Kamala Markandaya is the nom de plume used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor. Kamala Markandaya is a native of Mysore was born in Bangalore, India in 1924. She was a graduate from Madras University and afterwards she worked for a weekly newspaper and published several short stories in Indian News papers before her emigration to England. She moved to England as after the independence of India.There she married to her husband and lived in London. They had one daughter of their marriage. She died in London on May 16, 2004.

Kamala Markandya made her identity on the field of writing with writing about cultural clash between Indian Urban and the rural societies. Her first novel "Nectar in a Sieve" published in 1954. The novel portrays the conditions of India during 1930`s and 1940`s.The novel consists of the life experiences of a woman who lived India during a period of intense urban development. It`s a story of a life full of hardships. The title of the novel "Nectar in a Sieve" is an obsolete to the poem "Work Without Hope" by Samuel Coleridge. Hope is a very important quality of the lives of the Characters. The novel became the best seller and in 1955 by the American Library Association named `a notable book`.

"Some Inner Fury" in 1965, "A Silence of Desire" in 1961, "Possession" in 1963, "A Handful of Rice" in 1966, "The Nowhere Man" in 1972, "Two Virgins" in 1973, "The Golden Honeycomb" in 1977 and "Pleasure City in 1982 are other novels by Kamala Markandaya.

Her novel "Nectar in a Sieve" is a beautiful portrayal of cultural clashs between the urban and rural societies. Though she moved to London but has labeled herself an Indian expatriate long afterwards.