"In Chalaili, an Indian hill station stranded above the clouds, where the trees and flowers are of ravishing hues and the annual monsoon hits with monumental force, a small enclave of British expatriates cling to the glory of a fast-fading emmpire.

Into this faltering world come two starkly different but memorable women: the larger-than-life Mrs Banerjee, with her armoury of gold bangles and saris in thrilling colours, and Lydia Rushmore, a timid Surrey school teacher hurridly married off to the town's disgraced meteorologist. Mrs Banerjee sets out to transform the run-down theatre into Coronation Talkies, a thoroughly modern cinema showing Hollywood's latest love stories. Lydia Rushmore discovers the soothing effects of gin as she tries to fit into hill station society and please her complicated new husband.

As World War II looms in Europe and British colonial power recedes, Chalaili becomes the setting for trickery, seduction and the unveiling of shocking secrets."

I thought this was a delightful tale, the characters a joy to behold. Mrs Banerjee, in particular, was a very naughty woman but a wonderful character.

Sent to the winner of the Australia Day 2015 Australian Literature Sweep.

Thanks for the books, catsalive, I was not expecting a whole parcel from one person!

Coronation Talkies is the name of Mrs Banerjee’s new talking picture theatre in Chalaili, a hill station in India in the 1930s. She bought the theatre sight unseen on the recommendation of her lawyer, and discovers on her arrival, that the theatre is in disrepair and the town itself is tiny, with the unenviable reputation of being the wettest in India, and as such it is not the most popular of hill stations and any visitors leave early to avoid the build up to the monsoon – in other words, it is not the most ideal location for a new business venture! But Mrs Banerjee, being Mrs Banerjee, doesn’t let that stop her and sets out to put Coronation Talkies (and Chalaili) on the map.

Chalaili’s high society is governed by ‘the Crows’ – the wives of British men stationed there on military or public service duties – and Lydia, the new wife of disgraced meteorologist, William Rushmore, finds breaking into their ranks a task that is above her. Her loneliness and isolation leads her to gin, and her husband, who preferred his single life, doesn’t have the capacity to pull her back from it.

This book was a lot denser than I expected. Possibly slightly too wordy, but generally enjoyable and well written. There were a lot of underlying themes that I wasn't expecting - sex (or lack thereof); relationships - between married couples, between servants and upperclass, between the British and the 'Natives'; gender; and family.

I found some of themes a little hard to take in properly, and felt that the book was maybe trying to tackle too much, given its fairly light appearance. I also felt that the blasé nature of the gender inequalities and casual racism was a little unsettling, even though it probably fitted with the 1930s time period. The problems in Lydia and William’s marriage were frustrating as you could see they both really wanted the same thing, but they couldn’t get over their Britishness and just get on with it.

The story is shared by Lydia and Mrs Banerjee, but by the end you really know who is the main character, and who is just another of the secondaries, and I guess, in a way it mirrors that period in India’s history where British rule is coming to an end and India is coming back into its own.

Posted off to the States as a trade for a mystery book that I look forward to receiving. Enjoy, JudySlump612!

Thank you, Ellastix! You are so generous to ship this all the way to the USA, and even use real postage stamps. DH is quite impressed with the stamps, and I'm really looking forward to reading this lovely book. The postcard with the aboriginal art is a special treat, too.

This book took a long time to work its way up to the top of the TBR stack, but oh boy, was it ever worth it! For some reason, I'm fascinated by books set in India, especially those which play off the Indian and British cultures against each other. So I hardly know where to start in praising this: the characters and their social settings and problems, the irresistible writing, the sly bits of humour, and the descriptions of Mrs. Bannerjee's costumes. Catsalive's journal entry has nailed it. The best word for this book is "delightful." "Naughty" is pretty good, too.

I may break down eventually and share this with other deserving BookCrossers. But for now, it's good enough to go into the Permanent Collection.