UNDER THE JEWELED SKY

A love story for India, for a lost world and a boy from a forbidden world.

India, 1947. As daughter to the personal physican of an Indian Maharaja, Sophie Schofield has spent her teenage years with a palace as her playground. But everyone has to grow up sometime, and for Sophie, growing up means losing her heart - to the one person she shouldn't fall in love with. On the night of Indian independence, something happens that sends Sophie away from everything she knows, and ultimately back to postwar England. Years later, Sophie has put the past behind her. But when her diplomat husband is posted to Delhi, suddenly her secret won't stay buried. As India struggles with its new identity, Sophie realizes her own story is about to fall apart. Facing the truth will mean a journey back into her past and to the memory of a young boy with tourmaline eyes.

Born to an Indian mother and an English jazz musician father, Alison McQueen grew up in London. After a convent education, Alison worked in advertising for twenty years before retiring to write full time. Her family story is one of the inspirations behind The Secret Children. Alison lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and two daughters.