When Secrets Set Sail is the breathtaking new adventure from Sita Brahmachari, the award-winning author of Where the River Runs Gold.

This beautifully written story shines a light on the forgotten voices of our collective past and shows how interconnected our present-day lives are with our history.

Read on for teaching resources, author videos and information about Sita’s real-life inspiration for the book.

We’ve created comprehensive, curriculum-linked teacher’s notes covering themes from the book including family, silenced voices and secrets. Perfect for using with your Year 5 and 6 pupils.

In the story, Usha and Imtiaz discover that their house has an incredible history and was home to some very interesting people. Inspired by their adventure, we’re challenging schools and families to uncover hidden histories in their local area and create their own blue plaques to commemorate them!

You can find both these resources via the link below.

Find out more about the real-life inspiration behind The House of the Ayahs in the book. Here are three videos of Sita and Farhanah Mamoojee from the Ayahs’ Home project discussing why they were inspired by the stories of these women who travelled the world and found themselves in Britain in the lat 19th and early 20th Century.

When Secrets Set Sail and The Ayahs’ Home

When Secrets Set Sail and The Ayahs’ Home: Uncovering Forgotten Histories

When Secrets Set Sail and The Ayahs’ Home: Who were the ayahs?

Below are some photos and images of ayahs sourced by Farhanah, for more fascinating research visit Ayahs’ Home!

A message from Sita: Welcome to the Conch Gallery! 

I dreamed up the idea for the Conch Gallery at The Victoria and Albert Museum when I wrote ‘When Secrets Set Sail’ because I thought the story that Imtiaz, Usha and Cosmo uncover about the Ayahs Home is the kind of exhibition I would love to visit.

It would be a plot spoiler to tell you exactly what the ‘Conch Gallery exhibition’, created by Imtiaz, Usha and Cosmo contains. There are untold histories everywhere we look including in our families, our street and area and our communities – this online conch gallery invites you to creatively respond to the themes of the story by adding your own exhibits to this online Conch Gallery.

Here are a few suggestions:

You may want to create art work in response to the story

Draw a portrait of ‘Lucky’

Draw your own top deck ‘Dreaming Room’

Map family trees!

Embroider one of Lucky’s handkerchiefs

Write your own testimony

Include photographs

Share your discoveries about your own local and global history

Nominate someone for a blue plaque!

Have you been inspired by When Secrets Set Sail? Share your blue plaques or writing projects with @sitabrahmachari and @hachettekids, using #WhenSecretsSetSail and #WSSSBluePlaqueProject to be added to the Conch Gallery!

Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation by Colin Grant

The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain by Damian Le Bas

Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History by Rozina Visram

Ayahs, Lascars, and Princes: Indians in Britain 1700-1947 by Rozine Visram

We Mark Your Memory: writings from the descendants of indenture edited by David Dabydeen, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen and Tina K. Ramnarine

Farhanah Mamoojee @ayahshome

The Empty Cases (Radio 4) – Gary Younge on how the Black Lives Matter movement may change British museums