Leaving fingerprints

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up in Glasgow, and now divides her time between Bombay and London.

Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror.

She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings. "Leaving Fingerprints" is her fourth book of poems and drawings from Bloodaxe.

In these poems, the only thing that is never lost is the Bombay tiffin-box.

All the other things which are missing or about to go missing speak to each other - a person, a place, a recipe, a language, a talisman.

Whether or not they want to be identified or found, they still send each other messages, scattering a trail of clues, leaving fingerprints.