Staying On

Paul Scott’s sequel to The Raj Quartet is both an engrossing portrait of the end of an empire and an engaging dissection of a long-lasting marriage. "A graceful comic coda to the earlier song of India... No one writing knows or can evoke an Anglo-Indian setting better than Scott" (Paul Gray, Time).Colonel Tusker and Lucy Smalley stay on in the hills of Pankot after Indian independence deprives them of their colonial status. Finally fed up with accommodating her husband, Lucy claims a degree of independence herself. Eloquent and hilarious, she and Tusker act out class tensions among the British of the Raj and give voice to the loneliness, rage and stubborn affection in their marriage."Again Scott illumines character with a sense of both the tragic and ridiculous, and this is a memorable portrait of two hanging on after the party is over: "I mean everyone else gone home and just Tusker and me, peering out into the dark, waiting for transport home that never turned up." Funny, sad, and insidiously moving." - Kirkus ReviewsPaul Scott is the author of 13 distinguished novels, including his famous The Raj Quartet. He served in the army from 1940 to 1946, mainly in India and Malaya. His novel Staying On, a sequel to The Raj Quartet, won the Booker Prize in 1977. MAN BOOKER PRIZE 1977. Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return 'home' when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pangkot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their landlady, the imposing Mrs Bhoolabhoy, threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days. Both funny and deeply moving, Staying On is a unique, engrossing portrait of the end of an empire and of a forty-year love affair Tusker and Lucy Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return 'home' when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their landlady, the imposing Mrs. Bhoolabhoy, threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days. Both funny and deeply moving, Staying On is a unique, engrossing portrait of the end of an empire and of a forty-year love affair. Product Description Instead of returning “home” when he retired, Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, and his wife Lily chose to remain in the small hill town of Pangkot with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. From the Publisher 7 1.5-hour cassettes Tusker and Lucy Smalley stayed on in India after 1947, in the small hill town of Pangot with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their landlady upsets the quiet rhythm of their days. Originally published: London: Heinemann, 1977 WHEN TUSKER SMALLEY died of a massive coronary at approximately 9.30 a.m. on her last Monday in April, 1972, his wife Lucy was out, having her white hair blue-rinsed and set in the Seraglio Room on the ground floor of Pankot's new five-storey glass and concrete hotel, The Shiraz.