Hello!
Onjali here.
Welcome to my
Worlds...
ONJALI Q. RAÚF
AUTHOR & ACTIVIST
Animation by Tamara Tarek @Tamgrafik
Newest Release
The Game I Will
Never Forget
One grandma(ster). One grandson.
Two Battles.
The last thing 10-year-old Zak expects to hear is that his mum is about to have a baby.
And even worse, that a grandma he barely knows is coming to live with them!
So with the help of his friends and his gaming expertise, Zak forges a plan to reclaim his rightful territory!
Only to discover that his nani is no ordinary old grandma, but a former chess prodigy, able to outwit him at every turn.
And fighting a battle of her very own...
Now available in all good bookstores.
My Book Worlds ...
DID YOU KNOW?
Young Carers under the ages of 16 are NOT recognised or aided by the UK government. Despite saving the NHS billions of £s!
DID YOU KNOW?
Many Young Carers begin their caring duties from the age of 4! The majority are GIRLS. And like Audrey in The Letter with the Golden Stamp, are struggling to look after their families alone.
IT'S TIME THIS CHANGED!
Sign the petition calling on the UK Prime Minister to HELP #EveryYoungCarer HERE!
JOIN THE LETTER CAMPAIGN!
WWII hero Tan Kay Hai Statue Appeal
Too many WWII s/heroes from across Asia and Africa remain missing from our history books, museums and memorials.
Singaporean RAF Wing Commander Tan Kay Hai (DFC) was one such hero.
As my inspiration for The Lion Above the Door, I am on a mission to create a dual-nation memorial to this heroic pilot in both the UK and Singapore, as an emblem of respect for ALL forgotten men and women who helped defeat Nazism.
Help me to do just that.
SIGN THE TAN KAY HAI PETITION HERE.
#EndRacism #JoinTheRoar
Contributions ...
My Stage Worlds ...
Footsteps on the Wind:
An Animation ...
What do you get when award-winning writer Sita Brahmachari, and a director with a vision called Maya Sanbar, approach you to co-storyboard an animation for a song by Sting, written to honour child refugees?
A globally acclaimed, UNHCR backed animation, hitting schools and film festivals worldwide..
My Latest Reads...
CHILDREN'S
This one is must for any future (or current) Agatha Christie addicts like I was (and remain)! And as a Muslim girl who never thought she'd see the day when TWO Muslim girls would be at the heart of a super fun murder mystery, this is a dream I didn't know I had come true.
Mixing the humour and nostalgia of 'The Parent Trap' franchise (separated twins, forced together) with a good dose of a proper whodunit, I already can't help hoping Ani and Riri will be back very soon for another easy on the brain adventure.
OK. So I won't lie. I bought this as an impulse Christmas gift for a friend's son (who is reaching 'that age' when boys apparently stop reading as fervently (bah!)) not thinking of reading it myself at all.
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But on hearing my friend's son had read it in just a few days and couldn't put it down over the Christmas break, I couldn't help buying myself a copy too.
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Within a few pages, it was clear what was so brilliant about it. Two authors penning a brother and sister duo with a penchant for solving riddles, living at Bletchley Park - AND with a missing mother to boot? Quite rightly unputdownable.
Lizzie and Belle are back - just as their dad takes to the stage as the first Black man to play Othello, and the trans-atlantic slave trade becomes an ever ominous presence too.
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With near-deaths, a smattering of real-life historical characters and a mystery to solve, this series by J.T. Williams does what all fantastic children's books do: it leaves the reader running through its pages, wanting to ask questions about the real-life stories and events encountered.
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And as questions that NEED to be asked go, racism and London's history with the slave trade is surely up there in the top tiers. Bring on book 3!
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ADULTS
True to Chimamanda's trademark style of devastating truths through the eyepiece of fiction, this deep-dive dissection into the thoughts, lives and interwoven experiences of four women feels deeply exposing and intimate: for both myself as the reader and the subjects at my fingertips alike.
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I love any story which has a Virginia Woolf feel of female solidarity and truths exclusive to women alone. And sinking into the lives of Chiamaka, Zikora, Omelogot and Kadiatou, delivers this with every page.
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Have to admit, am finding it hard to tear myself away from this breakfast read each morn...
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Following the unacceptable removal of this crucial collection of essays from the National Library of Scotland's 'Dear Library' exhibition, it's time to revisit this reminder of what the fight for women's basic rights as a biological sex has cost women across Scotland and beyond.
With essays from J.K.Rowling, Joanna Cherry KC, Kathleen Stock OBE, Magi Gibson, Jenny Lindsay, MSP Pam Gosal and many more phenomenal women, this is an eye-opening and chilling study into what risking your job, reputation and livelihood to speak basic truths entail in the modern age.
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Having survived some of the same threats and moves to cancel my career as conveyed by these feminist peers, it's a book that will always hit close to home.
What was England like before the East India Company?
How did the British Empire secure a foothold in the Mughal reigns before its own empire came into existence?
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These are questions I had never thought of before I picked up Al-Azami's shaking up of British history, and answers them through the figures of chancer merchants, holy fathers and adventurers, all wanting a piece of the bejewlled, Mughal pie.
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Most especially eye-opening is Al-Azami inclusion of Mughal women as real-life forces: from the infamous Empress Nur Jahan Begum, to the lesser known Maryam al-Zamani.
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Just brilliant, and intriguing.