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The power of simplicity: reducing maternal mortality in districts in Sierra...
Following my piece about maternal health in India, and in advance of the UCL symposium on community-based global maternal care next week, I wanted to focus on two smaller-scale success stories and...
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Don't Wake Me: the powerful new play by Rahila Gupta
Last week in Liverpool I was privileged to chair a panel about the international women’s movement called 50 Billion Shades of Feminism. One of my guests was the playwright, Southall Black Sisters...
View ArticleLaugh ‘til you cry, cry ‘til you laugh: The Small Hours by Susie Boyt
No good deed goes unpunished. That is the dark conclusion of Boyt’s brilliant tragicomedy of charitable intentions and damaged histories. Heroine Harriet Mansfield is a blousy woman of big emotions and...
View ArticleIndian court rules that you can’t hold the developing world to ransom when it...
I just saw this on the BBC and had to cover it because it highlights some of the many issues surrounding patients’ access to effective long term medical care in the developing world, illustrating how...
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Indonesia is just one example: introducing the International Year of Water...
Image (c) UNWorld Water Day was just a few weeks ago, on 22ndMarch, and this time around it’s part of 2013’s special International Year of Water Co-Operation. While I’ll write more about water, health...
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Help the mother, help the child, secure the future: maternal and child health...
Photo (c) Children In Need IndiaLike many people ‘of colour’, I am occasionally subject to a random dousing of imprecise and pejorative cultural clichés by ignorant people with a superiority complex,...
View ArticleExtradited to a future of torture: the reality of solitary confinement and a...
UK premiere of film about the Connecticut Supermax prison that houses two extradited British nationals. With Amnesty International & Special Guests from the USA Solitary Watch.Date of event : 16th...
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Novelist Kishwar Desai's Sea of Innocence: women, India, safety, secrets and...
I wanted to support The Sea of Innocence, the Costa-winning novelist Kishwar Desai's latest book, which will be published by Simon & Schuster on 30th May in hardback at £12.99. The text below is...
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Tracing the inkline of beauty and history: Delhi Old And New by Kavita Iyengar
First of all, please Bloomsbury can we have a UK edition of this book so British-based art lovers and readers needn't order from India and wait for shipping? [EDIT: Aha! It is now available on Amazon...
View ArticlePersephone Speaks: The forgotten women of Bosnia
I am urging everyone to back a major new documentary by the brilliant film-maker Ivana Ivkovic Kelley, whose project Persephone Speaks focuses on the use of rape as a war strategy. The film follows a...
View ArticleBeyond the Wall: Writing a Path Through Palestine
"An unflinching portrait of life in the West Bank in the 21st Century."Andrew Kelly, The ObserverI am delighted to celebrate the publication of my fourth book, Beyond the Wall: Writing A Path Through...
View ArticleThe Story Ritual
The end of 2013 saw the launch of Flight Press, a new publisher of short fiction. Its first collection, Edgeways, collated the winning and shortlisted entries in the 2013 Spread the Word short story...
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India: is it safe? A question answered
This is a guest post by academic and writer Mamata Nanda. Previous articles by the same author include the following:International Commercial Surrogacy in India: Exploitation, Poverty, Alternatives and...
View Article“Women have gone from being considered inferior to men and viewed as...
There are only four days left to support this project. Please get involved and be part of a worldwide movement for justice and against abuse.A few months ago I covered the Kickstarter fundraising...
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Second chance to catch some Speed: a sharp new play about sex, sexuality,...
I first met Iman Qureshi when she compered a night of lesbian and gay literature at the Vauxhall Tavern, where I was speaking at a panel event, alongside Paul Burston, founder of the Polari Prize....
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On lies, liberation and Liberty
Today, leading human rights group Liberty celebrates its 80th birthday. It has invited over a hundred Writers at Liberty to each contribute a piece of new writing reflecting on the aims, values and...
View Article"This is an issue at every level of publishing." The S I Leeds Literary Prize...
Topnote: The S I Leeds Literary Prize is now accepting entries for 2014. Submissions are accepted online - click here - and will be accepted until the deadline of 31st March 2014. In April 2011 I was...
View ArticleInside: the power of books in prisons
This is in response to justice secretary Chris Grayling's ban on books and other items being sent to prisoners. This article has also been picked up, here, by the human rights and civil liberties...
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Leah Thorn, the poet and activist facing and transforming the lives of women...
Further reading: Inside: the power of books in prison, written by me for human rights organisation Liberty and based on my own prison work.I wanted to highlight the work of a heroine of mine, the poet,...
View Article“Never forgive. Never forget. Take out a contract on their life.” 80+...
Sun Tzu meets Mother Teresa? Ghandhi meets Machiavelli? A Chinese restaurant fortune cookie automated fortune printing machine meets the Ten Commandments? Here are my guides to life, inspired by Regina...
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