Babita Sharma

About

Babita Sharma

Babita Sharma is a Broadcaster, Journalist & award-winning Author.

Babita is the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning book The Corner Shop published by Two Roads (2019/2020). The book charts the social history of this unsung hero of British life. Growing up above a corner shop in 1980s Britain, Babita gives a fascinating perspective of the political and economic climate during her childhood through the lens of corner shop life.

Her passion for corner shops and her childhood experiences has enabled her to become a leading commentator on multi-cultural Britain, hosting TED talk: The Corner Shop: The truth about immigration and working alongside the National Trust and the Migration Museum for two major projects about corner shop life in Britain.

The Corner Shop was awarded a Business Book Award in 2020. It was a Radio Four Book of the Week and a BBC2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick.

A new children’s book series written by Babita: The Adventures of Priya Mistry will be published by Hachette Children’s Group in 2022.

Babita is a well known face in TV and radio, presenting several television documentaries, including BBC One’s Supermarket Secrets and Booze, Beans & Bhajis: The Story of the Corner shop broadcast on BBC Four, BBC News Channel and BBC World News to critical acclaim.

Her landmark BBC Two series Dangerous Borders: The Story of India & Pakistan took Babita to the India/Pakistan border 70 years after partition. Here she followed in the footsteps of her family who became refugees overnight at the time of partition.

Babita is an award-winning journalist and spent 10 years presenting across BBC News, including BBC Breakfast and BBC World News where most recently she covered major global news events including Covid-19 pandemic, US Elections 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests. She was awarded the Asian Achievement Award for contributions in Media, Arts and Culture (2019).

She is passionate about diversity and mental health issues; mentoring BAME journalists and is on the Board of Trustees for United for Global Mental Health and Patron of the South Asian Heritage Trust. Alongside the FCDO & BBC Media Action, Babita has developed international media training programmes for young aspiring journalists.