By Zehra Naqvi

For its fifth annual Festival of Asian Literature, running from the 10^th- 26^th May, the Asia House is hosting a number of interesting programmes encompassing a vast array of topics from food to politics, including a night of Persian poetry, a storytelling event for families, discussions with upcoming Asian writers and a talk by Hanif Qureshi on ‘Culture, Free Speech and Power’ which will also mark its end. Zehra Naqvi reflects on her experience of the festival so far with The Samosa.

By Mallika Sarabhai

There is an Indian Summer on in London's spring. The sun is harsh, the heat intense. And unlike at home, no fans or air-conditioners. Locals rejoice, I sweat. But there is another Indian Summer on here too. The South Bank Centre is celebrating its second Alchemy Festival, a ten-day extravaganza of performances, debates, workshops, lectures, installations and poetry readings of things Indian, South Asian and especially British South Asian. There are the normal suspects from India - Muzaffar Ali and his Sufis; Alarmel Valli and Kailash Kher. Of much more interest to me are the second generation of British Indian performers.

By Nadir Hassan

At first glance, the second iteration of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) was a rerun of the first, with the same venue and the same authors talking about the same books. A closer look at the programme, however, showed that this was a continuation, not a retread. Sure, most of the authors from last year were making a repeat appearance but the line-up had more than tripled. With more than 100 authors on the slate, there was something for everyone even if, with three sessions running simultaneously, it wasn’t possible to get more than a sampling of the panels on offer. If the KLF continues growing at this rate, it may soon need to add another day to its schedule.

In a Foreign Office film launched today, former Pakistani cricketer and current spin bowling coach for the England Cricket Team Mushtaq Ahmed discusses why he has enjoyed living and working in the UK.