Try Me by Farah Damji [Paperback]

'An exhilarating breath of fresh air: an Indian woman who has lived, loved, f**ked and f**ked-up in spectacular fashion and has the guts and talent to write about it with honesty and style. This book is a landmark, throwing down a gauntlet that Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai et al would never dare pick up.' Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal, author Tourism. At last an immigrant autobiography that doesn't have a mission to complain.' Farrukh Dhondy, writer and film-maker 'Casually shocking. Artfully bizarre. The most jaw-dropping memoir I've read since Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries.' --- Guy Adams, US Correspondent, --The Independent --In a sense, Try Me is reminiscent of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, wherein Solomon details his frantic search for happiness. Solomon tried everything. Sex, knowledge, architecture all of which failed to make him happy. Farah did the same thing, only in a much more contemporary setting. She, too, came up empty. Yet like Solomon, after wading through the blizzard of her life, she discovered something worthwhile her human-ness. On the Read-O-Meter, which ranges from 1 star (dismal) to 5 stars (momentous), Try Me earns 5 stars. It s a truly original memoir, written in dramatic fashion by the High Priestess of melodrama. --Randall Radic Author, 'A Priest in Hell Try Me, should really be called Take No Prisoners..[A] riveting story of how a troubled child became a Chanel-clad sex-bomb socialite quasi-criminal and then a somewhat contrite mother and very promising writer. The story of this world-class drama queen makes for highly dramatic reading.' --Michael Gross, More Intelligent Life

'After only the first paragraph, I was hooked. 'Try Me' is brilliantly written and describes the darker side of the media industry for women of all races. Detailing her travels to London and New York, her relationships, problems, drugs, alcohol, sex and fashion, her writing is utterly compelling.' ----fashion156.com

Farah Damji's book is intelligent, gutsy, full of paradox, and quite unlike any other account of the immigrant experience. ----The Evening Standard

Farah Damji was born in Uganda in 1966 to South Asian parents. In 1970 she moved to London, where she did most of her growing up. In 1985, as soon as she was legal, she left for New York, promising to come back to take up a place at UCL. Alas that never happened. Farah has been and done many things, art dealer, interior designer, magazine publisher, mistress, socialite and in all things she excelled until the irresistible urge to self annihilate, instilled by her loving parents at an early age kicked in. Drugs, sex and drama didn't fill the guest shape hole at the core of Farah's being so she rebelled against all the things she was supposed to be, by trying crime, the way someone else might try on a new pair of shoes. She went to prison for 21 months and learned her lesson and has tried to be a good girl since then. Today, she describes herself as work in progress, on the way to becoming a human being rather than just a human doing. After tens of thousands of pounds spent on psychoanalysis she believes she is cured of the desire to prove anything to anyone. She is the mother of two adorable children, a writer and an ethical fashion designer. She lives by the belief 'Do as you would be done by' with the caveats that she takes no prisoners and suffers fools very ungraciously.