Cambridge Arts Roundup episode 66Sculptor Harry Gray and Ambassador author Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri
In this edition….
Simon Bertin visits prominent sculptor Harry Gray and find out why he’s such an interesting figurative artist who is commissioned time and again for striking public artworks.
Indian ambassador to the UN Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri who champions women’s issues for the UN joins us to talk about her bestselling debut novel “Swallowing the sun”
And we visit Cambridge Arts festival in full swing and talk to the artist showcasing new and interesting work as the arts scene begins to rebound with the help of organisers Cambridge Bid’s Jenny Granshaw introduces the work featured earlier this month at the Guidlhall.
Above Figurative artist/sculptor Harry Gray reveals a ‘Trumpgoyle’ with no ears
Harry Gray adorns a Greek goddess statue in his studio
Listen to the podcast Cambridge Arts Roundup Episode 66
Indian Ambassador to the UN Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri talks about her new bestselling novel ‘Swallowing the sun’ and why women should seize the opportunities open to them.
She has successfully championed women’s for the UN and an imagination that can weave a plotthat spans an exploration of love, valour, and India’s struggle for independence through the eyes of three generations of women, and especially those of its feisty young heroine, Malati. The novel captures the exciting highs and terrible lows of the Gandhi era. One critic commented“It’s about young heroes and heroines who conquer self-doubt, resist oppression, disprove racism and overthrow slavery – a novel that speaks to the present and is a prophet of the future.
Lakshmi was the youngest entrant into the Indian Foreign Service. After representing India abroad in key bilateral and multilateral diplomatic assignments for 28 years, including as Ambassador to Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina. she served at the United Nations for 15 years in various leadership capacities: as Director of the flagship International Trade Division of UNCTAD, later as the first Indian woman to be an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and as the founding Deputy Executive Director of UN Women – the first international organization to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. her career has won her a string of prestigious awards and she is also a Fellow of the Indian Association of International Studies (IAIS) and a visiting professor at the South Asian University, New Delhi.
Lakshmi joined me on the uplink to talk about her work which is modern epic…. and which will be released as a web series next year….“Swallowing the Sun” received the Kalinga Literature Award and the Delhi Literature Festival Award for Fiction, along with the REC–VoW Award 2025, the FICCI Special Jury Award 2025, the Pandit Hari Dutt Sharma Award 2025, and other literary distinctions.
