The Black Princess

Who is Mrs Helena Bennett and how did she come to live alone in the remote Sussex countryside? Her neighbours know her as an eccentric old woman who roams the forest with her beloved dog, is generous to the poor, and smokes a hookah. They call her ‘The Black Princess’, although she is not very dark-skinned nor of Royal birth. It is spring 1853 when a chance visitor causes Helena to begin to recall her early life. Through her eyes the reader is transported to 1785 at the British Residency in Lucknow, India, a city renowned for its hybrid culture, the excesses of the ruling Nawab, and the avarice of some of the East India Company officers. The Black Princess is based on a true story.