Mists and Monsoons

About the Book: 

This new collection of poetry from Bashabi Fraser is rooted in the swirling mists of Scotland and the drenching monsoons of India, taking inspiration from the sites that raise wonder and awe. The poems bring together Fraser’s reflections on colonialism, literary culture and identity, encompassing continents and reaching beyond to transnational responses. Rich in imagery and deeply reflective, each verse invites readers to discover how two seemingly distant worlds can speak the same emotional language.
This collection will appeal to readers who love poetry inspired by place, culture, and the natural world. It is ideal for anyone with a connection to Scotland or India, as well as those who enjoy thoughtful, lyrical writing that explores identity, travel, heritage, and the shared experiences that unite people across cultures. Whether you are an avid poetry reader or simply seeking moments of reflection and beauty, these poems offer a journey that resonates long after the final page.

Praise for Habitat:

Bashabi Fraser’s timely new collection, Habitat, speaks with an acute awareness of the richness of our world and of the perils that increasingly confront it. A great gallery of birds, trees, cats and people, in landscapes of her two countries, India and Scotland, are vividly present here in poems of many shapes, all full of a love that is both fearful and full of hope. PETER FRANCE

A warm and passionate hymn to the richness of the planet, from the Arctic to Arthur's Seat, Glasgow to Kolkata, lamenting the losses of nature in our time but exulting in human relationships, journeys and ‘the call of home’. RUTH PADEL

I headed straight for the birds – well, that was the idea, but I got waylaid by the Prologue and the Foreword, particularly those fireflies dancing to a subtle rhythm and rhyme scheme, scattering ‘our suppressed thoughts’. So I left the river to its ‘churning burial ground of eternal oblivion’ only to find that the first bird to speak is caged and full of righteous anger, and then that it submits its freedom to serve a caged human.

These poems come tumbling out of a copious basket. Observation is sharp and there is much humanity and positivity. They speak straight to you. That’s why I like them so much. JOHN PURSER

In these dark days for the planet, what shines through Bashabi’s work is a deep love for family and friends, for humanity at large and the natural world. Spiritual at their core, the poems celebrate our oneness, sing their song of hope. ALAN SPENCE

One of the effects of the climate crisis has been the vitality of a poetry that is decidedly public-facing; a poetry whose urgency often dispenses with the page. The tensions behind such a development run through Habitat. The core of the collection may be found in personal encounters, but its ‘argument’ extends far beyond that. The ‘habitat’ – the community of which Bashabi Fraser writes – encompasses all living things. It is a book rich in praise, but also freighted with warning. TOM POW

About the Author:

BASHABI FRASER was born in West Bengal in India. Living a multicultural and colourful life, Bashabi divides her life between the two countries she loves most – India and Britain. After living in London, Bashabi returned to India to attend a convent boarding school on the Himalayas where she was threatened with expulsion after breaking all possible rules! Happily this threat never came to fruition and with a PhD in English Literature, she is now an associate lecturer in English Literature for the Open University and a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at Edinburgh University. She travels widely working as a poet, attending councils and conferences around the world and has written for many publications, has two collections of poems in print and has been included in a number of anthologies. Bashabi has also written children’s stories and is writing a shadow puppet play and a book on the Bengal Partition and is a classical Indian dancer and choreographer. She now lives in Edinburgh with her husband and daughter.

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