The Year the World Was Mine : An Anglophile Hits a Half Century

This inspirational memoir will keep you chuckling, cheering, and biting your fingernails as you armchair-travel with a book-devouring, museum-hogging, food-savoring, fun-loving globe-trotter whose huge doses of optimism and humor helped her cope with several crises as she spent one academic year conducting field research in London.

What happens when a pre-menopausal matron, afflicted with Anglophilia, leaves home and hearth to spend time working in her dream location, London, the same year she hits a chronological half-century? Bizarre encounters and hair-raising adventures come flying at her…that’s what! This fast-paced memoir chronicles an unusual year spent by an Indian-born professor from an American university who undertook field-research in the United Kingdom. In the process, she dodged a global fiscal crisis, was impacted by terrorist activity in her native Bombay, faced sudden homelessness, and coped with debilitating physical constraints caused by an excruciating foot ailment called plantar fasciitis. While she scours Europe during weekends as a footloose solo backpacker accumulating hilarious experiences among a motley lot in youth hostels, stalks royalty in their favorite stomping grounds, and becomes a coconspirator in helping an American friend find Mr. Right, the author provides a page-turning narrative about resilience and tenacity in the face of unexpected odds.