Alice Albinia (born 1976) is an English journalist and author whose first book, ''
Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River'' (2008), won several awards.
Albinia was born in London and read English Literature at
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and South Asian History at
SOAS University of London
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
. In between, she worked for two years in Delhi, India, as a journalist and editor. While in Delhi, she worked for the
Centre for Science and Environment, the literary journal ''Biblio'', and
Outlook Traveller. Since 2012, she has taught writing at secondary schools with the support of the nonprofit
First Story
First Story is an English charity that encourages children and young people to write creatively, outside the curriculum, for self-expression and pleasure. Its aim is to empower children and young people from low-income communities to find and dev ...
.
She was one of the three judges for the 2008
Jerwood Awards.
Her debut novel, ''Leela's Book'', is a modern story inspired by the
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...
.
Albinia was awarded a grant from the
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...
' K. Blundell Trust during the writing of her book ''The Britannias''.
This trust supports authors aged under 40 whose work "aims to increase social awareness".
Albinia is a cousin of the historian
William Dalrymple.
Bibliography
*''
Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River''. John Murray, 2008.
*''Leela's Book''. Harvill Secker, 2011.
*''Cwen''. Serpent's Tail, 2021.
*''The Britannias: An Island Quest''. Allen Lane, 2023.
Awards
* 2005:
Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction for ''Empires of the Indus''.
[
* 2009: Dolman Travel Prize]
References
1976 births
Living people
British orientalists
English women writers
Women orientalists
Writers from London
{{UK-journalist-stub