Congratulations on the publication of your debut novel, Northern Boy. Tell me more about where the journey began for this story? What inspired you to tell it?
Northern Boy has, literally, been years in the making. I first had the idea for it a decade ago, when I began jotting down various incidents from my childhood. I’d never seen a book set in a working class Pakistani, Northern household – a background that was deeply imprinted in me, and which I wanted to share with others. That’s not to say Northern Boy is autobiographical, but it certainly started off like that. And then I kept booking the book aside and getting on with life. But the urge to get the book written was too strong, so I had to find a more organised way of working on it. Luckily, I won a place on the inaugural London Writers Awards in 2018, run by Spread the Word writing agency, and that’s where I wrote Northern Boy in earnest. I began the year with a rough few chapters; I left the year with a fully formed novel.
However, that was just the beginning. The book then went through many drafts, before the version you see today. Some drafts were drastic rewrites – at one point there were 160,000 words in the novel – these were trimmed to a more manageable 90,000 words, but never on a straightforward journey. Words were added; words were cut; more words were added; scenes were removed; whole new chapters were written; brand new characters were introduced, including the inspirational teacher Mr H. The original book, which focussed just on young Rafi, wasn’t getting traction on submission. So my agent (Robert Caskie), external editor (Gillian Stern) decided on a radical overhaul and restructure. We trimmed the childhood section and introduced two new sections: Rafi aged 30, and again before he turns 50. This rounded the novel and let the reader find out what happened to the precocious 10-year-old boy who we meet in the early parts of the novel.
I love the tagline for Northern Boy – Billy Elliot meets Bend It Like Beckham. I love the Bollywood vibes! Why do you think Bollywood as a scene captures the imagination of audiences all over the world?
I was raised on Bollywood films, which we hired for 50p a shot from the father of a school friend, who supplied the neighbourhood with bootleg and original versions of the latest hits. Some of my happiest memories are of the whole family gathered on the sofas in the lounge, all glued to the melodramatic storylines unfolding on the TV. The explosion of colour, exotic locales and song-and-dance routines were a world away from the cobbled terraces we lived on. They were a glorious form of escapism, when all around was grey. And even though the storylines were often preposterous, with the most villainous of villains and unbelievable instances of coincidences and high drama, we would get fully sucked into the action on the screen. And, even now, Bollywood films give me that same feeling of escape. Yes, they’re more slickly made and could easily pass as a Hollywood film with their high production values, but at essence they retain that mix of high drama and emotions, and of course always those amazing song-and-dance routines. These “masala” moves, with a bit of everything in the mix, should be required viewing for everyone. They can’t help but lift you up!
I’ve been a fan of your writing for some time now and love how you manage to work successfully in many different forms. What’s your favourite form to write in and why?
Thank you so much. My favourite form is the short story, as opposed to flash fiction. I’ve rarely done well with flash fiction competitions, but I’ve always found my heart in the longer form of a short story. Whether it’s a ghost story set in rural Pakistan about a rickshaw driver and his unnerving passenger, who may or may not be a churail, to a story dealing with the severe stammer I had as a child, I find the short story lets me explore lots of things in a nice, safe, contained form – enough words to tell a proper story, but not enough to find daunting. I love writing novels, too, but they are a longer investment, whereas a short story, done well, gives me the same sense of achievement with a fraction of the time commitment.
One thing I didn’t know about you was that you have a background in music as a composer. Tell us more about the connection between your music and your writing? Do you see them part of the same beast or entirely different?
I’ve always written music. As a child, I had a succession of toy pianos, like Rafi in Northern Boy, banging out magnus opuses on tinkly keys with painted black notes. I would hear – and still hear – complex melodies and arrangements in my head, and just want to get them down. I thought everyone heard tunes in their head, but it turns out this isn’t so! So I’ve always been able to express my creativity through not only my words but also my music. I have some examples on my website (ihussainwriter.com). Again, being a child of Bollywood, they’re often strong in melody, richly harmonised and tend towards the melancholy – which interest me, as I’m a glass half-full person and an eternal optimist, but I think the music allows me to express the sadder, more challenging aspects of life.
Do you have a writing ritual? Put on a certain soundtrack when you write? Or get up ridiculously early to write? Tell us more about what a typical writing day looks like.
