Anita Anand's Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary is Hay Festival Book of the Month for May, continuing the festival's campaign to celebrate and ignite conversation around current and backlist books that have contemporary resonance.
In Sophia, journalist and BBC presenter Anita Anand brings to light the extraordinary story of Sophia Duleep Singh, a woman born into riches who became a passionate campaigner for women's suffrage.
Meticulously researched and passionately written, this enthralling story of the rise of women and the fall of empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her part in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.
"Anand vividly paints the picture of a society girl turned revolutionary... With deftness and sensibility, Anand tells of the extraordinary contradictions at the heart of the relationship between the Queen and this family... Anand's skill is to bring to life a character whose name does not figure in the annals of the suffragette movement" - The Observer.
Hay Festival’s Book of the Month is selected by the festival team in Hay-on-Wye, based on public recommendations, and aims to revisit and re-celebrate great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that reach through time to touch the present.
Titles are sold in the UK through the festival’s online shop, as well as being available in all good libraries and bookshops, with a digital festival of promotion online, including curated streams on the festival’s Hay Player archive.
Find out more about Hay Festival’s Book of the Month here or explore #HayBookOfTheMonth on social.