Painted Ghosts

by Neil Beardmore

Overview

Three women have personal reasons to head from England to modern day India, each on a quest to rebuild their past and family.

Daphne celebrates her 60th birthday by revisiting the Buddhist painted caves of Ajanta and to meet Shanta. Her cooperative rehab centre for Devadasi prostitutes is in debt. Can Daphne save it? And has she the strength to face the Painted Ghosts of her past?

Stella is on a painting holiday in Goa with her estranged half sister who is just out of rehab. Local art teacher Arun wants to heal the sisters' rifts by taking them to The Garden of Izzat Baig to celebrate an ancient myth, but will he succeed?

Young Ria heads out to join the Indian part of her family in the Himalayan foothills to find her lost brother. The intrusion of a hijra throws the family into confusion. But Ria has to seek the help of the hijra to resolve a family dispute. Will this be enough to satisfy everyone's demands in a home with A View of Glass Mountains?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782284796
Publisher:	Pneuma Springs Publishing
Publication date:	05/10/2021
Edition description:	Large Type
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Leaving school early to work in a factory and buy an electric piano, Neil joined a band, and that paid off as today he still enjoys playing the Blues. He continued to get pleasure from writing as it initially grew from writing songs, poetry, then plays. Later on teacher training opened up the world of literature. He went on to win the Sussex Playwriting competition and the Richard Burton Poetry Prize. An MA in Creative Writing followed and as a poet published in magazines from Orbis, Cannon's Mouth, and Erbacce to The French Literary Review, he performs regularly. Pristine in Blue was staged as part of the Milton Keynes Fringe (2014). A stage version of A View of Glass Mountains was performed at Questors Theatre, London (2019), along with The Garden of Izzat Baig as part of a fund raiser for the Globe Theatre. (Fractured Time Productions 2020) His wife and best friend Ashra gives him much support, inspiration and laughter. She has opened the doors of India, her country of birth which continues to intrigue, fascinate and mesmerise him. His first novel, Lemon Seas (Pneuma Springs 2016) was set there and received much acclaim. He follows that now with further explorations of the country through the eyes of several characters in Painted Ghosts. He and Ashra enjoy painting together.