Gavin was born on 9 August 1941 in Mussoorie in the United Provinces of India, in the present-day state of Uttarakhand in the Western Himalayas.[1] Her Indian father and English mother had met as teachers in Iran.[2] She learned to describe herself as "half and half".[citation needed] 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."[3]
Gavin first visited England when she was six and settled there when she was 11.[citation needed] As an adult she worked in the music department of the BBC before becoming a writer.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] She has also written books reflecting her childhood in India, particularly her Surya trilogy.[citation needed]
Gavin is a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that allows schoolchildren across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.[4]
Gavin settled in Stroud, Gloucestershire before 1990 and was still living there in 2012.[5] In 2016, she became one of the founders of the Stroud Book Festival,[6] together with Cindy Jefferies.[7][circular reference][8]
Writer
The Surya trilogy – The Wheel of Surya (1992), The Eye of the Horse (1994) and The Track of the Wind (1997) – is a family saga that follows two generations of Indian Sikhs and shows the impact of the British Empire and the Partition of India on their lives. All three books made Guardian Children's Fiction Prize shortlists; The Wheel of Surya was special runner-up.
Three Indian Goddesses and Three Indian Princesses are collections of short stories based around Indian legends. Nine other short stories were collected as The Magic Orange Tree and Other Stories.
Grandpa Chatterji is a series for younger children, named after its first book, which was adapted for television in 1997.[12] Other books in the series are Grandpa Chatterji's Third Eye and Grandpa's Indian Summer. The first book made the Smarties Prize shortlist for reader ages 6–8.[2]
Jamila Gavin has also written The Robber Baron's Daughter, Forbidden Memories, I Want to be An Angel, Kamla and Kate, Someone's Watching, Someone's Waiting, The Hideaway and The Wormholers.
12"Alexander the Great: Man, Myth, or Monster?"Archived 11 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine (publisher display). Walker Books. Retrieved 7 September 2013. Walker describes the book as biography and history but says that it "will fascinate young readers of fact and fiction alike" and assigns the BIC Code "General fiction (Children's/YA)".
