The Writers of Wales Database

PETERS, GLEN

Glen Peters was born in Allahabad to family from Lucknow in India. He spent his childhood living in a railway colony near Calcutta (now Kolkata) before emigrating to London with his family in the 1960s. He attended university, where he was President of his Student’s Union for a year, and then worked as an engineer with British Gas. Glen joined the international accounting firm Price Waterhouse and was made a partner in 1988. In 1995 he and his wife purchased a rundown mansion in Pembrokeshire which started a love affair with West Wales. Glen has lived in Rhosygilwen ever since, founding Project Rhosygilwen, a rural arts regeneration venture. Glen's debut crime novel set in 1960s Anglo-India, Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta was published by Parthian Books in June 2009. 

In 2010, The British Council awarded a development grant from the ‘Connections Through Culture’ scheme to Parthian to develop a stage adaptation of Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta (Parthian, 2009) in partnership with Tin Can performance and visual arts company - known for its groundbreaking work in English, Hindi and Bengali theatre in Kolkata.

Reviews:
With respect to Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta (Parthian, 2009)

"…Peter writes the history behind and the tensions between classes and castes with great subtlety, each feeding the other in our understanding of this novel. The plot itself has led some reviews to compare Peters to Alexander McCall Smith. The comparison is a worthy one, most notably because both authors share a gentleness of style…This book engages on so many levels, but never ceases to be what we all really want from a novel, an enjoyable read..."
Kathryn Hopton, Western Mail


Selected Publications:
Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta (Parthian, 2009)



Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta (Parthian, 2009)

Mrs D'Silva teaches at Don Bosco's Catholic school in Calcutta. She was brought up by the nuns of St Mary's when her mother died and now only thirty two years of age is already a young widow with a son to care for. Life has a lot in store for Mrs D Silva. Calcutta in 1960 is a city striving to change. The old rulers have gone home but India is still trying to find its own way towards a peaceful, prosperous future. But the world is changing and pressing in on the new country. Mrs D'Silva wants to be part of the New India, the new Kolkata. She likes the coffee houses of Chowringhee Road and the dances at the Grand Hotel. She likes her work at Don Bosco's, especially the new maths teacher from Darjeeling. She even likes her students. Which is why she is so shocked when the body of Agnes Lal, a young woman brought up by the nuns of the Loreto convent, is washed up on the marshes of the Hooghly river. Has Agnes been murdered? Does anyone care in a city where young girls go missing every day?

And then Anil Sen, a former student of Mrs D'Silva's and a close friend of Agnes Lal, is charged with the murder of a factory manager during a riot. A riot started by The Workers Revolutionary Movement of Bengal, and what a group of goondas they are, led by that shaitan, Dutta. The same Dutta running rings around Inspector Basu, who has been forced into investigating both cases and is getting nowhere fast. The same Inspector Basu who has a son at Don Bosco's School. It's all a bit of a tamasha until Mrs D'Silva discovers her detective instincts.

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