Author Spotlight: Northern Boy by Iqbal Hussain

The spotlight is on Iqbal Hussain, author of Northern Boy. As last month’s spotlight was on Kept by Yvonne Lyon from Lancashire, I thought we would keep the Northern theme going. Iqbal is a London author who originates from Blackburn. In light of the current political and religious conflicts in the north of England and Europe, I wanted to hear from Iqbal who is from a minority community like myself. If you are reading my blogs and newsletters, you probably already read and support diverse writing. If you don’t, then I hope you still like reading my blog posts and newsletters.

When I started writing, there was no such word as “diverse”. I face prejudice daily from the publishing industry, but I don’t feel that it has impacted on me or my writing. I take skincare seriously and now I have developed a thick skin from writing. No, but, OK, seriously: I feel that if you write, you write. I discovered Iqbal through social media and through the writing community. I am very fond of the themes he writes about, and I enjoyed reading Northern Boy very much. Anybody who’s grown up in the 80s (eg yours truly) will. Here, he shares some gems about his own experiences.

IN: Growing up as a South Asian Muslim in Blackburn, Lancashire, how did your personal experiences shape the narrative of Northern Boy?

IH: The early part of the book is largely autobiographical. The story is set in Blackburn and most of the characters are real. When writing the book, I used actual names, before remembering to do a big find/replace at the end! As the narrative unfolds, it becomes more and more fictional, but always with that grounding in truth. It’s impossible in your first book not to bring a lot of yourself into the writing, even if unintentionally.

IN: In light of recent controversial events in Northern England involving Pakistani gangs, groomings and killings, how do you feel these societal conflicts have influenced your writing, both in Northern Boy and in your broader work?

IH: They’re truly awful crimes.

I haven’t lived in Blackburn since I was 18 years old.

The Blackburn I write about is set in the early 1980s, when things were very different. That’s not to say we didn’t have problems. In the book, I write about the race riots that were a regular part of growing up, with the National Front a constant and real threat.

But much of my writing deals with nostalgia, and it’s where I feel the most comfortable.

IN: As an ethnic minority and Muslim author, what challenges have you faced in the  literary world, and how have these experiences impacted your journey to becoming a published writer?

IH: It’s hard to answer this. On the face of it, I’ve done okay for a boy from my background. I’ve won places on various writing schemes, I’ve won short story competitions and now I’m a published author. And that’s all from writing seriously for the last five years. I’m sure there are issues within the industry, but I don’t think I’ve experienced them directly. There you go – the optimist in me will always see the glass as half full!

IN: Northern Boy is set in the 1980s and follows Rafi Aziz, a young boy with dreams of becoming a Bollywood star. How did you approach blending cultural elements with the specific setting of a Northern mill town during that era?

IH: Having two identities is perfectly normal to me. We might have lived in a two-up two-down terraced house on a cobbled street straight out of Coronation Street, but we ate curry and chapattis in front of The Generation Game. Once a week, we’d watch a Bollywood film on a pirated video copy.

I wanted Northern Boy to have that same masala mix: humour and pathos, songs and dancing, and improbable juxtapositions of the glamorous and the ordinary.

IN: Your protagonist, Rafi Aziz, is described as a “butterfly among the bricks,” reflecting his unique identity in a constrained environment. How does this metaphor relate to your own experiences, and what message do you hope readers take away from Rafi’s story?

IH: Like Rafi, I loved singing, dancing and play-acting princesses and models with my best friend next door. Indulged when young, the older I got I was told to put away my childish fancies. “What will people say?” was a common refrain. The rules and goalposts kept changing. In the end, I realised you can’t please everyone. The message I hope readers take away from Rafi’s story is to be true to yourself. To spread your wings. To fly.