Born into an elite Brahmin family, the Purnaiyas of Mysore, Kamala adopted the surname Markandaya on the publication of her first novel, Nectar in a Sieve (1954). Prior to her career as a novelist, she graduated in history at the University of Madras, worked in the Indian Army for some of the Second World War, and began to make a name for herself in India as a journalist and writer of short stories. She married a fellow journalist, Englishman Bertrand Taylor, and permanently emigrated to Britain in 1948. An intensely private person, little was known about her life in England before her recent death, other than the fact that she is survived by one daughter, Kim Oliver.

In her fiction, Markandaya explores issues surrou

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First published 02 June 2005

Citation: Chambers, Claire. "Kamala Markandaya". The Literary Encyclopedia. 2 June 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2936, accessed 9 February 2010.]