Award-winning author Sathnam Sanghera will be full of pride as his home-town hosts the Wolverhampton Original Literature Festival. The former Wolverhampton Grammar School student, who has gone on to become an acclaimed author and journalist, was thrilled when festival organisers contacted him about taking part in the event which takes place from today (Friday, January 27) to Sunday 29.
Sanghera, of The Times, said: “So many towns and cities hold literature festivals and I am frequently asked by many to take part. It was always a pet subject of mine that Wolverhampton never had one, so when I was told about it I jumped at the chance to take part. I have been arguing for some time that the city needs to celebrate its cultural life more. Things are improving in and around Wolverhampton and the festival is part of that.”
Sanghera, 40, who is based in London, says he comes back to his hometown regularly and sees the changes taking place. When he returns next it will be to take part in the literature festival, which boasts more than 70 events, talks, and workshops. He is appearing at Wolverhampton Art Gallery on Saturday January 28, at 3pm, and during his talk he will be revisiting his first book ‘The Boy With the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton’.
The book is currently being adapted for TV to air on the BBC. It was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Biography Award, the 2009 PEN/Ackerley Prize and named 2009 Mind Book of the Year. “It is a strange feeling coming back to something I wrote some time ago. It is very much a young man’s book and was for me a personal project which all worked out in the end - and I can now celebrate the fact that things worked out,” he said.
Sanghera joined The Times as a columnist and feature writer in 2007 and has presented a number of radio documentaries for the BBC.