Shamim Sarif photo

Shamim Sarif

Born in the UK, Shamim is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and director.

Her next book, The Athena Protocol, is an all-female YA contemporary action thriller that is published by Harper Teen in September 2019.

Her debut novel, The World Unseen, won a Betty Trask award and the Pendleton May First Novel award.

Shamim has adapted and directed the films of three of her novels including, most recently, Despite the Falling Snow. The book was published by Headline in the UK and St Martin’s Press in the US. The movie stars Rebecca Ferguson and Charles Dance in a story of love and betrayal in cold war Russia. Her films have won 47 awards internationally.

Shamim’s third novel, I Can’t Think Straight, formed the basis of her cult hit film of the same name.

Shamim’s book festival appearances include Hay-on-Wye, Cheltenham and Edinburgh.

An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events worldwide, at the INK Conference in India and DLD in Munich. Corporate speaking events have included Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Disney.

Shamim lives in London with her wife, Hanan, and their two sons


“She had been trying hourly to ensure that this new friendship remained such, to be certain that it would not slip out of the careful grasp of her fingers and into the darker champers of her heart.”
Shamim Sarif
Read more
“There was light and there was darkness, and where once, so recently, he had sat at his desk bathed in that light, now he was clothed in the black cover of heartbreak.”
Shamim Sarif
Read more