Balti Britain's Birmingham Launch on 28th October

Ziauddin Sardar's acclaimed new book Balti Britain, published by Granta, is being launched in Birmingham on 28th October 2008 in a celebration at Imran's Restaurant on Ladypool Lane.

Featuring Lunarman Tahir Abbas between its covers, this book provides an insightful perspective on Asians in the UK.

The List described it as "a comprehensive and startling exploration into how Britain and India have shaped each other's fates". The Guardian's review summarises with "Balti Britain tells the history of Asians in the UK, from the 17th century to 7/7 and the terrorism arrests of the last few years, mingled with a history of his family's arrival in Britain. Sardar's recurring theme is that a nation that doesn't explain its imperial past is haunted by it."

Suhayl Saadi in the Independent concludes his review with these telling words: "In this book the workings of an incisive scientific intellect, rendered supple by optimism, humour and humility, give an impression of life as a work-in-progress, and of a collective life infused with hope. Energetic and accessible, Balti Britain is a powerful evocation of both the profundity and the myopia of the relationship between South Asia and Albion – and of the enormous, but all too often frustrated, potential of desi-Brits in the UK today."