Midnight Legacy

This event has been cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances.

A presentation about the true story of Nita Singh’s remarkable life, based on her extensive personal archive. Nita was always fascinated by India. As a young woman in 1930s London, she joined the India League, run by the charismatic barrister Krishna Menon, later the first Indian Ambassador to the UK and UN, and co-founder of Penguin Books. The League in those days was a subversive organization whose members were subject to police raids and harassment. In 1943 Nita travelled to India on a troop convoy. In Ambala, Lahore, and Punjab, she witnesses the dying days and cruelty of the Raj and the agony of Partition. Through an extraordinary range of friendships, from Menon to Sir Feroz Noon Khan and many others, we see first-hand the liberation of a great nation.

Readings will be by Melanie Hughes and fellow actor, Nadia Ostacchini. They will be referenced against a talk by the distinguished historian Professor William Gould (Professor of Indian History, Leeds University) and followed by a Q&A session.

Melanie Hughes trained at the Central School of Speech & Drama. She went on to act in theatre, television, and films. She began writing for Ken Russell in the TV series Lady Chatterley and worked on further projects for him, the BBC, London Films and Union Pictures. Melanie is now a full-time writer.

William Gould is a Professor in the School of History at the University of Leeds. His area of expertise is the History of India, the 19th and 20th Centuries; Religion; Indian Politics; Politics of Caste and Tribe; British Asian Histories.