'My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.'As the teenage hero of Hanif Kureishi's debut novel, Karim is desperate to escape suburban South London and experience the forbidden fruits which the 1970s seem to offer. When the unlikely opportunity of a life in the theatre announces itself, he starts to win the sort of attention he has been craving, albeit with some rude and raucous results.

Winner of the Whitbread award for best first novel in 1990, TheBuddha of Suburbia crash landed Hanif Kureishi into the literary landscape as a distinct and fearless new voice. Three years later, it was adapted into a ground-breaking BBC series featuring an original David Bowie soundtrack.His works since include the novels The Black Album, Intimacy and Something To Tell You, and a number of acclaimed short story collections. His screenplays include My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, My Son the Fanatic and The Mother. He has been awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and his works have been translated into thirty-nine languages.Shattered, Kureishi's much anticipated memoir, will be published in Autumn 2024.