Faruque Ahmed –
Writer & Community Historian

Faruque Ahmed is a Bengali-British literary critic, community historian, lyricist, and playwright. He grew up in Bangladesh and immigrated to the UK in 1989, where he currently lives. Over the years, he has interviewed many senior citizens of the Bengali community, collected oral history, rare documents, newspapers, photographs, booklets, and posters, and authored 13 books, including Bengal Politics in Britain and Bengali Journals and Journalism in the UK. Back home, his books were published by renowned publishers such as Bangla Academy, Sahitya Prakash, and University Press Limited. He was awarded the Bangla Academy Award in 2020.

REVIEWS

John Eade

Faruque Ahmed’s book is a welcome contribution to this growing literature by British Bangladeshis. He draws impressively not only on primary sources, oral histories, and academic studies written in English but also a variety of Bengali language texts and interviews with a range of Bangladeshis living in various areas of Britain.

Duncan Barlett

Author Faruque Ahmed believes that the story of Britain’s Bengali community, who originate from Bangladesh, has been largely neglected or forgotten. His intriguing and carefully researched book Bengali Settlement in Britain celebrates this dynamic group.

Bengal Politics in Britain: Logic, Dynamics & Disharmony

Ahmed shows that, while there is a symmetry in the image of immigrants from the East ending up in the East End, the areas close to London’s docks were not necessarily the most important in the annals of Anglo-Asian life - Josh Loeb