MEET THE AUTHOR 

As a result of her interest in the social and cultural history of the colony under the four Naval governors, Phillip, King, Hunter, and Bligh (and a long-standing interest in global hydrographic surveys during the 18^th & 19^th Centuries), she was invited by the Royal Australian Navy's Seapower Centre to present a paper (From Jack-staff to flagstaff: Australia under Navy Rule - first draft, unedited)on this subject at the King-Hall Navy History Conference,  The Navy and the Nation,  in Canberra in July 2003.

Lynne & Michael met in 1997, and by 2003 they were working on their co-authored book, "Song of the Phoenix".  Lynne is currently writing another book, which deals with one of the first Anglo-Indians to emigrate to Australia in the first quarter of the 19th Century.   Contact email: lynne.hadley@gmail.com

An Anglo-Indian, born in Agra, India, Michael Ludgrove  was educated at St . Peter's College and St . John's College, Agra University. His move to England was followed by his entry into the art world of Christie's Fine Art Auctioneers, in 1977, based in London. He specialised in Rare Books and Manuscripts, but in his career with Christie's, which spanned twenty five years, he was involved in all the Fine and Decorative Arts, including Indian Art. He has been a contributor to art magazines including Apollo London and Arts of Asia HongKong. He played a key role in opening Christie's Indian office in Bombay in 1994. Based in Australia since 1993, he is currently involved in several art-related projects, travelling extensively, for his art consultancy business, in India, the Middle East and South East Asia. Contact email: michaelludgrove@hotmail.com

Harry MacLure was still in school when he sold his first short story to ‘Champak’, a children’s magazine based in New Delhi. Seeing his name in print for the first time and getting a cheque from a professional magazine did wonders to his literary leanings. He started to read anything and everything on the subject of writing. Soon his stories began appearing in Indian magazines like Eve’s Weekly, Savvy, Caravan, Women’s Era, Home Life, Mirror, Junior Statesman and Swarajya.

He has been entertaining children with his cartoons and comic books for many years. A self-taught artist, he has retold and illustrated thirty six favourite fairy tales and twenty four famous classics. They have been published in India and Malaysia.

One of his comic book characters, Zzapi Nercor, zoomed to popularity, promoting pizzas to kids in the Indian subcontinent. Created for the Pizza Corner chain, the adventures of Zzapi gave their dine-in restaurants a boost in sales.

His script ‘Incident’ was translated into Hindi and made into a forty-five minute film called ‘Ghatna’ by Harish Tulsulkar in Kuwait in 1989. He has also assisted writing a screenplay entitled ‘Popcorn’ that was made into a full-length Tamil movie directed by M. Nazar in 2003.

Harry is the recipient of The Anglo-Indian Media Award 2001, from the Anglo-Indian Newsletter, Calcutta. His short stories Cat and Whose Baby? have been published in 'Voices on the Verandah' – an anthology of Anglo-Indian Poetry and Prose, by CTR Books, USA.

After being educated in St Josephs Bangalore, Montfort, Yercaud and St. Mary’s Training College, Poona, Blair Williams was selected for the IRSME (Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers) as a Class I Gazetted officer, and, after a four year training in Jamalpur, worked as an AME (Assistant Mechanical Engineer) on the Southern Railway and as a Works Manager and a Divisional Mechanical Engineer on the North East Frontier Railway. He was then posted as a Deputy Director Railway Board in Calcutta. While in Calcutta Blair was very active in the Anglo-Indian Association and in the Rangers Club. In 1976, Blair and his wife Ellen immigrated to the USA, where Blair worked in various senior managerial positions in the field of Manufacturing. He is currently an Industry Professor at Polytechnic University of New York.

Blair is a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) from London and has an MBA from Loyola University. He is a fellow of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). He is the author of ‘Manufacturing for Survival’ Pearson (1997)

In 1999, Blair and Ellen set up CTR, a ‘not for profit’ charity to help Anglo-Indians in India. In its eight year of operation, the organization has branches in Canada, Australia and in the UK. In Jan 2007, it provides monthly pensions to 180 seniors in Calcutta, 90 in Madras and 30 in Bangalore. Without this pension most of these seniors would be destitute. In addition, CTR sponsors 40 girls as boarders at Loreto, Entally, another 45 young children as day scholars in schools around Central Calcutta,  30 in Madras and 20 in Hyderabad. CTR’s vision is to help every poor needy Anglo-Indian in India.

