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Of course I saw the wonderful movie : " The King and I" with the marvelous Deborah Kerr and a vigorous Yul Brynner...
I was always intrigued by the figure of Anna Leonowens, the famous English governess of the court of old Siam who inspired this and many other movies...
I was very happy to stumble on this book, that I've just finished reading:
Boy, I knew that Hollywood would completely romanticize and change everything, but oh boy! The musical is amazing, entertaining, but soooo far from the truth!
The movie was very different from the books Anna herself wrote long ago and also the romanticized version Margaret Landon wrote decades later ("Anna and the King of Siam").
"Bombay Anna" is a fascinating book and gave me an amazing insight of 19th Century India and of course Siam.
Yes, Anna was NOT an English lady, far from it. She was a mixed race army brat who completely re-invented herself on a time when a woman, much less a mixed race one, wouldn't have a great place in society. Especially in those days!
I admired the real Anna even more after reading "Bombay Anna" than the Deborah Kerr very proper character.
The real Anna traveled the whole world when women stayed at home, had a real important job and managed to re-invent herself as a writer, lecturer, etc.
The main thing that I loved about Anna was that she came out as a passionate fighter against slavery, women's rights and injustices in general... A true modern thinker.
Some facts in pictures:
She was not a white aristocratic-type English lady like Deborah Kerr:
But a light skinned mixed race poor army brat...
The king wasn't a sexy Yul Brynner looking guy either:
The real one was an old man with many wives and concubines:
There was absolutely no flirting or an idea of romance between them.... oh Hollywood!!!
Here's an article about Anna's true life (click to enlarge):
Fascinating! Get your book here!
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