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A Passage to India: 1779

BBC Radio 4
on BBC Radio 4 FM

Compiled and written by Julia Keay
Gemma Jones as Eliza Fay
Narrator Philip Sully

'We reached Dover in the evening of 10 April; thoughts of all we suffered on parting that day can never be banished from my mind. My constant prayers are that we may be enabled to support this dreadful separation with fortitude. I dare not trust myself with the subject; my very heart seems to melt as I write.'

In 1779, Eliza Fay, 23 years old and newly wed, set off with her husband for Calcutta. En route she described the torments and terrors of the journey in letters to her sister, the first account by a woman of the voyage to India.
According to E.M. Forster, the letters reveal 'a soul courageous and gallant, an eye and an ear always on the watch'. Producer ALAN HAYDOCK

Contributors

Unknown:
Keay Gemma Jones
Narrator:
Eliza Fay
Unknown:
Eliza Fay
Unknown:
E. M.
Producer:
Alan Haydock
Source: Radio Times

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