DescriptionZohra Segal (1912-2014) spanned an Indian century of the arts and becamethe only woman to make a mark in all the performing arts, with the exceptionof music, within the country and abroad. This elegant biography traces herremarkable journey.Born into a family with connections to the nawabs of Rampur, ZohraMumtazullah Khan chose adventure over tradition when she was eighteen,travelling to Germany to learn modern dance. For the rest of her life,she continued to defy convention and was associated with transformativeinitiatives in the arts. In 1935, she was recruited by the bohemian geniusUday Shankar and toured the world with his dance troupe, until he disbandedit. In 1943, she set up a unique dance school in Lahore with her husbandKameshwar Segal, eight years her junior. In Bombay two years later, she joinedPrithvi Theatres, founded by the legendary Prithviraj Kapoor. For the nextfourteen years she travelled across India, taking socially relevant plays directlyto the people—through the turbulence of Partition and the heady idealismfollowing Independence, and the tragedy of Kameshwar’s suicide.In 1962, Zohra went to London on a drama scholarship and stayed on fortwenty-five years, becoming part of a tiny band of Asian artistes who wouldchange the complexion of British theatre. From here to her participation inpioneering TV series and films like Doctor Who, Jewel in the Crown and Bhajion the Beach was a natural progression. Back in India, she was surprisedto find Bollywood at her door when she was well past eighty. Playing theunconventional grandmother—by turns charming and crusty—she became ahousehold name.In this biography of the unlikely star, Ritu Menon helps us understand boththe performer and the person, and the times she lived in