https://www.scmp.com/rss/12561/feed Kavitha Rao is a London-based journalist and author, who writes on culture, the arts, the environment, books and society. She has also written three books, the latest of which “Lady Doctors: The Untold Story of India’s First Women Doctors” explores the stories of India’s first women in medicine. She is at @kavitharao en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China’s Qing dynasty began in a blaze of glory. Founded by the Manchus in 1636, at its peak it ruled over one-third of humanity. Two centuries later, the dynasty was beset by civil unrest, British meddling, the opium wars, then the Boxer Rebellion and the first Sino-Japanese war in which millions were killed. By 1912 the Qing dynasty had collapsed, bringing an end to more than 4,000 years of dynastic rule in China. A new British Museum exhibition, “China’s Hidden Century”, uses more than 300... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3225016/late-qing-dynasty-china-brought-life-british-museum-exhibition-about-century-leading-end-imperial?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3225016/late-qing-dynasty-china-brought-life-british-museum-exhibition-about-century-leading-end-imperial?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jun 2023 08:15:18 +0000 UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came to power on a rash promise to cut immigration. Unfortunately for him, immigration has reached record levels this year, causing deep outrage among his Conservative Party. A desperate Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have now decided to target international students – the cash cows for many British universities – but their hasty moves will hurt British students more than anyone. On May 23, Braverman announced new limits on overseas students bringing... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3223410/targeting-international-students-wont-save-britains-crumbling-university-system?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3223410/targeting-international-students-wont-save-britains-crumbling-university-system?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jun 2023 19:30:10 +0000 Polite Society by Mahesh Rao Penguin Books 3.5 stars Early in Mahesh Rao’s Polite Society, a wealthy couple from New Delhi choose a venue for their wedding. Wanting a small affair without friends and relatives, they pick “that most unfashionable of foreign locations: London. Everyone knew that the Russians had ruined the place”. This sly dig sets the stage for the novel, a cattily amusing adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma set in the snobby area of Delhi known as Lutyens. Much of Indian writing in... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2165685/crazy-rich-indians-mahesh-raos-polite-society-bitingly-funny-version?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2165685/crazy-rich-indians-mahesh-raos-polite-society-bitingly-funny-version?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Sep 2018 02:15:00 +0000 'If there's one thing I've learnt from writing this book, it's that if you want to write a biography, choose someone who's well and truly dead,' says Jessica Hines, the British author of Looking for the Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me about Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan. How did she get insider access to Bollywood? 'Karma, perhaps,' she says with a grin. Hines is speaking to a packed house at the Kitabfest literary festival in Mumbai, which features writers, journalists and... https://www.scmp.com/article/588119/kitabfest-captures-mumbais-imagination?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/588119/kitabfest-captures-mumbais-imagination?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:00:00 +0000 KIRAN DESAI IS tired of being called modest. 'I get called modest so often that I now want to do something immodest,' she says, laughing. Some might say she has much to be immodest about. At 35, this year's Man Booker Prize winner is the youngest woman to win - and for only her second book, The Inheritance of Loss. How does she remain grounded? 'It's easy to stay humble, because writing humiliates me on a daily basis,' she says. Desai is in Mumbai, halfway through a gruelling tour of India, ... https://www.scmp.com/article/583631/shes-all-write?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/583631/shes-all-write?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Former United States president Jimmy Carter is smoothing mortar under the blistering Indian sun as a perspiring Brad Pitt stacks cement blocks. Nearby, retired Australian cricketer Steve Waugh lifts a window frame into place. Around them, farmers, celebrities, tycoons and university students are building houses against a backdrop of rolling hills. Working beside them is Hong Kong resident Marie Tseung Sau-lit, 49 and a dentist, who has spent the past five days laying cement blocks and ... https://www.scmp.com/article/572123/somewhere-call-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/572123/somewhere-call-home?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Nov 2006 16:00:00 +0000 There are 12 million British adults who have literacy skills worse than those expected of an 11-year-old, according to a recent report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee. Now British authors, entertainers and sports personalities are trying to convince reluctant readers that reading and writing can be fun. The adults are emergent readers, those with low literacy skills and who may not have picked up a book in years. They may lead perfectly normal lives, holding down jobs and raising... https://www.scmp.com/article/551264/its-different-story-now-reluctant-readers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/551264/its-different-story-now-reluctant-readers?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:00:00 +0000 'I'M IN THE business of telling lies - believable lies - because that's what all good authors do,' says Kunal Basu. 'I'm a great believer in fantasy, in daydreaming, in going beyond one's own demographies.' Basu has certainly gone beyond his. The Indian-born, US-educated author's first novel followed the opium trade through India, China and Malaya. His second chronicled the life of a miniaturist in 16th-century Mughal India. His harrowing latest novel, Racists, is set in Victorian... https://www.scmp.com/article/538002/science-friction?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/538002/science-friction?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Feb 2006 16:00:00 +0000 'MY MOTHER ONCE asked me why I didn't write a book about a 'nice little murder', like someone putting a cushion over an old woman's head,' says crime writer Minette Walters with a laugh. 'That would be too easy for me.' Walters doesn't do 'nice little murders'. Nor does she do easy ones. Along with P.D. James and Ruth Rendall, she's considered one of the queens of crime fiction. But her gritty, contemporary mysteries couldn't be further removed from the cosy, tea-in-the-vicarage murders often... https://www.scmp.com/article/526752/killer-queen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/526752/killer-queen?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Genre Crime fiction Latest book The Devil's Feather (Macmillan) Next project An unnamed mystery for Quick Reads, a project for adults with reading difficulties Age 56 Born Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, Britain Family Married to Alec Walters; two sons, Roland and Philip Lives Near Dorchester, Britain Other works The Ice House (1992), The Sculptress (1993), The Scold's Bridle (1994), The Dark Room (1995), The Echo (1997) The Breaker (1997) The Shape of Snakes (2000), Acid Row... https://www.scmp.com/article/526751/writers-notes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/526751/writers-notes?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Small Island by Andrea Levy 'It's well-written, it's funny, it has everything.' Red Dragon by Thomas Harris 'It created Hannibal Lecter, the most iconic figure in crime since Sherlock Holmes.' Innocent Blood by P.D. James 'It's about the estranged daughter of a murderess who seeks to be reunited with her mother. One of James' few one-offs. I always prefer one-offs.' The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier 'This came out in the 1960s, just when LSD was emerging, and Du Maurier... https://www.scmp.com/article/526753/authors-bookshelf?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/526753/authors-bookshelf?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000