Jenny Balfour Paul: Deeper than Indigo (August 2024)

Jenny Balfour Paul has successfully combined her love of travel, starting with following the hippy trails in her late teens,with her research into the history of indigo dye, a far more important component of Eastern economy than we realised.

Her studies led her to discover a kindred spirit in the little-known Thomas Machell (1824-1864) and in this fascinating book she adds to her own academic work a part detective story, travelogue and a lesson in history.

They are both enthusiastic keepers of illustrated journals and she is able to retrace his extensive journeys as well as contacting his descendants and visiting his family home in England. Virtually all his life from the age of 16 was spent abroad.

He worked his passage on board ships and witnessed the horrors of the First Opium War, he rounded Cape Horn, found love in Polynesia and worked in India, mainly in the indigo trade but also wherever he could find employment.

An aspect of his character that was likeable was that he never sought to be a typical colonial and endeavoured to fit in with his neighbours and fellow workers.

The author forms a deep connection with Thomas even undergoing past-life regression therapy to enhance this. Most of us were prepared to enter into the spirit of this New Age approach to research (no pun intended).

This was a very interesting and involving read, though perhaps a little hard going at times. Someone said she wasn’t liking it at all but it suddenly “clicked” and she went back to the beginning and read it again with enjoyment.

There was a suggestion that it had rather a too fanciful feel and there could be another book produced solely on Thomas Machell’s illustrated journals.

One of us has bought a copy of Deeper than Indigo to keep which is always a good recommendation and we awarded it 4/5