Hanan al-Shaykh

was born in Lebanon, and grew up there, moving to Cairo when she was a teenager and writing her first novel there. Back in Beirut, she became a journalist with the Arabic press. She later lived in the Gulf before settling in London, where she still lives. Her first novel translated to English was The Story of Zahra (trans. Peter Ford, Quartet Books, 1986). Then came translations, all by Catherine Cobham, of Women of Sand and Myrrh (Quartet, 1989), Beirut Blues (Doubleday, 1995), Only in London (Bloomsbury 2001) and a collection of short stories, I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops (Bloomsbury, 2002).