Saturday Seminar: a small and quiet light

Shrabani Basu is a journalist and Sunday Times best-selling author. Her books include the critically acclaimed The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the Foreigner in the English Village, For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant (now a major Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench and Ali Fazal) Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan, and Curry: The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish.

She is the founder and chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust which campaigned for a memorial for the World War II heroine in London. It was unveiled by Princess Anne in 2012. In 2020, she was invited to unveil the Blue Plaque for Noor Inayat Khan outside her London house. She is an ambassador for the RAF Museum in London.

Shrabani is a frequent commentator on radio and television on Indian history and Empire. She has been awarded an Honorary doctorate for services to literature (DLitt) by the University of London and the University of Bournemouth.