About Book
The many-coloured threads that go to weave the matter of the books on which Attia Hosain's reputation is based also give a distinctive quality to her prose. It is as rich and ornate as a piece of brocade, or embroidery . . . the literary and the stylised are balanced by a certain delicacy and freshness as well as lightened by flashes of wit and humour. Her greatest strength lies in her ability to draw a rich, full portrait of her society. Exquisite, delicate, charming unavoidable words when one attempts to describe the quality of [her] prose. It is the literary equivalent of the miniature school of painting in India, introduced by the Mughals. Her stories can well be likened to those busy little vignettes in gem-like colours . . . But there is more to them than their colour and charm, their beauty and grace. What makes them truly interesting is the reconstruction of a feudal society and its depiction.
About Author
Attia Hosain was born in Lucknow in 1913 and educated at La Martiniere and Isabella Thoburn College, blending an English liberal education with that of a traditional Muslim household where she was taught Persian, Urdu and Arabic. Influenced, in the 1930s, by the nationalist movement and the Progressive Writers' Group in India, she became a journalist, broadcaster and writer. In 1947, she moved to England and presented her own woman's programme on the BBC Eastern Service for many years and appeared on television and the West End stage. She wrote Phoenix Fled (1953), a collection of short stories, and Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961), a novel. She died in 1998.