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Safia Shah
File:Safia200px.jpg
Occupation(s)Editor, freelance writer and producer, independent retailer
SpouseIan Thomas
ChildrenArchie
Parent(s)Idries Shah, Cynthia (Kashfi) Kabraji
RelativesShah family

Safia Shah (now Safia Thomas) is a British writer, editor and television news producer, following in the footsteps of her distinguished Anglo-Afghan family. She and her husband Ian also founded and run a respected traditional delicatessen A. Gold in London, specializing in entirely British fare, painstakingly renovating the historic building in the process.

Life and work

Safia Shah is the daughter of the well known author and teacher in the Sufi mystical tradition, Idries Shah; the twin sister of writer, journalist and documentary maker, Tahir Shah, and the sister of the writer, reporter and documentary filmmaker, Saira Shah.

Educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, England, Shah went on to study at the Sorbonne and University of Grenoble in France. She has worked for the London-based Institute for Cultural Research as a research assistant and editor and worked with Afghan refugees in the North-West Frontier Province, as well as reporting on social issues there. She is also a freelance writer and has edited for the Institute of Health Sciences.[1][2]

Safia Shah's sister, Saira Shah, worked with Safia's future husband, Ian Thomas, and the couple met through her and eventually married at Marylebone Road register office in London.[3] Safia Shah and Ian Thomas have both worked for the American news agency, Associated Press Television, as journalists and producers.[4][5]

Safia Shah's most notable work is Afghan Caravan[6][7], a miscellany which was collected by Idries Shah and edited by her. In his Introduction to the book, Idries Shah writes:

Afghan Caravan is a collection of writings that takes the reader on a spell-binding journey through Afghanistan, The Unconquerable. It contains a narrative from a Pathan princess; heroic war stories; tips on savvy carpet-buying; Mulla Nasrudin jokes from the front lines of the Mujahidin; even the Great Pilau Recipe of Khalifa Ashpaz, Master Chef of the Hindu Kush, which was reportedly once served to 4,000 guests.[8]

Reception

Afghan Caravan was chosen by Nobel prize-winning writer Doris Lessing as the Daily Telegraph "Book of the Year" where it was described as "a cornucopia a mix of magical tales, nuggets from history... an Aladdin’s cave of a book"[9] and in Literary Review as "a great deal of fascinating material... It is a book to be dipped into, excellent bedside reading."[10]

Talking about both Afghan Caravan and Tahir Shah's The Middle East Bedside Book, Lessing writes in The Sufis and Idries Shah: "Both are full of delights; there is a great deal that is surprising; and, as with all books from that source, we are reminded of a generosity and largeness of mind in a culture that once, long ago, gave us the concept of chivalry."[11]

A. Gold

Safia Shah (now Safia Thomas) and her husband Ian Thomas left the world of television journalism in April 2000 to found and run the traditional delicatessen and grocer A. Gold selling traditional British fare, in Brushfield Street, opposite Spitalfields Market, not far from Brick Lane, famous for its curries,[12] in London E1.[13][14][15][16] It was their desire to prove that British food was something we should be proud of.[5][13] The business has received local, specialist and national press coverage.

According to London food writer and critic Sejal Sukhadwala, the shop is located inside what used to be Henry VIII's artillery ground, where soldiers once practised archery and musketry, and is close to Nicholas Hawksmoor's impressive 18th-century Christ Church, Spitalfields. The area is infamous for Jack the Ripper's serial murders, and the Great Fire of London.[17]

Built in 1780, the four-storey Grade II-listed house has been home in the past to diamond-cutters, furriers, boot makers, drapers and by an Amelia Gold, a Hungarian who ran a French millinery (hat making) business. Her 1880’s shop sign is still emblazoned across the frontage and Safia and Ian Thomas have kept the name[4][13] and painstakingly restored the historic building. As a result, A. Gold is handsome and old-fashioned looking, while keeping the modern efficiencies of a deli.[12]

A. Gold, which is described as "the village shop in the heart of London",[15] has a lengthy feature in 'The Good Old Days' section of Jane Payton's Fabulous Food Shops (2006).[18]

In an article picturing Safia Thomas standing outside her shop, and written a few months prior to the Economic crisis of 2008, the London Evening Standard stated that it was championing the capital's independent shops. With the world increasingly dominated by vast supermarkets and chain stores, London had lost over 7,000 individual or family-owned shops between 2002 and 2008 and small businesses were struggling to survive.[19]

References

  1. ^ Biographical detail from Amazon Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  2. ^ For further biography, see: The World's Who's Who of Women, 1993, under Safia Shah.
  3. ^ Seven brides for seven lovers, Life and Style, The Guardian, 6 August 1999. Retrieved on 2008-11-15.
  4. ^ a b The homes from home that pay their way, The Independent, 8 February 2003. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  5. ^ a b British deli-cious, The Independent, 1 May 2005. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  6. ^ Shah, Safia, Afghan Caravan, Octagon Press, hardback (1990), ISBN 0 863040 54 3; paperback (1991) ISBN 0 863040 59 4.
  7. ^ Review of Afghan Caravan Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  8. ^ Introduction to Afghan Caravan by Idries Shah © 1990 by Octagon Press. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  9. ^ Afghan Caravan at Octagon Press Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  10. ^ Afghan Caravan at Amazon Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  11. ^ Lessing, Doris (1997). "The Sufis and Idries Shah". Retrieved 2008-10-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ a b Verde & Co and A Gold, La Petite Chinoise, 23 May 2006. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  13. ^ a b c West, Kate, Shop Talk, Barbican Life, Spring 2005, p25 (pdf file). Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  14. ^ The 50 best British foods, The Independent, Saturday, 20 September 2003. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  15. ^ a b A.Gold, London Shopping at LondonTown.com directory. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  16. ^ 100 Hottest Shops, Timeout (London). Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  17. ^ A. Gold, Review by London food writer and critic Sejal Sukhadwala. Retrieved on 2008-11-14.
  18. ^ Peyton, Jane, Fabulous Food Shops (Interior Angles), p46, John Wiley & Sons, 2006. ISBN 0470011777.
  19. ^ Our campaigning Standard, Evening Standard, 22 April 2008 (pdf file). Retrieved on 2008-11-14.



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