Want to know what books Roy Moxham recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Roy Moxham's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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Set in nineteenth-century India between two revolutionary moments of change, Twilight in Delhi brings history alive, depicting most movingly the loss of an entire culture and way of life. As Bonamy Dobree said, "It releases us into a different and quite complete world. Mr. Ahmed Ali makes us hear and smell Delhi...hear the flutter of pigeons’ wings, the cries of itinerant vendors, the calls to prayer, the howls of mourners, the chants of qawwals, smell jasmine and sewage, frying ghee and burning wood." The detail, as E.M. Forster said, is "new and fascinating," poetic and brutal,... more Set in nineteenth-century India between two revolutionary moments of change, Twilight in Delhi brings history alive, depicting most movingly the loss of an entire culture and way of life. As Bonamy Dobree said, "It releases us into a different and quite complete world. Mr. Ahmed Ali makes us hear and smell Delhi...hear the flutter of pigeons’ wings, the cries of itinerant vendors, the calls to prayer, the howls of mourners, the chants of qawwals, smell jasmine and sewage, frying ghee and burning wood." The detail, as E.M. Forster said, is "new and fascinating," poetic and brutal, delightful and callous. First published by the Hogarth Press in 1940. Twilight in Delhi was widely acclaimed by critics and hailed in India as a major literary event. Long since considered a landmark novel, it is now available in the U.S. as a New Directions Classic. Twilight in Delhi has also been translated into French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Urdu. less 
Roy MoxhamThis is a book about Delhi, which was a mainly Muslim city before partition and it’s about old life in Delhi. It’s a very interesting book and it has a very interesting publishing history actually. It was published by Hogarth Press at the beginning of the war, then the printers refused to print it because they thought it was subversive – it was quite critical of the British in India. E M Forster... (Source)
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Packed with anecdote and exuberant detail, In an Antique Land provides magical and intimate insights into Egypt from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm. It exposes the indistinguishable and intertwining ties that bind together India and Egypt, Hindus and Muslims and Jews. By combining fiction, history, travel writing and anthropology, to create a single seamless work of imagination, Ghosh characteristically makes us rethink the political boundaries that divide the world and the generic boundaries that divide narratives. more Packed with anecdote and exuberant detail, In an Antique Land provides magical and intimate insights into Egypt from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm. It exposes the indistinguishable and intertwining ties that bind together India and Egypt, Hindus and Muslims and Jews. By combining fiction, history, travel writing and anthropology, to create a single seamless work of imagination, Ghosh characteristically makes us rethink the political boundaries that divide the world and the generic boundaries that divide narratives. less Roy MoxhamHe’s a much better writer of factual books than fiction. It’s about him researching these documents that originally came to Cambridge University out of Egypt, and they are documents pertaining to Jews who were based in Egypt but were travelling to do business in Southern India in medieval times. He writes extremely beautifully about life in an Egyptian village where he stays and the people he... (Source)
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Nicolas Bouvier, Thierry Vernet, Robyn Marsack, Patrick Leigh Fermor | 4.39
In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of... more In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and a voyage of self-discovery on the order of Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As Bouvier writes, “You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making—or unmaking—you.” less 
Colin ThubronBouvier never wrote another book comparable to this one. I loved it for its humanity, for its footloose feeling. (Source)
Roy MoxhamThese friends try to go to India in a tiny battered Fiat and it takes them several years, it probably describes the attraction of travel better than any book I’ve ever read. (Source)
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4
Best friends and flatmates Foxy-T and Ruji-Babes run the E-Z Call Telephone and Internet shop in the heart of Bangladeshi East London. It's a twelve-hour day running the E-Z Call and Foxy-T and Ruji-Babes don't get out much, but they have each other and eat their take-outs by candlelight . . .
And all seems cool until Zafar Iqbal turns up on their doorstep looking for his grandad. Fresh from Feltham Young Offenders Centre and with a taste for the weed, Zafar's presence rapidly upsets the balance at the E-Z Call . . .
‘One of the best London novels you'll ever get to... more Best friends and flatmates Foxy-T and Ruji-Babes run the E-Z Call Telephone and Internet shop in the heart of Bangladeshi East London. It's a twelve-hour day running the E-Z Call and Foxy-T and Ruji-Babes don't get out much, but they have each other and eat their take-outs by candlelight . . .
And all seems cool until Zafar Iqbal turns up on their doorstep looking for his grandad. Fresh from Feltham Young Offenders Centre and with a taste for the weed, Zafar's presence rapidly upsets the balance at the E-Z Call . . .
‘One of the best London novels you'll ever get to read.’ Toby Litt, Sunday Herald
‘This is, in fact, the best book that has ever been written about Brick Lane.’ Roy Moxham, ‘Five Books’, The Browser
‘this affectionate tale may tell you more about love, longing and ambition in the inner city than a dozen official reports. Indeed, some readers would argue that it captures the flavour of Asian lives in London E1 with more inside-track relish than another novel of 2003: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.’ Boyd Tonkin, Independent
‘In Foxy-T he excels himself. [...] With vivid economy White describes young Bangladeshis’ domestic, business and street life in intelligent, beautifully sustained prose. Coherent and compelling, the novel has a wonderful, if slightly tricky, denouement which made me grin with surprised admiration. Rejecting familiar influences of the past 20 years, White joins a handful of contemporary writers who are proving that the novel has never been more alive. He is a serious, engaging voice of the modern city.’ Michael Moorcock, Guardian
‘One of this year’s key novels [...] an ingenious, beautifully crafted, thrillingly contemporary love story set in the Bangladeshi east end and narrated in that area’s distinctive patois [...] A complex, clever book whose future status as a GCSE set text must be assured.’ Time Out less Roy MoxhamThis is, in fact, the best book that has ever been written about Brick Lane. No doubt it would have won lots of prizes if the author had had a slightly different name. Anyway, it is about a community really, but it is based around two girls who work in a telephone and computer place off Cannon Street Road, the E-Z Call phone shop. There are all these dubious characters coming in who are out of... (Source)
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