Author Priya Basil was born in London in 1977 but grew up in Kenya before returning to the UK to study English literature at Bristol University. She then embarked on a career in advertising before becoming a full time writer. Her first book, "Ishq and Mushq," published in 2007, was short listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It examines the confusion of identity of Indian people who emmigrated from India to Africa under the British Empire, and later to Great Britain when newly independant African states expelled or encouraged Asians to leave. In 2010 Priya Basil, together with theĀ journalist Matthias Fredrich-Auf der Horst, set up Authors for Peace to encourage writers to use literature to promote peace. She has wirtten two other books, "The Obscure Logic of the Heart," and "Strangers on the 16:02."