He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly from Mettur constituency as a Praja Socialist Party candidate in 1967, and 1971 elections.
Born to Malayalam writer and rationalist Pavanan and Parvathy, C. P. Surendran received his M.A. in English Literature from Delhi University, Delhi and taught for short while at Calicut University before working as journalist in Bombay for many English newspapers including the The Times of India, Times Sunday Review, Bombay Times besides others.
His book on the famous artist A. Ramachandran won the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi's award for the best book on art criticism.
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His latest novel, Greeshma Mapini, roughly based on the life of former Kerala chief minister V. S. Achuthanandan, is published by DC Books.