Bali Rai was born in Leicester where he grew up in a multicultural community dreaming of playing football for Liverpool FC, being Bob Marley or becoming a writer. He writes the books he would have enjoyed as a teenager and his book Rani and Sukh is a set-text for GCSE English. His novel, Killing Honour, won the North East Teenage Book Award, and was described as “utterly compelling” by The Bookseller.

"Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was a truly remarkable person and Bali Rai brings her wonderfully to life in this short, but action-packed biography … Everyone should know her story and I’d press this into the hands of all young people to inspire them with the sense that you can make a difference to the world, and to let them see through the eyes of this extraordinary woman" – LoveReading4Kids"Fascinating … highlights a troubling period of British history in an accessible manner" – BookTrust, Book of the Day"Takes a complex story and distils it down to the essentials while keeping the narrative clear, accessible and engaging at all times. I can see this being a tremendous hit with teachers looking for resources to use in the classroom that raise a wide range of pressing social issues because it tells its story provocatively but without being tediously didactic. Highly recommended" – The Letterpress Project"So simply done and yet packs an almighty emotional punch … a wonderful addition to any classroom that is investigating the history of the suffragette movement and the history of Empire. This is a fantastic story about a woman who defied authority and achieved incredible things. It’s a wonderful achievement" – The Historian Next Door