Celebrating 50 years of friendship and the joy of unexpected encounters
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For 50 years, the friendship between Sylvia Holder and Lindsay Swan has been testament to the power of chance meetings and shared adventures. Their engaging story, which began on 13 August 1975 at a Johannesburg PR company, is a tale of resilience, philanthropy, fun and the life-changing impact of friendship. They’re still working together and still the best of friends, aged 86 and 73.
According to the Friendship Lab, which is leading a friendship revolution to counter the world's loneliness crisis, friendship is essential to our happiness and wellbeing. We all need that person we can ring at 2am. Yet in the UK, US, Australia and beyond, more than 20% of us have no close friends, 51% of us find making new friends hard, and 40% of us want to get closer to our friends but don't know how. Why is adult friendship so difficult asks the Friendship Lab?
In their memoir Accidental Lives, Sylvia and Lindsay share stories of their London PR consultancy and eccentric sidelines and celebrity encounters. From safari trips in Zambia to high-profile PR stunts for Chichester Festival Theatre and the Hampton Court Flower Show, their memoir captures the essence of their friendship – an unwavering belief in the power of possibility, adventure, and creativity, plus a delight in the absurd and a shared sense of humour.
In the most moving part of their story, lives are forever changed by the tragic death at 27 of Venkat, a young man from a poor Indian fishing village Sylvia meets on the beach aged 12 and whose education she sponsors. Heartbroken, she returns to India and on the spur of the moment, promises to bring free education for all the children in his village. Despite being newly retired and having no experience of education, charities or India, Sylvia sets up the Venkat Trust and once again she and Scots born Lindsay are thrilled to be working together. That was 21 years ago and since then the Trust has built a 1000-pupil higher secondary school, set up a 400-child sponsorship scheme and pays the university fees of 75 young people every year.
What readers say:
This book gives 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. Dame Margaret Drabble, novelist, biographer and fellow traveller to Africa and India
It was fantastic to read in such detail - from Womble costumes to escorting 'the Burtons' around South Africa (and losing them). I hooted with laughter. And the main focus, the Venkat Trust, was nothing short of enthralling. I also watched Greenfingers [film starring Helen Mirren and Clive Owen] for the first time (including your star turn). How extraordinary you and Sylvia are to have accomplished all that. Sylvia sounds like a force of nature, the like of which they rarely make these days. Anne Cuthbertson, editor, The London Magazine
Royalties from the sale of the book go to the Venkat Trust.
ACCIDENTAL LIVES How two intrepid women travelled the world, ran an unconventional PR company and set up a charity in India by Sylvia Holder and Lindsay Swan is published by Black Spring Press, £16.99. 204 pages plus 16 pages of pictures. Available for order at bookshops, and online at Amazon and Black Spring Press.