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Book at Bedtime: Tishani Doshi - The Pleasure Seekers

Book at Bedtime: Tishani Doshi - The Pleasure Seekers: Episode 1

The Pleasure Seekers

Episode 1

Tishani Doshi - The Pleasure Seekers

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Tishani Doshi - The Pleasure Seekers, Episode 1

It's 1968. The tale of four generations of Patel-Joneses.

4 Extra Debut. It's 1968. The tale of four generations of Patel-Joneses, inspired by the author's Welsh-Gujurati background. Read by Indira Varma.

Poet, journalist and dancer, Tishani Doshi, has a Welsh mother and a Gujurati father. This twin inheritance is at the heart of her comic, lyrical and tenderly written first novel about four generations of the Patel-Joneses, who live in a little house with orange and black gates next door to the Punjab Women's Association in Madras. It's an epic story full of vividly drawn characters, whose private lives are played out against the backdrop of the public events of the twentieth century, as the family wrestles with what it means to call somewhere home. 

This first episode begins in August 1968 when Babo, eldest son of Prem Kumar, becomes the first member of the Patel family to leave Madras and fly to London to further his education. On the night before the flight his father has a terrible premonition of trouble, in the form of a dream in which all his family is lost. Babo's mother, meanwhile, has more practical worries on her mind and gives strict instructions to her son about his obligations as a vegan and a follower of the Jain religion. Babo must resist the temptations of meat, alcohol and, most importantly, women. 

How shocked his parents would be, then, to see their son, four months later, drinking Peppermint Schnapps, eating poached eggs and making love to Sian Jones, a cream-skinned girl from Wales, with whom Babo falls head over heels in love with, from the moment he sees the twirl of red ribbon in her hair. 

The reader is Indira Varma, who appeared recently in the 6 part BBC drama Luther. Indira's previous television and film roles include Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love in 1997, and Bride and Prejudice in 2004. In 2006 she played Suzie Costello in Torchwood.

Abridged and Directed by Nigel Lewis

Produced by Kate McAll.

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Tishani Doshi's comic and tender novel about four generations of the Patel-Joneses

Indira Varma reads from Tishani Doshi's comic and tender novel about four generations of the Patel-Joneses, inspired by her own Welsh-Gujurati background

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