Dom Moraes (1938–2004) was born in Bombay. At nineteen, he published his first book of poems, A Beginning, which won the Hawthornden Prize, at that time the most coveted literary award in England. His second book of verse, Poems (1960), became the Autumn Choice of the Poetry Book Society. Apart from these, he has published nine other collections of poems and over twenty works of prose, including a biography, Mrs Gandhi, and the memoirs Never at Home and My Son’s Father. As a correspondent, Dom Moraes has covered wars in Algeria, Israel and Vietnam. In 1971 he became editor of the Asia Magazine, and in 1976 he joined the UN. He returned to India in 1979.