India-Born English Writer's Books Read
NEW YORK: Actors Ralph (English Patient and The English Patient fame), Joseph (of Shakespeare In Love and Elizabeth) and their sister Sophie, a documentary filmmaker had flown down from London to New York for media interviews and public readings of their mother Jini's book, "Blood Ties."
Jennifer was born to an English officer in India during the British Raj and relocated to England after World War II. The book appears to reflect the not-so-happy childhood Jennifer had. While her father Hal Lash was busy with his duties as an officer, her mother Joan entrusted little Jini into the hands of nannies.
The book which she wrote under her maiden name -- Jennifer Lash -- is the story of wounded generations and the redeeming power of love, according to a New York Times review. "Blood Ties" is the story of an Irish couple, Violet and Cecil Farr.
Reviews of the book call it harrowing and stark, and a frightening story of cynical neglect.
The book is published almost six years
after her death, and is gaining attention of readers, thanks to her celebrity
children's efforts. A serial reading of Jennifer's "Blood Ties"
and "On Pilgrimage" by Sophie, Ralph and Joseph July 27 at
The New School University in Greenwich Village in New York. After the readings,
the Fienneses signed copies of the books which were sold at the reading.
The venue was filled soon, leaving more than hundred fans of the celebrity
siblings wait disappointed outside the closed doors.