Ismailov, Hamid

Hamid Ismailov, regarded as a man of "unacceptably democratic tendencies" in Uzbekistan, was forced to flee his homeland, and so came to London in 1992. He was recruited by the BBC World Service to set up its Central Asia Service. He has published many books both in Russia and in Uzbekistan, but this is the first time his work has been translated into English. Robert Chandler has translated the poetry of Sappho and Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as novels by Vasily Grossman and Aleksandr Pushkin.