Our host Vick Hope is joined by broadcaster and disability activist Shani Dhanda.
Shani is a broadcaster, disability inclusion and accessibility specialist, and social entrepreneur. She is one of the UK’s most influential disabled people, and was named Number 1 on The Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100 List in 2023. She is one of the consumer experts on BBC’s Rip Off Britain and a regular contributor on ITV’s This Morning. Shani’s intersectional activism and entrepreneurship has challenged social inequality around the world, and she is the founder of Diversability, the Asian Woman Festival and the Asian Disability Network.
Listen to the full episode here and read on to see Shani’s top five most influential books written by women.
“I think because my childhood was so restricted in so many ways, I made a promise to myself that I wanted to make everyday count, I didn’t want to have any regrets. I knew I didn’t want to live a boring life and when I was reading this book I thought “This is so fun, she does all these things – she’s giving advice on money but can’t even manage her own!”. There was something really inspiring about that, like you don’t have to be perfect and have it all figured out.”
“I really feel like when I think back to my childhood, it was such a pivotal thing that I remember because it was that me and my sister really bonded over as well. We were both as obsessed as each other, to the point where, when the books came out at midnight we would be in the queue at the supermarket waiting for the next edition!”
But What Will People Say?: Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love and Family Between Cultures
by Sahaj Kaur Kohli
Find out more“This book has been everything for me in so many ways. It was definitely the book that I needed as a young girl […] Sahaj has given me the language and the knowledge that I needed to be able to navigate feelings and emotions and situations […] It’s not only just for South Asian people but for anyone who is from a multicultural background.”
“I love this book. Growing up, I never really read books by South Asian authors and now there are more and more joining the publishing world which is just incredible. It makes me so happy that I can give my younger nieces and nephews books from authors that represent them, and stories and even names that we recognise as our norm.”
“When you first start reading this, it’s such an unassuming story and you don’t expect what’s going to happen in the book and all the topics that it covers. I think there was something in the character that I had experienced as well. It’s such a riveting story that touches on themes of grief, loneliness, mental health – it’s a book that I always recommend others to read.”
