British novelist and journalist Philip Hensher is best known in this part of the world for his novel Scenes from Early Life, which narrates the story of his Bangladeshi husband’s family during the Liberation War of 1971. In a session titled Secret History, Hensher talked with editor and translator Khademul Islam about his process of writing, as well as about his latest book, The Friendly Ones.
When asked why he started writing, Henser’s answer was, “through sheer and unutterable boredom”. He said that when he wrote his first novel, he was on holiday in the middle of nowhere in Sicily, Italy. He did not have anyone to talk to, and all the books in the place where he was staying were in Italian. Since he could not read any of those books, he wrote his own. He then went back to England and sent his work to a publisher, and then it ended up getting published. After this success, he ended up writing a second book.
According to Hensher, “the book you are going to write won’t leave you alone”. For instance, while writing Scenes From Early Life, the liberation war was not leaving his mind. In the process of writing this book, he realized just how little the English know about Bangladesh, even though they are extremely familiar with Bangladeshis in their community.
This may be why he wrote his latest book, The Friendly Ones, about two families who live next to each other in neighbouring houses in Sheffield, central England. One of the families is British, and the racial identity of the second one is not quite clear in the beginning, but is later revealed to be Bangladeshi.
According to Khademul Islam, this book is full off “flat humour, satire and expert use of parody,” which is quite different from the tone of his previous books. The story is about the “texture of multicultural heritage”, and describes how a Bangladeshi family came to live next door to a British one in Sheffield in the first place.
