Lindsay Swan Publishes Book on Her 'Accidental Life'
Tells how she set up charity in India with PR firm partner
Sylvia Holder and Lindsay Swan in India
January 9, 2025
A woman from Ealing has just published her memoirs in which she details how she came to found a charity in India.
Lindsay Swan co-wrote Accidental Lives with Sylvia Holder who was her partner in a public relations firm for over twenty years.
Together they founded the Venkat Trust which is named in memory of a fisherman’s son Sylvia met when on an was visiting a poor South Indian fishing village. The book tells the extraordinary story of how a young man’s tragic death led to the setting up of a charity which has transformed thousands of young lives.
Novelist and biographer Dame Margaret Drabble, who has travelled with the authors to India and Africa, describes it as, “An entertaining and moving account of the adventurous lives of that fine duo, Holder and Swan, two fearless, funny and brave women. It’s a story of friendship and enterprise and extraordinary generosity, of triumph over tragedy, with some amazing anecdotes and an exhilarating sense of life lived to the full.”
Born and educated in Scotland, Lindsay Swan is a trustee of the Venkat Trust and a frequent visitor to Kovalam where the trust still operates. She is involved in a number of therapeutic gardening projects and, as a member of the Independent Monitoring Boards, helps ensure the humane and just treatment of those held in custody.
The cover of Accidental Lives
Sylvia Holder is a previous winner of The Times Sternberg Active Life Award and was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2019 New Year’s Honours..
Published by Black Spring Press, Accidental Lives is available for £16.99 (RRP) locally at Pitshanger Bookshop and Ealing Broadway Waterstones. Royalties from the book will go to the Venkat Trust.
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