Showing results for "Hanif Kureishi" in Biographies & Memoirs

On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home, to his house in London.

This critically acclaimed British writer of Pakistani descent is the author of some of the most recognised postcolonial literature in the world, including The Buddha of Suburbia, which won the Whitbread Award for best first novel, and to screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette. Hanif Kureishi talks to us about his feelings on writing and teaching it, his love of long-form TV series and what it was like to start writing at a time in which art had to be shocking.

A remarkable insight into the birth of a writer and the moving discovery of family secrets. When Hanif Kureishi discovers an abandoned manuscript of his father's, his understanding of the family history is transformed. So begins a journey which takes Kureishi through his father's privileged childhood by the sea in Bombay, to the trauma of partition and to his adult life hidden away in the suburbs of Bromley - his days spent as a minor functionary in the Pakistan embassy in London, his nights writing prose, hopeful of one day receiving literary recognition.

In this edition of Fresh Air, host Barbara Bogaev speaks with author Hanif Kureishi about his new novel Gabriel's Gift. It's the story of a 15-year-old boy and his struggles with his artistic soul and restless parents. Several of Kureishi's earlier novels, My Beautiful Laundrette, and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, were made into films. Dancer Garth Fagan is the Tony Award-winning choreographer of Broadway's The Lion King.

For 20 years, Great Lives has been a linchpin of Radio 4, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. In it, a household name is invited to choose one of their heroes to discuss with the presenter and a guest expert. But will their chosen person live up to intensive scrutiny, and merit the description of having led a great life? In this special collection, celebrating the programme's 20th anniversary, the very best episodes featuring musicians' lives are collected together.