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pohutukaryl's review against another edition
3.0
A super interesting life to read about, but erred on the side of too much context, starting out generations before Sophia and sometimes delving hard into the lives of people who affected her. Still, it's a story we needed, especially with suffragette media frequently whitewashing history.
sophronisba's review against another edition
4.0
British monarchy, India, and the suffragist movement? I love it when someone writes a book specifically tailored to me. I could barely put this book down.
rjjain14's review against another edition
5.0
A MUST read. A beautiful, thrilling, heartbreaking, and genuinely fascinating look at the life of an incredible woman and suffragette.
sujata's review against another edition
4.0
Learned a lot about someone I had never heard about and some new things about Indian history and the RAj that I didn’t know.
humerareads's review against another edition
5.0
This book was fascinating, and I loved reading it.
We learned about the Suffrage movement at school, and also some of the prominent figures that spearheaded the movement and pushed for progress for the advancement of women and their rights, specifically the right to vote.
However, I never learned about Sophia Duleep Singh, a princess born into Indian royalty and god-daughter to Queen Victoria.
Sophia's contributions to the Suffrage movement were extensive, part of Emmeline Pankhurst's inner circle - and she used her elevated status to work towards the cause. I knew literally nothing about the Maharaja Duleep Singh, Sophia and her siblings, and this book was an absorbing biographical insight into their lives.
I also enjoyed the structure of the biography, the narrative, almost novelistic structure to this book made it really interesting to read. The book also covers the topic of Indian Independence and other defining moments of history involving Britain and the Indian subcontinent, including some causes which Sophia herself worked towards supporting.
I really recommend this book - Sophia was truly an inspiration and I really enjoyed reading her story.
We learned about the Suffrage movement at school, and also some of the prominent figures that spearheaded the movement and pushed for progress for the advancement of women and their rights, specifically the right to vote.
However, I never learned about Sophia Duleep Singh, a princess born into Indian royalty and god-daughter to Queen Victoria.
Sophia's contributions to the Suffrage movement were extensive, part of Emmeline Pankhurst's inner circle - and she used her elevated status to work towards the cause. I knew literally nothing about the Maharaja Duleep Singh, Sophia and her siblings, and this book was an absorbing biographical insight into their lives.
I also enjoyed the structure of the biography, the narrative, almost novelistic structure to this book made it really interesting to read. The book also covers the topic of Indian Independence and other defining moments of history involving Britain and the Indian subcontinent, including some causes which Sophia herself worked towards supporting.
I really recommend this book - Sophia was truly an inspiration and I really enjoyed reading her story.
sarahelizabeth205's review against another edition
4.0
The book is about more than Sophia’s life. It gives a history of British rule in India and of the British suffrage movement. I didn’t realize how the book had struck a chord with me until this evening when watching an episode of Call the Midwife with a suffragette that I began to ball. I think we as women today have no real understanding of what our formothers went through in achieving the right to vote, it was incredible how brave those women were. I think that today in a time when disenfranchisement is once again in the daily news it is important to remember people have literally lost their lives for something we not only take for granted but see as a chore. I think everyone should read some sort of book this election season featuring the fight for votes and really think about what a awesome right it truly is.
sophiewelsh's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
girlvsbookshelf's review against another edition
4.0
An absorbing and well-researched memoir, which not only tells the story of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, but also thoroughly contextualises her major life events and her activism. There’s a lot here about the wider history of India during the British Raj that I was ignorant of before. The coverage of Sophia’s involvement with the Suffragette movement is equally in-depth and provided some new perspectives on a topic which I thought I was fairly familiar with. The audiobook narration, for those interested, is excellent.
avid_reader's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Sophia: A girl who was brave, fought for what she believed in and became a voice for the voiceless.
A Princess?
A Suffragette?
Queen Victoria’s goddaughter?
The Last Sikh Emperor’s granddaughter?
~ All of these and so much more ~
Brought vividly to life by BBC journalist and presenter Anita Anand, discover the true story of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh’s journey from Princess to Revolutionary.
The details that struck me the most were the variety of activities that Sophia partook in as an activist from being part of the Woman’s Tax Resistance League to her involvement with leading Indian nationalists such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and other Indian suffragettes such as Sarojini Naidu.
This is an insightful and compelling read for all South Asian history lovers and those who in the wake of the first South Asian Heritage Month would love to learn all about an extraordinary woman who spent her life fighting for gender and racial equality in Britain and beyond.
A Princess?
A Suffragette?
Queen Victoria’s goddaughter?
The Last Sikh Emperor’s granddaughter?
~ All of these and so much more ~
Brought vividly to life by BBC journalist and presenter Anita Anand, discover the true story of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh’s journey from Princess to Revolutionary.
The details that struck me the most were the variety of activities that Sophia partook in as an activist from being part of the Woman’s Tax Resistance League to her involvement with leading Indian nationalists such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and other Indian suffragettes such as Sarojini Naidu.
This is an insightful and compelling read for all South Asian history lovers and those who in the wake of the first South Asian Heritage Month would love to learn all about an extraordinary woman who spent her life fighting for gender and racial equality in Britain and beyond.
dianna_reads's review against another edition
4.0
This book was so much better than I expected. The first ~80 pages cover Sophia's grandfather and father's reign/fall of the Punjab region. The rest of the book covers the life and interests of Sophia Duleep Singh. Her story covers the beginnings of India's independence, the suffragettes fight for the vote, her complex relationship with Queen Victoria, and her work during first World War.
The writing style is so readable; Anand has a perfect way of merging dates and facts but still giving you insight into Sophia's character and personality. It's clear the author did research and was also able to track down Sophia's goddaughter to get a better feeling for her day to day life.
Highly recommend this one!
The writing style is so readable; Anand has a perfect way of merging dates and facts but still giving you insight into Sophia's character and personality. It's clear the author did research and was also able to track down Sophia's goddaughter to get a better feeling for her day to day life.
Highly recommend this one!