I write at the weekends, doing a 9 to 5 shift. I work in my study, which also doubles as a music room, with my piano and my partner’s cello – so there’s a connection again with my words and music. I usually write with music on – thank goodness for streaming services, which mean I have a whole world of music open to me, depending on what I need to hear for what type of scene I’m writing. While writing Northern Boy, I listened to a lot of Bollywood songs, especially those from film composers from the ‘80s who were pivotal in forming my musical tastes, so the greats such as RD Burman, Kalyanji Anandji and Bappi Lahiri. There was also a lot of ABBA, of course – both Rafi and I share a love for the Swedes. They have a lot in common with Bollywood songs, with strong melodies, beautiful instrumentation and often that nodding towards the melancholy. I tend to write and edit as I go along, which I know isn’t always helpful in terms of getting to the end quickly, but it’s all I know. I’d find it difficult just to splurge out a rough draft and to go back only once I got to the end. I also get drawn down by research rabbit holes, so I sometimes have to apply web-site blockers so that I’m not tempted to spend an hour researching a character’s name! Balancing a writing career along with a regular day job isn’t easy, and sometimes you do experience burn-out, especially when there’s a deadline to meet. But I worked as a journalist in a former life, so I’m used to juggling lots of things, even when I feel there aren’t enough hours in the day. Somehow, I manage to squeeze out that twenty-fifth hour in a day. The ideal situation, of course, would be to become a full-time writer. One day …
One of the really exciting things about your book (for me) is that it’s being published by Unbound who are usually known for their crowdfunding model. Tell us more about your publishing journey and what it’s been like navigating that part of the process?
My brilliant agent, Robert, worked closely with me on Northern Boy before we sent it out on submission, together with editor Gillian. But, sadly, the book failed to be picked up on submission. This was disheartening, given the amount of time and effort I’d spent on the book – plus, I fully believed in Rafi and his story. It was difficult to think that others in the industry didn’t share the same view. I was all set to shelve the book, when I sent the story out to a competition run by Unbound, for their Unbound Firsts imprint that promised to publish two books a year from debut authors of colour. I forgot all about it, until a few months later when I got an email from Aliya, Unbound’s editorial lead, telling me I’d been long listed! And after that I was short listed – and then selected as one of the two winners for that year! To say I was gobsmacked, would be an understatement. Finally, someone had the vision to know how to bring Rafi’s story to life. And my goodness what an amazing job Aliya and the team have done with the text – huge thanks to Marissa, my editor, who did the most amazing job in finding how best to take us back to the ‘80s and spend time with Rafi, Shazia and Mother. I cannot think of a better home for Northern Boy – Unbound have been true champions from the moment I got that first email from Aliya, and they continue to be the most wonderfully supportive and proactive team. Their belief in me and the book means the world.
How are you feeling about your book being in the hands of readers?
I’m excited beyond belief! To see my book out in the wild, with the most gorgeous, joyful cover, is something I dreamt about but never expected to become reality after my experience with the traditional submissions process. It just goes to show you should never give up on your dreams, even when nearly everyone else seems to have given up on you. All you need is the one yes. I can’t wait for readers to go back in time to the ‘80s, when hair was big, shoulders were even bigger, and Sundays were shut for shop. I want them to laugh along with Rafi and the characters he interacts with as he goes from boy to man. I also want them to cry along with him, to feel his struggles and identify with his frustrations. It’s not easy being a “butterfly among the bricks”, as Mr H refers to Rafi at one point in the book. This is a book written by an outsider, for outsiders, but also for everyone – we all benefit from having a peek into someone else’s life. Rafi is an everyman, albeit a glamorous, high-kicking, Brylcreemed everyman.
I thought I read somewhere that you’re working on a memoir. What can you tell us about it?
It’s very early days, but I’ve been working on an idea focusing on my early years, when I struggled with a stammer that created all kinds of problems growing up, as you can imagine. I’ve not had much time to shape it, which is the main issue I have at the moment – how to tell the story, how to structure it – but it’s another passion project. I’ve rarely come across memoirs that deal with a stammer, let alone one set in a landscape of Northern streets, the National Front and the stresses of being a first generation Pakistani child in a community that is struggling to work out what it is and where it fits in. So there will, naturally, be shades of Northern Boy in the memoir, looking at issues from a more personal level.
Finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone who is just getting started in their writing journey?
Be true to yourself. It’s a message repeated in Northern Boy. Believe in yourself, and believe in your words. Believe in your own truth.
Iqbal Hussain is a writer from Blackburn, Lancashire and he lives in London. His work appears in various anthologies and on websites including The Willowherb Review, The Hopper and caughtbytheriver. He is a recipient of the inaugural London Writers’ Awards 2018 and he won Gold in the Creative Future Writers’
Awards 2019. In 2022, he won first prize in Writing Magazine’s Grand Flash competition and was joint runner-up in the Evening Standard Short Story Competition. In 2023, his story ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’ won first prize in the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature short story competition. He was also Highly Commended in the Emerging Writer Award from The Bridge Award. Northern Boy is his first novel.
@ihussainwriter
