Anne de Courcy is on the trail of husband hunters Author Anne De Courcy is here for Writers Week, to promote her new book "Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in Raj." WHEN Anne de Courcy told others the title of her new book was Fishing Fleet, "people thought I was writing about the cod wars," she said. Rather than landing a fish, the subjects of her book were on a mission to land a husband in what de Courcy describes as an early form of speed dating. One of the biggest names at this year's Writer's Week, de Courcy is best known as Lord Snowdon's biographer. Her latest subject is the thousands of young British women who went to India from the mid-19th century until World War II, to find a mate among the eligible soldiers, civil servants and businessmen of the British Raj. The impetus for the exodus, de Courcy said, was the fact that in the decade after 1851, the number of unmarried women in Britain doubled. "Most of them were of what was called the servant-keeping classes - gently born but probably very poor," she said. Working-class women possessed practical skills that made them good wives for lower-born men in the colonies, but prospects were grim for upper class women who lacked an attractive dowry and/or great beauty. Meanwhile, in India, the number of British men outnumbered women by four to one. De Courcy's source material was 30 collections of diaries, letters and memoirs of Fishing Fleet women. "It turned out that what I'd uncovered was 300 years of social and cultural history that had never been written about - and that of course is gold dust to any writer," she said. Securing the consent and access to the files of Lord Snowdon was an even more gilded opportunity. He agreed to de Courcy's repeated requests after the death of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother. Hear Anne de Courcy at Adelaide Writers' Week at 9.30am today.