Ashok Patel

Ashok Patel is a Birmingham-based writer of short stories and scripts for stage, radio and film. His BBC Radio 4 afternoon play, Jeevan Sathi, Life Partner was broadcast in 2002 and shortlisted for a CRE Race in the Media award in 2003. It was also one of three plays in The Corner Shop (the Hawth, Crawley) and national tour 2001 (Man Mela Theatre Company). Most recently, his stage play Ninety Days was produced by the Curve Theatre, Leicester, in 2022, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972.

Ashok has written three short films, Obsession (Sampad), Chahana (Arts in Sandwell) and Cathy and I (Script and Lighthouse). Cathy and I won a Royal Television award in 2005.

His short story ‘Ninety days’ was shortlisted by the Asian Writer short story prize and published in the anthology, Dividing Lines (Dahlia Publishing 2017). In 2023 his short story ‘Hotel Shalimar’ was published in the anthology, Thursday Nights by Tindal Street Fiction Group.

Ashok was a postdoctoral researcher and senior lecturer in biomedical sciences at several universities. He has authored many papers in genetics of disease published in peer reviewed journals and taught on biomedical science courses as well as on a number of health-related courses. He is interested in the intersections between sciences and the arts.

He enjoys spending time with his family, friends, walking and keeping fit. He is currently working on his first novel set in the UK and India.

Audio from Ashok Patel