‘So, is your novel autobiographical?’…

I often get asked at author events if my novel is auto-biographical. The story is centred around a British-Bangladeshi girl growing up on a council estate in Leicester, so I say ‘no, not autobiographical at all’. And for a long time I didn’t really think it was. I write to escape, to put myself in other people’s shoes, to revel in the fun of making stuff up. But recently when I was asked at an event if I, like the central character of ‘The Things We Thought We Knew’, have ever suffered from a condition like chronic pain I realised that, in my early 20’s, I had suffered with a mysterious condition that left me drained of all energy, in physical pain and isolated in my mother’s council estate house.

So no, not autobiographical at all.

I’ve written about this in more detail on The Mighty website, a fantastic online community that shares the stories of people living with disability, disease and mental illness. Find the article below and a link to the general website which is jam packed full of interesting and life affirming articles…