Robin Saikia is a British author and actor educated at Winchester College and Merton College, Oxford.
Books
Publications include Blue Guide Hay-on-Wye, a historical and cultural exploration of the Anglo-Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye, famous for its self-crowned king, Richard Booth, for its book dealers, and as the venue of the annual Guardian Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts (Blue Guides 2010). Other works include The Horn Book: A Victorian Sex Manual (Saucy Book Company, 2008), Munich: A Third Reich Tourist Guide (Foxley Books, 2008 and A Commentary on Ten Ancient Arabic Poems (Bayswater Press, 2008). Future publications include The Venice Lido, the first ever full-length historical and cultural guide to Venice's glamorous beach resort, from its early days as a primitive settlement until its heyday as the setting for Death in Venice and as the venue for the Venice Film Festival . The book charts the antics of many of the more disreputable visitors, including Byron and Oswald Mosley, but also celebrates the natural beauties of the Lido and its symbolic role as the outer boundary of the Serenissima (Blue Guides, September 2010)
Theatre
Roles include Dove in the Nick Warburton play, Fridays When It Rains, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and adapted for the stage by the British actress and director Vicki Carpenter, who appeared as Connie opposite Saikia's Dove. (Iambic Arts, Brighton). Saikia has also appeared as Roger de Brito in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Decius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, both with the Hampstead Players.
Journalism
Recent journalism and travel writing includes Venice for Families in the Guardian and feature articles on music, art dealing and espionage in Time Out 1000 Things To Do In London For Under £10. Saikia is an active campaigner for a radical reform of the Family Division of the UK High Court.
Lectures
'Scraping and Screeching in Salzburg: Mozart's response to liturgical reform.' (Hampstead Christian Study Group).
