Barbara Eaton

Letters to Lydia 'beloved Persis' Barbara Eaton

Summer 1805: Lydia Grenfell, the youngest daughter of a Cornish tin and copper agent confides in her diary her feelings for the young man who has fallen deeply in love with her. Henry Martyn, the young Cornishman, has excelled in classics and mathematics at Cambridge. Newly ordained, he is setting forth on the long and adventurous voyage to India in his posting as a chaplain to the East India Company. Martyn will achieve recognition as a missionary and as the translator of the New Testament into Urdu, Farsi and Arabic. He will travel through India, Persia and Turkey while they continue their affair by letter, waiting anxiously up to 16 months for replies. But will Lydia remain at home in Marazion or will she be able to leave Cornwall behind and join him in India?