Cawnpore: A battle of loyalties

John Williamson #2

by Tom Williams

Distraught by tumultuous events in Borneo and separated from his lover, John Williamson comes to India to make his way with the East India Company in the frontier city of Cawnpore.

Here, he struggles to fit in; a gay man in a straight society; a farm labourer’s son in a world of gentleman’s clubs and dinner parties. Yet he finds himself falling in love with the country, and in particular with a young nobleman in the court of a local lord, and begins to think he can make a good life for himself there.

But whispers of mutiny and insurrection abound in the local populace, and when the country is plunged into war, Williamson must choose whose side he is really on.

Set against the bloody backdrop of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Williamson’s adventures chronicle events which shocked the world and shaped the future of the Indian nation.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, LGBT

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2012

About the author

Tom Williams used to write books for business. Now he writes novels set in the 19th century that are generally described as fiction but which are often more honest than the business books. (He writes contemporary fantasy as well, but that's a dark part of his life, so you'll have to explore that on your own - ideally with a friend and a protective amulet.)

His stories about James Burke (based on a real person) are exciting tales of high adventure and low cunning set around the Napoleonic Wars. The stories have given him the excuse to travel to Argentina, Egypt, and Spain and call it research.

Tom lives in London. His main interest is avoiding doing any honest work and this leaves him with time to ski, skate and dance tango, all of which (before covid) he thought he did quite well. In between he reads old books and spends far too much time looking at ancient weaponry.

Reviews

[Nan Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars out of 5

There is this category of books called "gay fiction" or perhaps "GLBT fiction", the designation of which seems to imply that only GLBT people will want to read the books. As an author of a lesbian historical novel, I know this because potential readers of my book have said so. "I'm not a lesbian, so I won't be reading a lesbian novel." I know I am whistling in the dark, but i always answer, "Why not? Gay people read straight books." Yes, there are books that aare clearly meant to appeal to either gays or lesbians, though straight women seem to have a great interest in the former, but there are also novels, like mine, that are meant for any historical fiction reader. They just happen to have a GLBT protagonist. What happens to that person in the story is the point, and how would that be different from any other protagonist?

Tom Williams' Cawnpore is just such a book. The "sequel" to Williams' fascinating The White Rajah,it takes up where James Brooke's disenchanted lover, John Williamson, has left him in Singapore and decides to make his way in the world alone. He signs on with the British East India Company and is sent to the city of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in India to to be the assistant to the amiable collector (of taxes). Ill at ease in a society where class at least would alienate him, he also knows that being a man who loves men would get him imprisoned if anyone knew. He takes respite at Saturday house, an estate owned by a local potentate friendly to the British, where he meets Mungo, a young nobleman, who teaches him Hindustani and all about the Hindy gods and traditions, and who becomes his lover. John discovers he can pass for Indian and learns a great deal about Indian life by masquerading as a beggar, a cavalryman, and others.

It is 1857. The infamous affair of the British being rumored to be using animal grease on the cartridges the Hindu and Moslem soldiers must bite to load their guns, is about to result in a devastating rebellion. John must manage to survive in a situation where he doesn't belong in either camp.

As I said above, Cawnpore is the story of an Everyman who is witness to great events. As the strength of historical fiction is its unique ability to offer readers an inperson look at what it was like to be affected by such events, the book tells the story of the Rebellion as it developed, as it was conducted, as it went awry, and as the consequences for regular people became apparent. Is it historically accurate? I'll answer that with another question, is what historians tell us happened accurate? When humans can record events as objectively as a machine, maybe, but the point is that historical fiction gives a reader something he or she can understand. My other answer is, yes, as far as it needs to be. Sppeculative fiction does not only refer to science fiction. I know for a fact that Williams researched both his books carefully and successfully.

Where this novel does more than just recount events is that the protagonist, Williamson, has the opportunity to see both sides of the events. His ambivalence about his ostensible "natural" affuliation to his countrymen, allows him to see the value in each culture. Then when the hostilities are well underway he can insinuate himself into situations no Englishman could. He would be the perfect spy, but circumstances and his own perplexed loyalties turn him into more of a witness than an operative. he is able to ride with the Indian cavalry, get into the compound where the British are under siege, as well as hear what those concerned in the potentate's household are thinking about the revbellion. He is even able to affect the well being of at least two of the beleaguered British.

This is a shameful but inevitable event in world history. There really were no "good guys". British arrogance caused the rebellion, but so did greed and ambition on the part of some of the Indian leaders. More than that the ball, once rolling, forced those who may have been more just, more humane, make tragic decisions. It is also a great yarn, the reader never knowing what will happen next and jow Williamson will cope with the challenges.

