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Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices of London, out Monday 26th January
I am delighted to announce the 26th January publication of my 5th book, Asylum and Exile: The Hidden Voices of London (Seagull Books/Chicago University Press), which is the result of my outreach work...
View ArticlePsychogeography of trauma: inside a UK detention centre
A slightly different (worse) version of this essay was published by The Free Word Centre as part of its Briefing Notes essay series. Read the original here.The detention centre was, hands down, one of...
View ArticleOn sex, race, migration and asylum
This long interview was initially granted to Asian Culture Vulture magazine and pegged to my book, Asylum and Exile: The Hidden Voices of London, which was the result of my outreach work with asylum...
View ArticleOn Europe, insularity and the UK's identity crisis
This is an extended version of an article written for the British Council....before Brexit.I’m currently away from home. Every morning I log on and read the news headlines, opinion pieces and arts...
View ArticleShouting down the facts and militarising against refugees
The following essay was published in two parts by Wasafiri Journal of International Literature this year. I began doing outreach work with refugees and asylum seekers three and a half years ago, before...
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Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Commissioned by the British Library for their Discovering Literature archive of commentaries on 20th Century literature in English. View the original here.Midnight’s Children (1981) is a faux...
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Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Jamaica Inn was written in 1935 but set in the very early 19th century in Cornwall, between Bodmin and Launceston. The novel is at once a tribute to the impressive local landscape and an atavistic...
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An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
An Untamed State (2014) seems like a simple novel. The scenes are short, the language neat and supple, the cast and settings leanly described. It tells the story of Mireille Jameson, an American...
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The wolf tales in Angela Carter's short story collection The Bloody Chamber
This essay examines the stories The Werewolf, The Company of Wolves and Wolf-Alice in Carter's short story collection The Bloody Chamber. A shorter version was commissioned by the British Library for...
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Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is a visceral riposte to Charlotte Bronte’s treatment of Mr Rochester’s ‘mad’ first wife, Bertha, in her classic Victorian novel Jane Eyre. Rhys reveals the horrifying reality...
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On Elle, Paul Verhoeven, rape and apologism
This is an extended version of my Guardian article from March 2017.Rape apologists: do you like the cinema? Have you always suspected that women secretly want to be stalked, brutalised and raped? And...
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Modern Women: 52 Pioneers by Kira Cochrane
An extended version of a BBC Arts article I published earlier this year. The original piece is here.It’s not often that one book weaves together the stories of a Russian cosmonaut, an American pilot, a...
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"It's very hard to be xenophobic when you can speak someone else's language."...
This is a longer version of an article originally published by BBC Arts in January 2017. The original piece is here.As told by historian Bettany Hughes, the story of Istanbul – formerly Constantinople,...
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On sexual exploitation, gender and inequality in China
This is an extended version of my Times Literary Supplement essay on the Chinese writer Lijia Zhang's novel Lotus from June 2017. The original is here.Earlier this month, as part of the Asia House...
View Article'Poetry is the only place that I feel human.' An interview with Kurdish poet...
This interview can be found in the new issue of Wasafiri Journal of International Literature. Bejan Matur’s poetry is put down as if engraved rather than written. Her ideas are expressed with a carved...
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Poetry reviews: Joy Harjo, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley and George Szirtes
This is a reprint of a review I wrote for Poetry Review earlier this year.Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy BeingsPatricia Jabbeh Wesley, When the Wanderers Come HomeGeorge Szirtes, Mapping the...
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Top Girls by Caryl Churchill
This is an extended version of an essay commissioned by the British Library this year.Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girlspremiered in 1982 at The Royal Court and instantly became a classic with its sly...
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An Impossible Poison
The opening shot of An Impossible Poison. Scroll down to watch the film for free.I am delighted to celebrate my first short film, An Impossible Poison, which received its premiere at Lettrétage in...
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Aurora
I'm delighted to announce the launch of my new film series, Aurora. It follows my first short film, An Impossible Poison, which premiered in 2017 and has been selected for numerous international film...
View ArticleChoosing political sides in England's porn-fed, combative culture
This is an oddly backdated essay reprinted from the 28 Days project released a month before the 2015 general election, just before the Tories got in for another 5 years with a (slim) majority. You can...
View ArticleThe reality of asylum and refuge in modern Britain
This essay was first published by the Free Word for its Briefing Notes series, pegged to my book Asylum and Exile: The Hidden Voices of London. Bodies in boats. Grateful, half-drowned people wrapped...
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China Flash: a collection of my recent articles about contemporary China
The Zaha Hadid-designed Galaxy mall complex, Chaoyangmen, Beijing, end 2014Only condoms can save China from a 'raging epidemic' of sexually transmitted diseasesFilm-maker Jenny Man Wu on contemporary...
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China Flash: Lean In Beijing on the new sexism, corporate ambition, marital...
This is a greatly expanded version of an article which first appeared in Time Out Beijing last month.A Lean In Beijing meeting, image (c) Lean In BeijingLean In, Sheryl Sandberg’s book about how she...
View ArticleChina Flash: Only condoms can save China from a "raging epidemic" of syphilis...
This 'as told to' interview was granted to me by Dr Neil Schmid, Beijing chief of sexual health charity DKT International, and first ran in Time Out Beijing's November edition. The text below is by and...
View ArticleBeyond the Wall: Writing a Path Through Palestine (2012)
"An unflinching portrait of life in the West Bank in the 21st Century." Andrew Kelly, The Observer I am delighted to celebrate the publication of my fourth book, Beyond the Wall: Writing A Path Through...
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