Novelist, Screenwriter, Black Panther - the rebellious life of Farrukh Dhondy

Farrukh Dhondy was born in Poona in 1944 and come to England to study in 1965. Here he threw himself into political activism. He joined the Indian Workers Association, and then the British Black Panthers and Race Today, where he worked alongside Darcus Howe, C L R James and leading figures of the liberation movement. In between he was leading squatter strikes in Brixton, hanging with Pink Floyd, and interviewing the Beatles. In the 1980s he started to write and was also made the Commissioning editor of mulitcultural programming and was instrumental in bringing Desmonds, and Tandoori Nights to the screen, as well as ground breaking Bandung File documentaries. His first novel, Bombay Duck, won the Whitbread prize in 1980.

In Fragments Towards My Ruin, Dhondy explores his life of moments to salvage against the ruin of age. It is a fascinating portrait of politics, culture, friendship and the determination to break down boundaries. Packed with fascinating stories from why Jeffrey Archer was arrested as well as portraits of figures such as Richard Attenborough, CLR James, Arundhati Roy, VS Naipaul, and Charles Sobhraj.

"A delectable read, about an unusually interesting life." - Tribune India

"Shores itself against time, with a historical sense of belonging that a young Farrukh Dhondy hoped one day he would be remembered for: an expat Indian student in London who once turned radical, rebelling against what C.L.R. James identified in history as the "cruelties of property and privilege"." - Telegraph, India

"Tableaux of fortuitous encounters, new friendships, and the early stirrings of political ideologies that will influence his work as a writer" - Business Standard