"The Extreme Centre"

Tariq Ali has been a leading figure of the international left since the 60s and is a writer, journalist and film-maker.  Born in Lahore in 1943, he was educated at Oxford University, where he became involved in student politics, in particular with the movement against the war in Vietnam. On graduating he led the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign.

He owned his own independent television production company, Bandung, which produced programmes for Channel 4 in the UK during the 1980s. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio and contributes articles and journalism to magazines and newspapers. He has been writing for the Guardian since the 70s, is editor of the New Left Review and is a political commentator published on every continent.

He has written more than two dozen books on world history and politics, the latest being The Extreme Centre.