Fragments Against My Ruin A Life

The rebellious life of a novelist, screenwriter and revolutionary activist

Born in Poona, India, Farrukh Dhondy came to England in 1964 and immersed himself in radical politics and the counterculture. He kicked off a career in journalism interviewing Pink Floyd and Allen Ginsberg and covering the first meeting between the Beatles  and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Dhondy was soon drawn into political activism. He joined the Indian Workers Association and  the British Black Panther Movement. Within the radical activist collective Race Today, he worked alongside Darcus Howe and  C. L. R. James. An award-winning writer, he co-wrote the ground-breaking sit-com Tandoori Nights. In 1984 he became Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor for multicultural programming and was a driving force behind Desmond’s, Salaam Bombay!, and the trailblazing Bandung File.

In Fragments against My Ruin, Dhondy explores a life to salvage precious moments against the inevitable decay of age. The result is a fascinating social and historical document of the late twentieth  century, addressing politics, culture, friendship, and the determination to break down boundaries. It is an autobiography packed with compelling anecdotes, such as an insightful take on Jeffrey Archer’s conviction, as well as portraits of Richard Attenborough, Arundhati Roy, V. S. Naipaul, Charles Sobhraj, and many others.

Farrukh Dhondy is an award winning author, screenwriter and activist. Born in Poona, India in 1944 in a Parsi family. He was awarded a scholarship to read English at Cambridge University. While a schoolteacher in the Midlands and London, He was also involved with political activism. In 1984, he worked as Commissioning Editor, Multicultural Programming, for Channel 4 TV, UK. As an author he has won the Whitbread prize for his first novel, Bombay Ducks and he regularly writes for broadcast and newspapers.

Uncles and Carrom Boards
Secret Passages
Bad Words and Broken Records
Lazarus
Parsi Custard
Towers of Silence
A Town Too Small
Deliberate Disguises
Innocence and Experience
Amor Vincit Omnia
Bylines by Lines
Eenuk-A-Pole Hai Hai!
Black Is a Political Colour
Dolly Mixtures
Fire
Big As de ’Ouse
Right Time, Right Place
In the Beginning Was the Word
Houses for Mr and Mrs Biswases
Pilgrim’s Progress
All the World’s a TV Set
A TV Hack’s Odyssey
The Serial Killer and Red Mercury
Films I Didn’t Write
Films I Did Write
A Friendship and Three-Minute Eggs
Afterword: A Target Audience