[4] Safia Shah and Ian Thomas have both worked for the American news agency, Associated Press Television, as journalists and producers.

Gold selling traditional British fare, in Brushfield Street, opposite Spitalfields Market, not far from Brick Lane, famous for its curries,[7] in London E1.

[8][9][10][11] Selling the likes of Banbury cakes, Campbell's Perfect Tea and elderflower wine,[12] it was their desire to prove that British food was something we should be proud of.

According to London food writer and critic Sejal Sukhadwala,[13] 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.

[12] Built in 1780, the four-storey Grade II-listed house has been home in the past to diamond-cutters, furriers, boot makers, drapers and Amelia Gold, a Hungarian who ran a French millinery (hat making) business.

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][20][21] Kashfi's Children works in collaboration with the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK)'s Hoopoe Books "Share Literacy" global outreach programme.

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.

[28][29] In November 2013, she released Twice Sifted, a collection of six short stories, which focus on stress-induced anxiety and the many ways in which it is manifested in the characters' lives.

"[32] 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.