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NIROMI DE SOYZA Niromi de Soyza was born and raised in Sri Lanka by her conservative, middle-class educated family. She was a studious child and was hardly found without a book in her possession. Niromi also loved to paint, performed in school plays, sang in the choir and played the piano accordion in the school band. She trained in Indian classical dance Barathanatiyam and Karnatic music.

In 1987, as civil war escalated, Niromi and her best friend, Ajanthi, cut short their education at a prestigious Christian Girls' College in Jaffna, and joined the militant Tamil Tigers against their parents' wishes. They were 17.

Niromi survived the perils of war - starvation, illness, injury and death but sadly, Ajanthi did not.

Soon after she left the Tigers, Niromi was sent to a Boarding School in India, where she began to pen her experience in diary format. By the time she completed High School, she had been elected a House Captain and the year's Prom Queen. After arriving in Australia, she openly declared her past and was granted political asylum. She went to university and studied science and law, gaining a Masters degree.

Niromi felt compelled to share her story after seeing the plight of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees arriving in Australia by boat after the end of civil war in 2009. Her memoir Tamil Tigress was first released in Australia & New Zealand by Allen & Unwin on the 1st of July 2011, on Ajanthi's birthday.

The book is included in the list of '50 Books You Can't Put Down' released

by Get Reading! 2011, an Australian Government initiative developed through the Australian Council for the Arts.