Overview

'Theodore & Eliza' is the first and only account of the eight-year marriage of a mixed-race couple, from whom Princess Diana was directly descended. The strictly factual narrative is taken from the couple's personal correspondence, and also contains many previously unpublished illustrations. This true story of the couple's previously disputed union has been gleaned from rarely-accessed papers in a Scottish family archive in Aberdeen and others in Cambridge and Gloucester. Theodore Forbes is an ambitious young Scot in the service of the East India Company. His appointment, at the age of twenty three, to the post of British Commercial and Political Resident in Yemen marks the start of a promising career. In 1812 he sails from Surat to Mocha, with his Indian-Armenian bride, Eliza Kewark. 'Theodore & Eliza' opens a window onto an adventurous age of sailing ships and spies, pirates and privateers and the earliest European travellers into Africa. By the time the young couple return to India in 1815 they have two young children. With Eliza at his side, Theodore's posting has been a diplomatic and commercial success and his own currency dealings have netted him a fortune. Within weeks, he is offered a prestigious partnership in Bombay. Soon after accepting, he is told that he must choose between his career and his family. Though he still loves her, he decides to leave Eliza and their children in Surat. In a poignant series of letters she pleads to be reunited with him. The narrative charts the means used by a passionate young woman to prevail against the bigotry that has wrenched her beloved husband from her. The couple's young daughter, Kitty, aged six, is sent to Scotland to be brought up by Theodore's parents. Later she 'marries well' and has a large family of her own. In 1961 Kitty's great great grand-daughter Frances, the Countess Spencer, gave birth to a daughter named Diana - the future Princess of Wales - descended from Eliza through the direct female line. Letters from Eliza's extended family in Surat shed light on her ethnicity and the legitimacy of the children. Along with modern DNA analysis, a broken link in the genealogy of Princess Diana has been put back together.

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9781999595203

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Susan Harvard has a BA in French, English and History of Art. After a career researching and restoring pictures, she now lives in rural Somerset where her focus is on writing and the environment. Susan has visited the ruins of Theodore's childhood home and the site of Kitty's birthplace in Mocha. She has conducted extensive research for this book, including in the rarely accessed family papers in Aberdeen and others in Cambridge and Gloucester. This has given her a unique insight into the lives of Theodore and Eliza.

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