Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who was interviewed recently by Simerg (Voices: 30 Questions for Columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown), will be visiting Canada in September, 2009, to promote and sign her book The Settler’s Cookbook: A Memoir of Love, Migration and Food in two major Canadian cities, Toronto and Vancouver. 

The book has received particular acclaim in the United Kingdom where Ms. Alibhai-Brown is widely known for her columns in one of Britain’s quality daily newspapers, The Independent. The following are excerpts from some of the reviews published in English newspapers:

‘The journalist writes about her past, the Ugandan Indian Diaspora; her arrival in Great Britain in 1972; her years at Oxford, relationships, family and career. Both Elizabeth David and, more recently, Claudia Roden have made the links between food, history and geography, but this is a wonderful book that takes the connections further. There has been little written about the ‘wahindi’, the Indian settler’s in Africa and Alibhai-Brown gives us a history of those empire builders who were expelled after Independence.”
Royce Mahawatte, Times Literary Supplement

“This wonderful book …is a path breaking record, but also a compelling, moving narrative: of shifting identities, survival and …maternal love.”
Susan Williams, The Independent

“Alibhai-Brown’s response to an upbringing in a secretive community is a determination to tell all…a courageous degree of honesty for anyone, let alone a Ugandan Asian woman…a brave little book.”
Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian

‘This is an unexpected joy of a book. Woven around the people, places and dishes that have shaped Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s life, it follows an emotional and culinary journey from childhood in pre-independence Uganda to London in the 21st Century. It is a voyage filled with edible mementos…evocative, revealing and often tender ..it is s story seldom told.”
Lucas Hollweg, The Sunday Times

 

Ms. Alibhai-Brown’s  presentations in Canada will be as follows:

Reading and cooking demonstration
Hot & Spicy Festival
Friday, September 4 – 8:30 PM
Harbourfront Centre
235 Queen’s Quay West, Studio C (to be confirmed)
Toronto ON M5J 2G8
Reading and cooking demonstration

Reading and  signing
Saturday, September 5 – 7:00 PM
McNally Robinson Booksellers
1090 Don Mills Road
Don Mills ON M3C 3R6

Other Presentations (in Vancouver)
Tuesday September 8, – 6:30pm 
Pan Pacific Hotel, Crystal Pavilion
999 Canada Place
Vancouver BC
(Organized by Jalal Jaffer and Leily Ahmed)

Wednesday, September 9 – to be confirmed,  late afternoon/evening
Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks
1740 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V6J 1H6
www.bookstocooks.com

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We thank Yasmin Alibhia-Brown for sending us the dates of her appearances in Toronto and Vancouver. She has indicated to us that she will not be visiting any other cities in Canada during her forthcoming tour. Simerg would like to wish her success on her forthcoming book tour to the cities of Toronto and Vancouver.