She currently lives in Richmond, London with her husband. This novel won numerous awards, including the Children's Book Award. It is the story of a young Kurdish girl living in Iraq. She claims to dislike snakes, porridge and being cold but enjoys very dark chocolate, Mozart, reading and playing the violin in the Iraq Symphony Orchestra. Kiss the Dust, by Elizabeth Laird, was published in 1991. The couple were married in 1975 and have two sons, Angus and William. During travel, she met her future husband, David McDowall, who she said was very kind to her when she was airsick on a plane. But Tara still doesn’t realize just how dangerous life for the Kurds has become until the Iraqi secret. Twelve-year-old Tara Hawrami lives a normal life in Iraquntil the day she sees a boy, a Kurd like herself, get shot by soldiers in the street.

She and a friend would hire mules and go into remote areas in the holidays.Īfter a while at Edinburgh University, Laird worked in India for a summer. No place is safe for Tara and her family. She decided to continue her adventurous life, even though she was bitten by a poisonous snake and went down with typhoid.Īfter attending the university in Bristol, Laird began teaching English in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When she was eighteen, Laird started teaching at a school in Malaysia. An edition of Kiss the dust (1991) Kiss the dust by Elizabeth Laird 3.

In 1945, Laird and her family returned to Britain and she grew up in South London, where she was educated at Croydon High School. Kiss the dust by Elizabeth Laird, 1991, Heinemann edition, in English. Her father was a ship's surgeon both he and Laird's mother were Scottish. The inspiration of the novel was gained from her visit to the Kurdish region in Iraq. Laird was born in New Zealand in 1943, the fourth of five children. Kiss the Dust is the second novel of Laird.

Kiss the dust by elizabeth laird