Why Mahmood doesn’t like an Asian-only narrative
AUTHOR OF BOOK BEHIND BBC DRAMA WANTS TO TELL BLACK STORIES
THE Pakistani author of a novel that has been adapted into a hit BBC series has said he doesn’t like idea of south Asian writers being boxed into a narrative portraying only Asian people.
Imran Mahmood, a 52-yearold barrister and novelist, wrote, You Don’t Know Me in 2017, a book which explores a young, black man from south London charged with murder, but who sacks his lawyer to take the stand to defend himself.
Mahmood’s book has been adapted into a four-part series on BBC One. He told Eastern Eye: “If you’re a south Asian writer, you are kind of expected to write stories about south Asian characters, as if that’s the box that they want you to be in.
“And I didn’t like that idea. I didn’t like the idea that I should only write about south Asian characters, partly because that’s not a question that anybody ever put to white writers.
“Nobody said to Alexander McCall Smith, who is a brilliant, middle-aged white, writer, ‘what makes you think that you can write a Botswanan female detective?’ They just assume that that’s fine. But if you’re a south Asian writer, and you don’t write about south Asian characters, it’s almost like they see it as an affront to something.”
Mahmood said he always wanted to be a storyteller, especially as a criminal barrister where he is used to telling stories through his arguments in court. After attending school and graduating from Kingston University, in London, in 1990, Mahmood trained at the Inns of Court School of Law and became a practising attorney.
He said: “You want to try and tell a story so that it sticks with the jury and they remember it. It’s easier to remember stories than it is to remember facts. So, I spent all that time just telling stories or retelling stories to juries and trying to get them to understand what it’s like to be a defendant who is from a different world from the one they grew up in.”
The BBC adaptation has a predominantly all-black cast.
In a separate interview reported by the Independent, protagonist Samuel Adewumni, who plays Hero, said he wouldn’t expect to see that on the BBC.
Mahmood told Eastern Eye: “I think we’ve heard enough white stories. I don’t mean there’s no room for any more white stories, but there is room for other stories. And we don’t have enough black stories being told, or stories of black people in them being told which gives them proper three-dimensional characters. “We don’t have enough roles for young black actors.”
Mahmood grew up in Liverpool before he moved to southeast London where he lives with his wife and children. He said, “You’ve also got to write from your own experience; I didn’t grow up in Southall or Hounslow, or Manchester or Bradford or any of these communities.
“There are other people who are probably better qualified to write about south Asians.”
Asked about the representation of south Asians in novels, Mahmood said, “The starting point is that we need more south Asian writers to be admitted into the profession.
“The reality is that if you’re a publisher, you are the person who’s controlling admission.
“A lot of these big publishing houses have a shockingly low diversity rate, the stable of writers might be something like less than half a per cent from minority backgrounds, which is a shockingly low number.”
Mahmood said his second book, I Know What I Saw, a thriller about a murder in affluent Mayfair, has a middle aged, white protagonist and his third book, All I Said Was True, has a mixed-race protagonist who is half Pakistani and half Irish.
His third book will be out in the summer of 2022. ■ You Don’t Know Me series is available on BBC iPlayer.