CTR’s website is http://www.blairrw.org/ctr/index.php

To make sure that a balanced perspective of Anglo-Indian culture is preserved for posterity, Blair set up an organization in 2002, specifically to collect and publish books on the Anglo-Indian culture and way of life. To this end the following books have been published.

‘Anglo-Indians – Vanishing remnants of a bygone era’ (2002) by Blair Williams; ‘Haunting India’ (2004) by Margaret Deefholts; ‘Voices on the Verandah – An Anthology of Anglo-Indian Prose and Poetry’ (2005) editors Margaet Deefholts and Sylvia Staub; and ‘The Way We Were – Anglo-Indian Chronicles’ (2006) editors Margaret and Glenn Deefholts. The gross proceeds of all sales of the book go to CTR. Currently ‘The Way We Are – An ethnic mosiac’ is under publication (2008). Details on the books may be seen at CTR’s website

Blair can be contacted at blairrw@att.net

"From what we get we make a living, from what we give we make a life" (Churchill)

Lynette Rebeiro (née Wilson) was born in Gondia, India, a former BNR railway colony, to parents Dennis and Sylvia. Her early memories are of Calcutta, the city from where the family emigrated to England in the early 1960s. They settled in London where Lynette completed her schooling and secretarial training, met and married Denzil (from Bangalore, and daughter Candice was born. In 1975 the Rebeiro family immigrated to Canada and settled in the Toronto area. The year 2001 was extra special when Candice married Rob. Lynette & Denzil have 2 grandchildren, Sophia-Isabel and Noah Benjamin.

Lynette works full-time as Corporate Hostess/Receptionist for a leading carbonated drink company in Toronto. She is the Assistant Compiler on the website www.anglo-indians.com.  "Working with Chloe on BLIND SPOT has been so rewarding for me ... The major bonus has been becoming good friends with Chloe".

One of the recent highlights of her busy life has been to Lead the Symposium event of the 2007 World Anglo-Indian Reunion, held in Toronto, Canada.  Lynne welcomes all feedback and suggestions regarding the book and can be reached at : drebeiro@sympatico.ca.

J. Chloe Braun was born in Calcutta, India.  Her family belonged to the Armenian Community.  She attended a parochial school where she became fluent in the Armenian language.  However her English teacher was an Anglo Indian who instilled into her students a love for the English language.  Braun went on to study English Literature and Journalism before moving to the US.  She worked for the British Consulate in the city of Chicago where she later met her future husband, Leo. They returned to India to do missionary work, and for 12 years, Braun worked with poor women and children, listening to their stories and helping them improve their lot.  The Brauns have two children whom they “simply adore.”

The family returned to the US in 1992 and settled in the Midwest.  Her husband continues his work as a pastor and counselor.  Braun works full time at a private college and continues to write every day, after getting home from work. In fact, her second novel, Blind Spot, a mystery novel, has just been published by Amazon.  Braun teamed with her close friend Lynette Rebeiro on this book that features police detective Hugh Walters, formerly of Calcutta, now retired in the Himalayan town of Darjeeling.  Blind Spot promises to be an enjoyable and interesting read, especially for expatriates from India because of familiar places and things. Braun said she had fun writing this book and that she’s giving all its proceeds to charity.

Braun is now partnering with husband Leo in writing people’s memoirs. They recently started the Yesteryear Company.  Many people want to leave a legacy for their children, their life stories, their values and advice. So far it’s going well!

For information on how to obtain an autographed copy of J. Chloe’s books, and to read an excerpt, please visit www.jchloebraun.com. 

(Biography kindly & humorously provided by Bill!)

