Sharon Chawda

Sharon Chawda arrived in Newham as a teenage immigrant from Bombay. She never imagined the borough would shape her future. After studying at Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) in Plaistow and earning a first-class honours degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Greenwich, she found herself working in local government, with the Governor of HMP Pentonville, and in the Westminster office of her local MP Sir Stephen Timms. Those experiences eventually led her to become a civil servant in the Probation Service.

For someone who once “lacked ambition,” Chawda has done the very Newham thing of surprising herself. As a Labour activist, she is testing the waters of become a local Councillor and maybe one day an MP. If luck stays with her, she also dreams of becoming a writer. In her free time, she paints, knits, and collects stones for reasons only known to her.

Chawda hopes that her first book will help readers see Newham as she does: full of vitality, courage, and character - even in its roughest corners. She claims to be the living proof of her belief that Newham often reveals the potential people overlook in themselves.