This is where it all starts, the first assassination which took place within a family who had all the power they needed, yet were paralysed to change the destiny of their past, present and coming future.

We all know and have followed the assassinations trail which started from the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1979, then Shahnawaz Bhutto in 1985, the youngest son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who was found dead in Nice, France. Mir Murtaza Bhutto, father of Fatima Bhutto, brother of Shahnawaz Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto was also killed in an alleged police encounter in 1996. Then Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, eldest of the four children of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 after departing a PPP rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.

This is a short but extremely brutal and tragic history of one of the most influential, powerful and world’s best known political dynasties.

Songs of Blood and Sword
A daughter’s Memoir

Tells the story of a family of rich feudal landlords – the proud descendants of a warrior caste who became power brokers in the newly created state of Pakistan. It is an epic tale full of the romance and legend of feudal life, the glamour and licence of the international political elite and ultimately, the tragedy of four decades of a family defined by a political idealism that would ultimately destroy them.

The history of this extraordinary family mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself coupled with the quest to find the truth behind her father’s murder that has led Fatima to the heart of her country’s volatile political establishment. It is the history of a nation from Partition up to the post 9/11 'War on Terror'. If anyone can write this book it could only be Fatima Bhutto!

Fatima, one of Pakistan’s most outspoken political commentators and social activists completed her BA degree in Middle Eastern studies from Barnard College of Columbia University. She then received a Master's degree in South Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

‘Her book demonstrates she is not prepared to let her father's legacy die' –Independent

This is an amazing opportunity for us to present a woman, a victim, a writer, a poet and above all a daughter who still seeks justice after 14 years of her father’s brutal assassination. A woman who is very powerful, yet using the power of a pen to express her views and to ask for something which is one of the fundamental rights of any human being, ‘Justice’ also commonly confused as vengeance.

When I first heard about her book, 'Songs of Blood and Sword' I jumped out of my sofa and started looking into attending the nearest book reading. Initially my excitement and exuberance was to meet her, but soon I became extremely interested in exactly what she has to say.

My interest soon turned into wanting to delve deep within myself to write about her when by complete coincidence I bumped into her accidentally in Chelsea where she was attending an auction that day.

At first when I saw her I thought to myself, 'I am just thinking it’s her?' but I couldn’t resist approaching her and asking, “Excuse me, are you Fatima Bhutto?” She returned with an elegant smile and with her very fine English accent hesitantly replied “Yes”. I was delighted to see her so unexpectedly as after all I had been organising to meet her from the last two weeks at the BAFTA book reading, yet there I was standing and surrounded by the magnificent beauty of the streets of Chelsea in the blazing sun, without any need of an appointment to meet her.

She was very relaxed and all so very welcoming. Her first question to me was if I was also from Pakistan to which I immediately replied with a nodding head, Yes!

On the following Saturday I met Fatima again at her book reading at BAFTA in London. The woman I had met the week before was an ordinary young girl visiting an auction with a friend but today I could see a wounded daughter. I met a woman who is not here to introduce us to her writing prowess but someone who is writing about her flairs and failures in search of the truth behind her beloved father’s assassination.

Fatima is writing about her unheard voice for justice still to be served, justice often confused as vengeance. A voice which has been echoing for years, a sound which has always been in the background and a cry which has often disturbed us in our sleep, but it’s still there! And it will remain there until it’s heard and the final justice is served... she is that cry!

She was asked many questions at the Q&A session after the reading; she answered all the questions with great interest and was at certain points very touched by the audiences’ feeling towards her family. There were many in the audience who had attended her book readings several times, in Pakistan and many other places in UK.

She speaks very politely but she has a lot of unanswered questions in her eyes, she is extremely enthusiastic as being a young girl that she is, yet sometimes you can feel the sorrow and thirst in her voice for the missing love of her father.

The audience living in the UK are huge admirers of her grandfather Zulfiqar, and father Mir Murtaza Bhutto and are also very eager to find out the truth behind the constant trail of assassinations of dynasties in one of the most influential families in Pakistan.

What better way to find out or at least know the facts from a very secure source who is the daughter of one of the victims?

Within the Bhutto family, I believe she is the only daughter or rather the only person who is seeking the just truth and justice. It is a display of extreme courage and great bravery by a girl, who is still very young and who has used a pen not the sword as her weapon in writing about those who are very powerful and are in fact currently in power.

This is a story of a woman, a victim, a writer and above all a daughter who still seeks justice after 14 years of her father’s brutal assassination. A woman who is very powerful, yet using the power of a pen to express her views and to ask for something which is one of the fundamental rights of any human being ‘Justice’

'Songs of Blood and Sword’ by Fatima Bhutto (Publisher - Jonathan Cape)