Williams has done a highly creditable job of constructiong and maintaining the mind and heart of the main character and narrator, never failing to show his dilemma. His relationship with Mungo contrasts with his relationship with James Brooke, the Great Man and first love vs. the easy, generous love of the young Indian. It is actually not until the end of the book that Williamson reflects on the two loves and comes to understandings he could not have gained earlier.

In short, this is a fine work of historical fiction, faithful to the events but able to reveal far more about them through the interpolation of self reflective fictional characters. If this book is not read by people who are not gay, then they are the losers. This is a story of a person uniquely cast in a tragic story.

I am hopeful that more books about GLBT people as simply part of the tapestry of history will be forthcoming.

See more reviews like this at teh GLBT Boosgelf http://bookworld.editme.com

[Lynn Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cawnpore is the second book in Tom Williams series about John Williamson but I read it first. The good news is that it can easily be read as a standalone story although I think having read the first book probably adds something to understanding Williamson as a character.

John Williamson is employed as a Deputy Collector in British India in the mid-19th century. Being a secretly gay man in Victorian society, automatically puts Williamson in an uncomfortable position and this is compounded by his willingness to engage with the local Indian community in a way that was becoming increasingly rare at this point in Anglo-Indian history.

The story of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 is very well known to me, so I was always going to be picky about the details, and there was nothing to annoy me about the author’s interpretation of events in this book. He looks at the rebellion from all sides and does a good job of trying to keep within the minds of his characters, without stepping out to impose a modern morality for the sake of political correctness. At the same time, Williamson’s relationships with Indian people, and particularly his love affair with one , enables the author to introduce a slightly different perspective to the traditional British view of the time. It is a clever device and in no way unbelievable; it was only as the nineteenth century advanced that the rigid racial distinctions became common in British India. Williamson feels like something of a throwback to some of the Nabobs of the eighteenth century who integrated far more with local people and often adopted Indian customs and dress.

That digression aside, Tom Williams is a good writer who knows his history and tells an excellent story. All the colourful descriptions and skilful characterisation of his other books are present. The run-up to the massacre was a masterpiece of slow building tension, probably made worse for those of us who knew what was coming.

This is a fantastic book, it was the first one of the author’s that I read, and it’s still the best for me. I knew the history very well but I loved this interpretation of it. The mutiny is a hugely complex topic and this book manages not to over-simplify while still being eminently readable.

Highly recommended.

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Cawnpore’ is the second novel by Tom Williams about John Williamson, and follows on from his hero’s adventures in ‘The White Rajah’. In that novel John Williamson gives an account of his life and adventures with James Brooke of Sarawak. Sarawak, in the 19thC, was part of Borneo, now it is the largest state in Malaysia, with a coastline on the South China Sea. It was a wild and exotic place for a young Englishman to start his career and the adventures he had make a good plot line for ‘The White Rajah’. In ‘Cawnpore’ we learn of John Williamson’s adventures in India where he becomes involved in the Indian Mutiny, in particular the siege of Cawnpore. It would probably help the reader to have read the first novel, but it is not necessary. Both books stand alone.

The Indian War of 1857 was marked by several horrific incidents, but the siege of Cawnpore was an appalling mess, one of the worst disasters of the war, and the 19th century. It certainly led to the East India Company being discredited and removed from its position of power in India. The siege was a real British military muddle up with attendant massacres which caused a huge amount of fuss and bother in Victorian Britain. There are contemporary diaries and accounts of the siege which the author has used to good effect, enabling him to write the novel in the 1st person, like a journal written at the time.


John Williamson arrives in India and, because of his Sarawak experiences, he is appointed Deputy Collector in Cawnpore, for the East India Company. As he learns how to do his job, and who to talk to, how to cope with the social life and find his way around the area, so too does the reader. Williamson’s discovery and exploration of this part of India is well told, with lots of lively details which create a realistic India for the reader.

I have a dislike of historical novels where the main character has a modern mind-set and tut-tuts over the treatment of natives or women or some other P.C. item. If the novel is a 19thC historical novel then I expect characters to think in what I consider to be offensive ways about women, and to use offensive words like ‘nigger’ or ‘wog’. John Williamson is the exception. The reader sees him grow into a more tolerant, ‘modern’ thinking man about India because he is an outsider. Williamson is an onlooker in his own culture because he is homosexual, when homosexuality was illegal. He can never relax his guard and must always be careful. In India, unlike most other countries at the time, homosexuality was accepted by Hindus. Thus Williamson slowly becomes deeply involved with the local Indian ‘prince’, Nana Sahib, and his extended family because he can be at ease with them. He becomes close friends with Nana Sahib’s nephew, Mungo Buksh, who eventually becomes his lover. This friendship leads Williamson into developing skills with the language, both spoken and written. He learns about the Hindu religion, and all the ins and outs of Nana Sahib’s way of life. Mungo Buksh has a strong streak of mischief and he involves Williamson in many incidents which as a white man he would not normally experience. This is possible because Mungo teaches Williamson how to darken his skin and dress up, usually as one of Nana Sahib’s cavalry officers, but often as other Indian characters. These skills become vital to Williamson’s survival when the fighting begins.

