Attia Hosain was an Indian-born British novelist, journalist, broadcaster and actor, born in 1913 and dying in 1998. She wrote in English though Urdu was her mother tongue, and she is best known for the semi-autobiographical novel Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961). Her short story collection Phoenix Fled follows characters caught between arranged marriage, political idealism and the pull of Western influence. Writers including Anita Desai, Vikram Seth, Aamer Hussein and Kamila Shamsie have acknowledged her influence.
