 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Meira Chand (born 1942) is a novelist of Swiss-Indian parentage and was born and educated in London.
She was born and grew up in South London. Her mother, Norah Knoble was of Swiss origin, and her Indian father, Habans Lal Gulati came to London in 1919 to study medicine. He was Britain's first Indian GP, a pioneer of early NHS services and the Socialist Medical Association, and first Indian Labour member of the London County Council for South Battersea, standing as a parliamentary candidate. She attended Putney High School and later studied art at St Martin's School of Art & Design and Hammersmith Art School.
In 1962 she married Kumar Chand, and went with him to live in the Kobe/Osaka region of Japan. [1] In 1971 she relocated with her husband and two children to Mumbai in India, but returned to Japan in 1976. She remained in Japan until 1997 when she moved to Singapore, where she now permanently lives, [1] becoming a Singapore citizen in 2011. She has an MA in creative writing from Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. [2]
Five of her eight novels are set in Japan, The Gossamer Fly, Last Quadrant, The Bonsai Tree, The Painted Cage and A Choice of Evils, a novel of the Pacific war, that explores the Japanese occupation of China, and questions of war guilt and responsibility. Contemporary India is the location of House of the Sun that, in 1990, was adapted for the stage in London where it had a successful run at Theatre Royal Stratford East. It was the first Asian play with an all-Asian cast and direction to be performed in London. The play was voted Critic's Choice by Time Out magazine. Also set in India, but in Calcutta during the early days of the Raj, A Far Horizon considers the notorious story of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Written after her move to Singapore, A Different Sky takes place against the backdrop of colonial times before independence in the country. Based on historical research, the novel follows the lives of three families in the 30 years leading up to Singapore's independence. The book fictionally examines an era that includes the Second World War and the subsequent Japanese occupation of Singapore, and also the rise of post-war nationalism in Malaya. On its publication in 2010 it was chosen as a Book of the Month by the UK bookshop chain Waterstones. The novel was also on Oprah Winfrey's recommended reading list for November 2011, and long listed for the Impac Dublin literary award 2012.
She wrote the story from which The LKY Musical, the 2015 Singaporean theatre production was developed. The musical centres on the early life of Lee Kuan Yew, his struggles and enduring relationship with his wife. In Singapore she is involved in programmes to nurture young writers and to develop literature and promote reading.
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to his death was also known as Lady Antonia Pinter.
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford,, better known as Elizabeth Longford, was a British historian. She was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees of the National Portrait Gallery in London. She is best known as a historian, especially for her biographies of 19th-century figures including Queen Victoria (1964), Lord Byron (1976) and the Duke of Wellington (1969).
Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer.
Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon was a British photographer and filmmaker. He is best known internationally for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, and other major venues; more than 280 of his photographs are in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery.
Adrian Keith Goldsworthy is a British historian and novelist who specialises in ancient Roman history.
Lady Elizabeth Clyde was an English socialite. She was the daughter of Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, and Dorothy Violet Ashton, and thus a great-great-granddaughter of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
Paul Bede Johnson was an English journalist, popular historian, speechwriter and author. Although associated with the political left in his early career, he became a popular conservative historian.
Walter Ze'ev Laqueur was a German-born American historian, journalist and political commentator. He was an influential scholar on the subjects of terrorism and political violence.
Daniel Francis Jeroen van der Vat was a journalist, writer and military historian, with a focus on naval history.
Elizabeth Kate Picard was an English lawyer and historian. After retiring as a solicitor at the Inland Revenue, she turned to writing history as a hobby. In 1997 she published Restoration London, the first of several works on the social history of London.
Ronald Joseph Pearsall was an English writer whose scope included children's stories, pornography and fishing.
Arthur Raymond "Christopher" Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS was an English author, popular historian and biographer. He has been called "a pearl of biographers" and "probably the most widely-read popular historian of our time and undoubtedly one of the most prolific".
Marie Helvin is a British-based American former fashion model, who worked extensively with David Bailey, to whom she was married between 1975 and 1985. In the 1970s and 1980s, she appeared in many fashion stories for British Vogue and posed for a series of nude photographs made by Bailey, which were published in his 1980 book Trouble and Strife. They would collaborate on four more photographic books and continued to work on multiple stories for the British, French and Italian editions of Vogue.
Sheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic and broadcaster. He was the official biographer of Sir John Gielgud and wrote biographies of many other theatrical figures he had known, including Noël Coward. Nicholas Kenyon called him a "cultural omnivore" who was "genuinely popular with people".
Elaine Feinstein FRSL was an English poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, biographer and translator. She joined the Council of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007.
Victoria Glendinning is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is an honorary vice-president of English PEN and vice-president of the Royal Society of Literature. She won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread Prize for biography.
Ursula St Barbe, also known as Ursula, Lady Worsley and Ursula, Lady Walsingham, was a lady at the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Frances Catherine Partridge CBE was an English writer. Closely connected to the Bloomsbury Group, she is probably best known for the publication of her diaries. She married Ralph Partridge in 1933. The couple had one son, (Lytton) Burgo Partridge (1935–1963).
Katharine McMahon is an historical novelist who, since 1990, has published ten books.
The wedding of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha took place on 10 February 1840 at Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, in London.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
