Khudoyberdi Tukhtaboyev

Khudoyberdi Tukhtaboyev was born on 17 December 1932 in the village of Katta Tag‘ob in the Fergana Region (now Uzbekistan District). During the years of dekulakisation he lost his father at the age of two; he was brought up by his grandparents and spent some time in a children's home during the war. His childhood experiences later went into the novel “The Lad with Five Children”.

In 1949 he graduated from the Kokand Pedagogical College and taught the primary grades at a village school. From 1950 to 1955 he studied at the philology faculty of the Central Asian State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan), and from 1955 to 1958 he worked as a teacher, deputy head for studies and headmaster at a secondary school in the Fergana Region.

In 1958 he turned to journalism: he was a literary staff member and head of department at the newspaper “Toshkent haqiqati” (1958–1962) and worked at the newspaper “Sovet O‘zbekistoni” (1962–1970) and the magazine “Guliston” (1970–1972), publishing more than 300 feuilletons in the press over fourteen years. In 1972–1976 he was head of department and deputy editor-in-chief at the Yosh Gvardiya publishing house, and in 1977–1980 editor-in-chief of the magazines “Gulxan” and “Yosh kuch”; he also served as deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine “Sharq yulduzi”.

His first collection of stories, “The Hasty One” (“Shoshqaloq”), came out in 1961, followed by the novellas “The Secret Is Out” (1963) and “The Magic Cap” (1964). Wide fame came with the novel “Riding the Yellow Giant” (“Sariq devni minib”, 1968), about the comic adventures of the schoolboy Hoshimjon and his magic cap; its sequel, “The Death of the Yellow Giant”, followed in 1973. The fairy-tale novella published in Russian as “Volshebnaya shapka” (“The Magic Cap”) won a prize at the All-Union competition for the best children's book in 1970.

Later came the novels “The Lad with Five Children” (1976), “The Avenger's Golden Head” (1981), about the fate of the folk hero Namoz and his companions, “Years and Roads” (1983), “The Land of Sweet Melons” (1986), “Sorrowful Eyes” (1988) and “People of Paradise” (1996). His books have been translated into Russian, Ukrainian, German, Italian, Hungarian, Czech and many other languages.

Later still he headed the national Iste’dod foundation and the Oltin Meros international charitable foundation, and for many years presented the children's programme “O‘yla, izla, top!” (“Think, Search, Find!”) on the National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan. He was named Honoured Worker of Culture of the Uzbek SSR (1982), received the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR (1989), was named People's Writer of Uzbekistan (1991) and was awarded the Order “Fidokorona xizmatlari uchun” (2019). He died on 21 March 2021, aged 88.