Tariq Ali

Editor, New Left Review; novelist, historian

Tariq studied at the Punjab University (Lahore) and the University of Oxford. He first came to public attention for his outspoken views on American and Israeli foreign policies in the 1960s. He was recruited to the International Marxist Group in the late 1960s, eventually joining their leadership, and was also a member of the socialist group the Fourth International. His is currently on the board of the New Left Review, for whom he also serves as Editor. He has also written for the Guardian since the 1970s, and contributes to other publications, including the London Review of Books.

Ali is author of several novels, including the five-part series of historical novels about Islam, which includes Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (1992), and A Sultan in Palermo (2005). His historical non-fiction includes 1968: Marching in the Streets (1998), and more recently The Idea of Communism (2009).