Kamala Markandaya

Claire Chambers (University of York)

Ed. by John Thieme, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 1 Jan 1924
Died 16 May 2004
Activity 1954-1982

Places

Born in India
Active in England; India

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Markandaya's Works

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Born into an elite Brahmin family, the Purnaiyas of Mysore, Kamala adopted the surname Markandaya on the publication of her first novel,

Nectar in a Sieve

(1954). Prior to her career as a novelist, she graduated in history at the University of Madras, worked in the Indian Army for some of the Second World War, and began to make a name for herself in India as a journalist and writer of short stories. She married a fellow journalist, Englishman Bertrand Taylor, and permanently emigrated to Britain in 1948. An intensely private person, little was known about her life in England before her recent death, other than the fact that she is survived by one daughter, Kim Oliver.

In her fiction, Markandaya explores issues surrounding poverty, urbanization, gender and sexuality. As an early migrant to

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Citation: Chambers, Claire. "Kamala Markandaya". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 June 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2936, accessed 22 November 2024.]