Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj

"Below the peacock fan" traces the progress of five aristocratic english gentlewomen who suddenly found themselves, with the appointment of brother or husband as viceroy of india, expected to accompany him to that distant disturbing land. One moment, they were looking forward to afternoon tea under the elms if the mists cleared in time and the sun came out- the next, they were painfully uprooted and flung half-way round the world to a country where to venture outdoors when the sun struck dowm at noon was to risk sudden death.