Justine Hardy

Justine Hardy has been a journalist and commentator for twenty-four years, many of those spent covering South Asia. She is also a trauma therapist, specializing in conflict trauma. Justine speaks and lectures regularly across a spectrum of venues and audiences, ranging from The Royal Geographical Society to The Oslo Freedom Forum.

Justine is the author of six books ranging in subject from war to Hindi film: TheOchre Border, 1995, was about the reopening of the Tibetan frontier lands. Her second, Scoop-Wallah, 1999, was the story of her time as a journalist for an Indian newspaper in Delhi. It was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award 2000 and serialised on BBC Radio 4. Goat: A Story of Kashmir and Notting Hill, 2000, was an inside look at life in Kashmir and Notting Hill, a warzone and a white-hot corner of London drawn together by the latter obsession with the fine pashmina weave of the Kashmir Valley. This was also serialised on BBC Radio 4.

Bollywood Boy, 2002, was an international bestseller in which the Hindi film industry was the vehicle for a closer look at the obsession with fame as it creptWest to East and the darker side of an industry pumping out high-octane escapism for an audience of over a billion. The Wonder House, 2005, is a novel set in Kashmir against the background of the conflict, and based onJustine’s experience of frontline coverage, time spent in militant training camps, and amongst the extremists. It was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel in 2006.

In the Valley of Mist, 2009, a return to non-fiction and the subject of Kashmir, charts the first twenty years of the conflict there through the prism of Kashmiri family life. It was also broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and it was Runner-Up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2010. Justine’s books have been translated into a wide range of languages, from Hindi and Serbian. Justine also writes for The Financial Times, The Times, and Condé Nast magazines, including Vanity Fair and Condé Nast Traveler. She also writes for The Times of India, and a wide range of other publications in India, the UK and US.

As a documentary maker and presenter she started at Channel 4 in 1996 on BAFTA-nominated series Urban Jungle. She has worked on several BBC strands in India both BBC and BBC World. Justine was a presenter on Travel TV for four years. She was a co-presenter with Jerry Hall on a series about Eastern philosophy’s journey West for BBC