{"product_id":"fragments-against-my-ruin-isbn-9781804295243","title":"Fragments against My Ruin","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe rebellious life of a novelist, screenwriter and revolutionary activist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Poona, India, Farrukh Dhondy came to England in 1964 and immersed himself in radical politics and the counterculture. He kicked off a career in journalism interviewing Pink Floyd and Allen Ginsberg and covering the first meeting between the Beatles  and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Dhondy was soon drawn into political activism. He joined the Indian Workers Association and  the British Black Panther Movement. Within the radical activist collective Race Today, he worked alongside Darcus Howe and  C. L. R. James. An award-winning writer, he co-wrote the ground-breaking sit-com Tandoori Nights. In 1984 he became Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor for multicultural programming and was a driving force behind Desmond’s, Salaam Bombay!, and the trailblazing Bandung File.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Fragments against My Ruin, Dhondy explores a life to salvage precious moments against the inevitable decay of age. The result is a fascinating social and historical document of the late twentieth  century, addressing politics, culture, friendship, and the determination to break down boundaries. It is an autobiography packed with compelling anecdotes, such as an insightful take on Jeffrey Archer’s conviction, as well as portraits of Richard Attenborough, Arundhati Roy, V. S. Naipaul, Charles Sobhraj, and many others.Uncles and Carrom Boards\u003cbr\u003eSecret Passages\u003cbr\u003eBad Words and Broken Records\u003cbr\u003eLazarus\u003cbr\u003eParsi Custard\u003cbr\u003eTowers of Silence\u003cbr\u003eA Town Too Small\u003cbr\u003eDeliberate Disguises\u003cbr\u003eInnocence and Experience\u003cbr\u003eAmor Vincit Omnia\u003cbr\u003eBylines by Lines\u003cbr\u003eEenuk-A-Pole Hai Hai!\u003cbr\u003eBlack Is a Political Colour\u003cbr\u003eDolly Mixtures\u003cbr\u003eFire\u003cbr\u003eBig As de ’Ouse\u003cbr\u003eRight Time, Right Place\u003cbr\u003eIn the Beginning Was the Word\u003cbr\u003eHouses for Mr and Mrs Biswases\u003cbr\u003ePilgrim’s Progress\u003cbr\u003eAll the World’s a TV Set\u003cbr\u003eA TV Hack’s Odyssey\u003cbr\u003eThe Serial Killer and Red Mercury\u003cbr\u003eFilms I Didn’t Write\u003cbr\u003eFilms I Did Write\u003cbr\u003eA Friendship and Three-Minute Eggs\u003cbr\u003eAfterword: A Target Audience\"A delectable read, about an unusually interesting life.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTribune India\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\".\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTelegraph, India\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Tableaux of fortuitous encounters, new friendships, and the early stirrings of political ideologies that will influence his work as a writer\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBusiness Standard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Peppered with amusing anecdotes, including encounters with the Beatles, Clive James and V. S. Naipaul.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Franklin Nelson, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eFarrukh Dhondy\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning author, screenwriter, playwright and activist. Born in Poona (now Pune) India in 1944 in a Parsi family, he came to the UK on a scholarship to read Natural Sciences and then English at Cambridge University. After university he kicked off a career in journalism interviewing Pink Floyd and Allen Ginsberg and covering the first meeting between the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While a student and schoolteacher in Leicester and London he got involved with political activism, at first in the Indian Workers' Association, Leicester, and then in the UK Black Panther Movement and subsequently in the Race Today Collective where he worked alongside Darcus Howe and CLR James. He published his first books in the late 1970s and several TV drama and situation comedy series in the early 1980s and in 1984 worked as a Commissioning Editor, Multicultural programming for Channel 4 TV, UK in which capacity he was the driving force behind \u003ci\u003eDesmonds\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSalaam Bombay\u003c\/i\u003e and the trailblazing \u003ci\u003eBandung File\u003c\/i\u003e among fourteen years of diverse programming.","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300415951077,"sku":"NP9781804295243","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781804295243.jpg?v=1767727625","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/fragments-against-my-ruin-isbn-9781804295243","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}