AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Imran Mahmood examines identity, memory and privilege in his new novel. By Nora McElhone

For Liverpool-born barrister Imran Mahmood, 52, books and his local library were a safe haven for a boy growing up in a deprived area and attending a state school that was “often violent and racist”.

“I grew up in a house with very few books so I was always hungry for things to read,” he explains.

“The local library was a godsend and I spent much of my time there after school reading whatever I could. For me books were a real safe harbour.

“I doubt I would have survived without books like To Kill A Mockingbird because they were like hands reaching out from across the years and continent to offer comfort and wisdom. I would read and I would feel less alone. I also had a real love for French literature. Back then I could read it (slowly) in the French but there’s a real genius to works by people like Camus, Gide, Sartre. They can tell a story in a handful of words. It’s really something to behold.”

Imran went on to train as a barrister and has been practising at the Bar for 30 years. The idea for his first novel You Don’t Know Me came when he was writing his closing speech in the Robing Room at court.

He explains: “I asked myself why I was writing the speech and not the defendant? His life experience was what mattered most and my role was just to act as a bridge between the jury and him. And that led me to wondering what a speech from a defendant might sound like.”

In I Know What I Saw, Imran’s identity and memory are intertwined.

“I wanted to write the story of an impossible murder in impossible circumstances where the reader was left a bit open-mouthed,” he says.

“The character Xander Shute was part-imagination and part-experiential in that I once met a man who lived on the street who was what could only be described as a genius. I wanted to show if I could that we are all capable of descent – that we are all vulnerable – no matter how secure or privileged we may appear to be on the surface. Even our intelligence and education can’t save us from ourselves.”

Imran was also keen to write about mental health: “Poor mental health feels like an invisible presence still in our society.

“We claim to be aware of it but many people still act as though it is an illusion or an excuse or a sign of weakness. I wanted to show that there was no correlation between it and weakness. There isn’t a person on the planet that isn’t vulnerable to it. As long as we are all human we are all capable of being affected or touched by it. If anything, the evidence seems to suggest that strength is more synonymous with it. But whatever the cause, it is becoming an increasingly universal experience. The story of Xander is one that could be told anywhere in the world.”

Although he reads everything he can – “today, The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, tomorrow, Watch her Fall by Erin Kelly” – Imran certainly doesn’t write in the style of anyone else.

He says: “I don’t think it makes sense to copy another writer’s style. Their style is a product of their time, their life experience and their world views. Yours is your own. You just have to have confidence in it. Finding your own style can be a real joy.”

I Know What I Saw by Imran Mahmood, Raven Books, £14.99.

NEW BOOK: Author and lawyer Imran Mahmood.