George lived with his Indian father and English mother in the small village of Great Wyrley. His father, Shapurji Edalji, was the Vicar of Great Wyrley. George's mother, Charlotte Stoneham, had taken the daring step of marrying an Indian man at a time when interracial marriages were frowned upon. Shapurji, a Parsee from India who had converted to Christianity, had become the first South Asian to be appointed a vicar in Britain in 1876. George was born the same year. I was heading to St Mark's Church and the Old Vicarage, once the home of the Edalji family.
The rain slashed against my window as the train chugged through the semi-industrial town of Walsall, passing behind the backs of houses, car-repair workshops, garages, tyre shops and small industrial units. Soon we were out in open fields with sheep and horses standing patiently in the rain, as if watching the train go by. Once there were mines and collieries on this land. Shafts rumbled through the night bringing up coal from the depths. Boys as young as twelve would go down the pits following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers.
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