For fans of The Tea-Planter’s Wife and Victoria Hislop comes a gripping story of doomed love and secrets in 1940s Kashmir.

An epic journey from the sultry climes of nineteenth-century India to the cosmopolitan chaos of New York City on the eve of civil in search of a kidnapped daughter and a lost, forbidden love. India, 1857: Anna Wheeler Roundtree, missionary wife, flees her husband's pious tyranny. Her timing is bad: the train carrying her to freedom steams into the midst of the brutal Indian Rebellion. Plucked from danger by Ashok Montgomery, a wealthy Anglo-Indian tea planter, she escapes the angry mobs. In the shelter of an isolated mountain cave, Anna, for the first time, learns the true nature of love. New York City, 1860: Now a successful poet, Anna Wheeler learns that the daughter she bore upon her return from India was not stillborn, as reported, but has been kidnapped. When Anna hears the baby described as "dark-skinned," she knows Ashok, the man she'd left behind in the tumult of the rebellion, is the true father, not her blond, fair-skinned husband. In her own racially inflamed nation, Anna throws respectability to the wind, learns to take risks, break rules, and trust strangers in a determined search for the little girl. Then a deranged voice arises from her tormented past, making demands that compel her back to India. Anna must confront the evil that set her running in the first place. Will her daring quest for her child, and for the love of her life, end in triumph or in heartbreak?

- Lavishly illustrated, the book offers a comprehensive view of pashmina, one of the most exqusite textiles ever woven - Constructs a complete narrative of the textile, from the raw material to the finished product - Covers the history for the pashmina industry from the nomadic tribes to the fashion industry The classic Kashmir shawl is among the most exquisite textiles ever woven, the product of consummate skill and artistry applied to one of the world's most delicate fibers. This authoritative study introduces the Kashmir shawl as a cultural artifact with a known history spanning four centuries. Lavishly illustrated and accessibly written, the revised edition of this book has much to offer textile scholars, and those interested in the history of Kashmir. Contents: Preface and Acknowledgements; Maps; Introduction: A Felicitous Conjunction. PART I: THE FIBRE - Chapter 1: Pashm and Other Animal Fibres; Chapter 2: Changra and Changpa: The Goats and Their Herders - Monisha Ahmed; Chapter 3: From Changthang to Srinagar: The Pashm Trade. PART 2: THE TEXTILE - Chapter 4: Spinners, Weavers, and Needleworkers; Chapter 5: Design and Designers. PART 3: THE HISTORY - Chapter 6: Early History: Conjecture and Speculation; Chapter 7: The Mughal Period; Chapter 8: The Iran Connection: The Termeh; Chapter 9: The Business in the 19th Century. PART 4: BY LAND AND SEA - Chapter 10: The Kashmir Shawl in India; Chapter 11: The Kashmir Shawl in Iran, West Asia, and Russia; Chapter 12: Shawls in the West. PART 5: CASHMERE AND KASHMIR - Chapter 13: Beyond the Shawl: Pashmina Becomes Cashmere; Chapter 14: Meanwhile, Back in the Valley. Appendix I Update 2008-17; Appendix II Myths, Misconceptions, and Oddities; Appendix III Terminology and Glossary; Notes and References; Bibliography; Picture Credits; Index.

The authors bring fresh clarity to the many myths that have arisen around the Kashmiri shawl on the South Asian trade circuit. They also interpret most of the complexities in the Kashmiri shawl lexicon.

This richly illustrated volume examines the remarkable Kashmiri shawls of the Walter Koelz Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. Part I presents the history, production, forms, and ornamentation of Kashmiri shawls, focusing on the impact of social contexts and the advent of the Jacquard loom on shawl development. Part II is a detailed descriptive catalogue of the shawls in the Koelz Collection. An accompanying CD-ROM includes color illustrations of the shawls in the collection as well as a transcribed manuscript by Koelz.

Richly layered and remarkably candid, this is anything but an ordinary memoir. Life-writing at its truthful and unapologetic best, here is a story of a textile historian, entrepreneur and collector with an eventful and adventurous life story. As a child in countryside England, Jenny had thought she would grow up to be a spy, but life had other plans. Brought to the world of Asian textiles, art and museums, she has over the last five decades travelled across Asia with a passion to document traditional, local, and nomadic weaves and handcrafted textiles. She lays bare her idyllic childhood in the aftermath of the Second World War; her aspirations of being in the arts and then as a researcher at the Victoria and Albert museum in London; the struggles of falling in and out of love and a broken marriage; of parenting; and her passion for Indian textiles, having established herself as one of the most successful British entrepreneurs working in India who co-founded the luxury brands shades of India and kashmir loom.

"One of the most enduring motifs that man has ever devised is that known to the English speaking world as the Paisley Pattern. Originating in pre-historic times as a representative plant form, it has been in constant use, in one way or another, for over 2000 years. When introduced into Europe late in the eighteenth century, the pattern was seen as something exotic and was soon enthusiastically copied by textile manufacturers in Britain and France. The shawls, which were the principle garments to be decorated with the motif, remained an essential part of a woman's wardrobe for virtually a century, adapting in size and shape as each new dress fashion came along. During that time millions of shawls were produced, in thousands of different varieties. The town of Paisley was the largest producer of the shawls and although the industry no longer dominates, the fame of the Paisley Pattern lives on. The Paisley Museum, established in 1871, has over the years built up an enormous collection of shawls for display and research purposes. Just as important as the shawls themselves, however, are the manufacturers' original pattern books, which contain large numbers of examples of the various stages in producing a design for a shawl. One hundred and fifty of the best pieces of artwork have been selected and have been faithfully reproduced in this lavishly illustrated volume. Dates of the designs and historical information have been included wherever possible, making the book important for both textile historians and students of design. With the current revival of fashionable interest in both the pattern and the shawl itself, the contents of the book will surely provide a vital source of inspiration for yet more variations of this exquisite and enduring design."--Provided by publisher