Sheldon Fernandez graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2001 in Ontario, Canada with a degree in Computer Engineering.  As a student he won provincial and national awards for his design of the ‘Dynamic Infrared Photoretinoscopy system’, a product for ascertaining the eyesight of children incapable of communicating with an Optometrist. After graduation, Sheldon joined a team of Waterloo graduates and co-founded Infusion Development Canada, which provides software and consulting services to the investment banking industry and state and local governments in the United States and Canada. He has worked has taught numerous aspects of emerging technologies to a variety of companies, including some of the world’s largest banks and government agencies. In addition to being a renowned speaker and teacher, Sheldon is also a published author; having been the primary writer of four technical books published by Random House.

 Today, Sheldon is a Director at Infusion Development, and Chief Technical Officer of ‘Infusion Angels’, an angel fund and incubator that assists Canadian students in converting their ideas into full fledged, self-sustaining companies. In addition, he continues to be closely involved with the University of Waterloo in an academic capacity as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Waterloo School of Optometry. Finally, Sheldon is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Theological Studies at the University of Toronto, and specializes in the area of Neurotheology -- a field of study that leverages advances in neuroscience to explore the biology behind religious and spiritual experiences.

Brent Otto was born in 1979 in Framingham, MA, and grew up in the Boston area.  His mother was born and raised in Calcutta and his father is American.  Brent first visited India in 2001, when he received a Thomas J. Watson fellowship to spend a year studying Catholic English-medium education in India.  His research led him  to the Anglo-Indian community and its vital contribution to Indian English-medium eduation and the Catholic and Anglican churches.  Brent found that the Anglo-Indian community is still alive in India.  He has also  interviewed Anglo-Indians in Perth, Melbourne, Toronto and Vancouver, about their experiences growing up in India and being educated in Catholic schools there, and making a new life abroad.  (Biographical details obtained from a Reunion 2007 Symposium handout)

Father or four, grandfather of eight, and great-grandfather of one, 87 year old Anglo-Indian author, Stan Blackford was born the son of a covenanted (contracted) officer in the Bengal Civil Service, and a mother who came from a typical Anglo-Indian family from the Railway colony of Asansol in West Bengal.  "I had a chequered school career until the age of 11 (I was bullied a lot and kicked out of some schools because I was a buddhu or moron)", he says.  Just before he turned 12, Stan was sent to the Jesuits, where he became Dux of the College. In 1951, he joined the public speaking club, "Rostrum", and in 1962, introduced another public speaking club, "Toastmasters", to South Australia.  He also designed his own public speaking course, teaching hundreds of people over a period of many years.  Since his book was first published in 2000, Stan has been giving 70-90 talks per year about his life in India to Probus, Rotary & other clubs and organisations.  To read more about Stan &  his book, One Hell of a Life, please visit his website:  http://users.chariot.net.au/~tridon/index.htm

Peter Moss is the author of five novels and an autobiographical trilogy described by Jan Morris (Pax Brittanica) as “a marvellous achievement, both as a personal and a historical document”.
He lives and writes in Hong Kong and has also earned praise for his screenplays, non-fiction works and poems. His novels include The Singing Tree (“A little gem”—New York Times) and The Age of Elephants (“A graceful, elaborate and dizzying tale of innocents yearning for home”—Kirkus Reviews).

Moss regards himself as a by-product of the British Empire in its final death throes. Born into an Anglo-Indian railway community in 1935, he left India shortly before Independence in 1947 and spent the next decade acquiring an English education, a foundation in journalism and a restless desire to get to grips with the rest of the world.
Travelling overland by bus from London to Delhi, then on by train to Calcutta and by ship to Penang, he arrived in Malaya just after that country gained its own freedom in 1957. There he witnessed and wrote about the closing years of the Malayan Emergency.

In 1965, shortly after Malaya's metamorphosis into Malaysia, he moved to Hong Kong, where he spent the next 30 years in the last epoch of colonial administration. For 14 of those years he was in charge of the publicity division of the government's information services, engineering social changes through community education campaigns, for which he was awarded an M.B.E.

In 1995 he moved to the southern extremity of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, where he became an ill-adapted incumbent amidst staggering scenery that made a beautiful backdrop to an otherwise empty life.
In 1997 he returned to Hong Kong to observe its reversion to Chinese sovereignty, and he has been fortunate to remain there ever since, still earning his living as a writer.  Please take the time to check out Peter's books on his website at:

 http://www.lichenbooks.com/index.php?page_id=1