my earliest reading memory
Fairy tales. I was obsessed. I took fairy tales very seriously as moral lessons. I soon learned that I would always help any old lady cross the road, it really is always the best thing to do.
my favorite book growing up
The Hobbit was my favorite book growing up. It expanded my understanding of what can be achieved in fiction. I found JRR Tolkien’s world transformative. I felt like I knew Hobbits, and I wanted to see the Dwarves. I could hear the sound of fireworks as they turned into dragons flying overhead.
The writer who changed my mind
Maya Angelou taught me to be optimistic about myself. No matter how painful or difficult it may be. There is so much dignity and light in his work. I read all his work over the years and learned as much as I could from it. It’s what inspired me to move forward and continue trying to find a way to create a life that makes sense to me.
The book that inspired me to become a writer
I was reading dictionaries when I was really very young; If I came across a word I didn’t know I would always go and look it up. It’s a strange thing for a child to do but I fell in love with the language.
Book i came back
I found Frankenstein, originally written by Mary Shelley, to be too claustrophobic. In recent years I have been deeply engaged with Shelley and am now writing a modern adaptation of Frankenstein which will be published next year. She was so ahead of her time, she started sci-fi, bringing such a powerful ideal to life in The Creature, and while you can see the inspiration for Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – he used to go to his father’s house and read it – it was an absolutely personal calling for him to write this story. I am fascinated by her engagement with wisdom, vitality, death and how all the tragedies of her young life were carefully woven together by a formidable intelligence. Shelley was only a teenager when she first wrote the book; Interestingly, he revisited it and revised it over the decades. Perhaps like a master painter who adds touches of shadow and light later, just to enhance the immortal luster of a work.
the book i read again
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is one of my favorite stories of all time. Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning as a man YoungezieferSome kind of demonic creature. I think this perfectly explains the relationship between individual and social structures.
The book I could never read again
Anything by Enid Blyton. His work has not become old yet.
The book I discovered later in life
When I was traveling in Egypt I read Alaa El Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building and Naguib Mahfouz’s Midak Ale. Both books are linked to my memories of living in the city of Cairo.
The book that changed me as a teenager
When I was 15 and living in a children’s home, I read the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Its protagonist, Alex, was the same age as me. I found the book shocking. His use of “nadsat” (teenage slang) as the language spoken by his “drugs” also showed me that there are many ways to innovate in a novel.
the book i’m reading now
Gisele Pellicot’s memoir A Hymn to Life. I think he is extraordinary and inspiring.
read my rest
Poetry: A Single Stanza in Thirteen Ways to Look at the Blackbird by Wallace Stevens, or The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop, or Temptation by Nina Cassian. There are many poems that I repeat endlessly, like a favorite record that never fails to contain something familiar and new at the same time.
