From Cork to Calcutta: My Mother's Story

by Milty Bose

Imelda Connor is a classic Irish lass—a fiery, red-headed beauty, quick to anger, and fiercely protective of her younger siblings. Growing up on a small farm in the rolling hills of County Cork, she thinks she has her life completely mapped out. Here in Ireland she will live an enchanted life with the perfect Irish husband, devoting herself to her family and to her livestock.

But Imelda soon finds that life doesn’t always go according to plan. Everything is turned upside-down when Imelda moves to England and happens to meet a dashing, rakish Bengali man named Shu Bose. Shu, whose knowledge of Ireland stops at James Joyce and W.B. Yeats, is captivated by Imelda’s natural beauty and vivacious charm, and the two quickly embark on a whirlwind romance. At the tender age of eighteen, in the spring of 1932, Imelda boards a ship bound for Calcutta—and a very different life to the one she had always imagined.

From Cork to Calcutta by Milty Bose transports readers back to pre-Independence India, to London between the wars, and to the genteel life of bhadralok Bengali high society. It’s the intimate and true story of Bose’s parents and their unconventional love-story that crosses class, nationality, and cultural boundaries.

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2015

Reviews

[Wilmer Rezvani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story that begins in the humid streets of Calcutta and traverses across two continents, it's one of the best biographical stories I have read. A remarkable story of a strong woman, written in a very intimate and interesting toe. I binge read it in record time!

[Cydnee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful love story and window into a time gone by. Inspired me to plan a trip to India . . .if only I had a time machine.