Jamila Gavin (born 9 August 1941) is a British writer born in
Mussoorie
Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill s ...
in the
United Provinces of India, in the present-day state of
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
in the
Western Himalayas
The Western Himalayas refers to the western half of the Himalayas, in northern Pakistan and northwestern India. It is also known as the Punjab Himalayas. Four of the five tributaries of the Indus River in Punjab (Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, and Ravi) ...
. She is known mainly for
children's books
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...
, including several with Indian contexts. Jamila gavin is an author of children' book.
Life
Gavin was born in August 1941 in Mussoorie in the foothills of the Himalayas. Her Indian father and English mother had met as teachers in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
[ She learned to describe herself as "half and half". She says online that from her mixed background "I inherited two rich cultures which ran side by side throughout my life, and which always made me feel I belonged to both countries."
Gavin first visited England when she was six and settled there when she was 11. As an adult she worked in the music department of the ]BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
before becoming a writer. She wrote her first book, ''The Magic Orange Tree and Other Stories'', in 1979. After her first child was born, she became aware that there were few children's books reflecting the experience of multi-racial children. She has also written books reflecting her childhood in India, particularly her Surya trilogy.
Gavin is a patron of the
, a charity that allows schoolchildren across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.
Gavin settled in
before 1990 and was still living there in 2012.