Bidisha
| Bidisha | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bidisha Bandyopadhyay 29 July 1978 London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Writer, broadcaster, critic |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | Bengali |
| Alma mater | St Edmund Hall, Oxford |
| Period | 1993–present |
Bidisha SK Mamata (born Bidisha Bandyopadhyay, 29 July 1978), known professionally as Bidisha, is a British broadcaster and journalist specialising in international affairs, social justice issues, arts and culture and international human rights.
Publishing and broadcasting under her first name only, Bidisha began writing professionally for arts magazines such as i-D, Dazed and Confused and the NME at the age of 14 and published her first novel at 18. She writes for The Guardian and The Huffington Post and works as a TV and radio presenter for the BBC, presenting programmes such as Woman's Hour. She also does outreach work in UK detention centres and prisons, in affiliation with literary and human rights organisation English PEN.
Bidisha is an only child; her parents emigrated from India in 1972. She was educated at the private school Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls and speaks English and Bengali. She studied Old and Middle English at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and gained an MSc in Moral and Political Philosophy and Economic History at the London School of Economics.
Bidisha began writing for arts magazines i-D, Oyster, Volume, Dazed and Confused and the NME at 15, after launching a style fanzine at 14 as part of the riot grrrl movement. In 1995 at the age of 16 Bidisha signed a £15,000 book deal with HarperCollins. Her first novel, Seahorses, was published two years later, during her first year at university. During this time she also had regular opinion columns in The Big Issue magazine, The Daily Telegraph and the Thursday edition of The Independent newspaper. Bidisha's second novel, the thriller Too Fast to Live, was published when she was 21. Her third book, Venetian Masters - a travel memoir - was published in February 2008. She was a contributing editor of the women's literary magazine Sibyl and the style magazine 2nd Generation and has written for The Guardian, the Financial Times, Mslexia, The Observer, New Statesman and arts magazine The List.
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