Tension slowly builds and when the violence breaks out we are not surprised to learn that Williamson is torn. He can see, and therefore so can the reader, the stupidity of the East India Company which has led to the fighting. He is torn between his lover, Nana Sahib’s rights, and his duty to the British. Using the skills Mungo has taught him Williamson becomes a spy for the local British when the siege begins, trying to aid them whenever he can. There can’t be a happy ending, of course. There wasn’t and so there isn’t. But this novel is an excellent introduction to India as part of the British Rajah, and to the siege of Cawpore. The author does not deviate from the facts and the novel is a solid piece of history turned into a fascinating story and well worth a read.

[Terry Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book immediately as soon as I'd read the stand-alone sequel, Back Home. In Cawnpore, India, John Williamson is employed as a Deputy Collector in the British governed town during the middle of the 19th century. Not always comfortable in the role of a conqueror in a foreign country, he seeks his own amusement, and forms relationships outside the British community.

This is the story of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and the build up and aftermath. I knew next to nothing about this, and found it most interesting. Tom Williams is a skilful writer, adept in both characterisation and story telling. I liked how Williamson was reminded that the British were the trespassers, and that the Indians' viewpoint was that they were taking back what was rightfully theirs; possibly the most profound moment in the book. The treatment of the British by the Indians might not have been honourable, but it was no less so than in any other war; however, the purpose of a book review is to comment on the readability of the book itself, not the activities of the characters, especially when the historical fiction is based on fact.

In early part of the book the author has portrayed so well the stiff formalities of the early Victorians. As tension mounts, he doesn't favour any particular faction within the story, and the descriptions of the build up to the massacre are detailed and well thought out. Sometimes I found the book a little long-winded, but not often; sometimes long-windedness is necessary in order to report all facts.

Williamson disguises himself as an Indian to facilitate his ability to move between camps; at times I wondered if this was a little far-fetched, but then I read in the author's notes at the end that some British officers used such disguises successfully during the mutiny, so do please bear that in mind when reading.

On occasion I found the detail of his physical relationship with Mungo Buksh to be unnecessary, but that may be because I prefer my battle stories without the 'love interest'! On the whole, this novel is all that historical fiction should be: absorbing, believable and educational.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Tom Williams' novel 'The White Rajah', I was looking forward to reading 'Cawnpore', and it didn't disappoint. Although there are minor references to the earlier novel, you don't have to read one before the other - 'Cawnpore' is a compelling story in its own right.
The author explains in an Editor's Note that most of the events set out in the book are based on historical writings from the time. The facts are that the siege at Cawnpore took place in India in 1857, when India was under British control. In the novel, John Williamson takes an administrative position with the East India Company in Cawnpore, and is there at the time of the siege. How he observes and influences events is really what the story is about.
The book is well-written, and I enjoyed reading the descriptions of how the British set up things in India at the time, and how they were regarded by the Indian peoples. Parts of the book explain the differences between various sections of Indian society at the time, and this helps put the story of Cawnpore into a context that simple taught history would ignore. It's more than a history book though, and maintains a good tempo, while telling an exciting story about someone who was able to integrate into both the British and the Indian sides of the conflict.
Well worth a read.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book through goodreads first reads.

Coming to a sequel before the original is never ideal and I'll definitely be looking to read the White Rajah as well. However Cawnpore stands relatively well on its own and not reading the previous book didn't hinder my enjoyment.
Cawnpore is an ambitious work centered around a fascinating period of world history which is compelling and well researched and can be compared to works like The Impressionist which also deals with issues surrounding race, sexuality and identity during the days of Empire.
It has a personal narrative that moves beyond the preconceptions of LGBT fiction and approaches that ranks of Sarah Waters in storytelling.

[scott wormwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good historical novel

The reason for the revolt was shown correctly. It showed how so many natives where treated with out understanding the cultures. The British my have lead the way in the nineteenth century. But it had gone on for years. Having read Tom Williams books out of order I look forward to reading the first.

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

self-published book, story was fictionalized but based on a historical event. technically written well but based on the implausible premise of British operating in the guise of an Indian native during this rebellion. oh yah...with an M-M relationship that felt peripheral.

[S.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evocative and haunting. I couldn't put this book down. Not only is it a solid account of the tragic events at Cawnpore, it's a rattling good adventure and a gentle, understated love story. It's one I'll return to.

[Michael Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

My full review of this book can be found at Speak Its Name.