An obituary today in the Telegraph.

Jill Lowe, who died on August 19 aged 67, swapped life in Pimlico for marriage to a peasant farmer in the mustard fields of Rajasthan; she wrote about her adventure in a memoir, Yadav – A Roadside Love Story, which has been a bestseller in India.

Read the whole thing as it is a quite remarkable story of a woman completely changing her life. I especially liked this paragraph (the set up is that she has just gone bankrupt, lost her house and divorced, so she can no longer pay the school fees):

Things began to look up, though, when she told the headmaster of Downside, Dom Raphael Appleby, that she would have to remove her son. He smiled kindly and said: “I see no reason why 499 other boys cannot take care of the 500th.” The nuns at St Mary’s, Shaftesbury, where her daughters were at school, went even further, providing her with a room and a job; her duties ranged from sempstress to escorting sixth-form girls to dances at neighbouring boys’ schools – and ensuring that they all returned. Sister John saved altar wine for her because “you worldly people need a cocktail before Sunday lunch”, and when she left after two years the Reverend Mother invited her to a farewell dinner that consisted of bacon, baked beans and vintage claret.

The first school is where both myself and Mr Free Market were educated, almost certainly at the same time as the son mentioned (although I don’t remember him at this distance) and the second is where my sisters went. The story about Sister John and the altar wine sounds just right and I can just imagine Raphael doing just what he did, even the grin.