Farrukh Dhondy Biography

Indian playwright and novelist, born in Poona, India, educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and the University of Leicester. After working as a schoolteacher in London he was a freelance writer until 1985 when he became a commissioning editor for multicultural television programmes. His highly regarded works as a television dramatist include No Problem, which was written with Mustapha Matura for broadcast in 1983, and King of the Ghetto (broadcast 1986). Among his other plays are Mama Dragon (produced 1980) and Kipling Sahib (produced 1982). His acclaimed first novel Bombay Duck (1990) forms a provocative treatment of conventional assumptions concerning black, white, and Asian cultural identities; its complex plot provides a context in which bizarre satirical elements can co-exist with a fundamental seriousness of purpose. Among his books for young people are Come to Mecca (1978) and Black Swan (1992). He is the editor of Ranters, Ravers, and Rhymers (1990), an eclectic anthology of verse by Caribbean, African, and Indian poets. Dhondy is also the author of C. L. R. James (1994), a biography.