Monisha Rajesh
Monisha Rajesh is a British journalist and travel writer.
Early life
Rajesh was born in Norfolk, England, the child of two Indian doctors with origins in Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad. The family moved from Sheffield to Madras, India, in 1991. After two years they returned to England and she made only occasional visits to India over the next twenty years: "little more than the occasional family wedding had succeeded in tempting me back". She attended King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, studied French at the University of Leeds, and has a postgraduate diploma in magazine journalism from the Department of Journalism, City University.Career
Rajesh has worked for The Week and written for The Guardian, The Times, The New York Times and Time.In 2010, she embarked on a four-month journey around India by train, using 80 train journeys to reach the furthest points of the Indian rail network, described in her 2012 book Around India in 80 Trains. The book was named as one of The Independent "Top ten books about India".
She subsequently travelled around the world in another 80 train journeys, writing Around the World in 80 Trains, which The Independent listed in 2020 as one of "10 best travel books to satisfy your wanderlust in lockdown". This book won the 2019 National Geographic Traveller Reader Award in the "Book worm " category.
Rajesh won the 2020 National Consumer Feature of the Year award of the Travel Media Awards for a piece in The Guardian about the Trans-Siberian Railway.
She was one of the judges for the 2021 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, after her Around the World in 80 Trains was shortlisted for the 2020 award.
In December 2025 Rajesh’s most recent book, documenting the resurgence in European sleeper trains, was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2026,
In mid-2021 Rajesh received racist abuse on social media as a result of her criticism of depictions of autism and of students of colour in Kate Clanchy's book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. In November 2025, she appeared on a BBC podcast documentary speaking about the incident.