CULTURE CLUB
Best of Friends BY KAMILA SHAMSIE This latest book from award-winning writer Kamila Shamsie is a beautiful paean to friendship and the unbending strength of those precious childhood relationships which last long into adulthood. The first section, set in Karachi in 1988, is a deeply affecting account of the life of two friends, Zahra and Maryam, as young girls, set against the background of the unexpected death of President Zia and the epoch- changing election of Benazir Bhutto. Though politics ripples through everything the two girls do, they’re also hung up on the usual teenage dilemmas: wanting to get closer to people they’re attracted to, paralysed with fear at losing everything, hugely constrained by societal expectations around acceptable behaviour and the uncertain future which lies ahead. The differences between the girls becomes more apparent as the book continues: there are only real risks for Zahra, the poorer of the two, as Maryam’s family wealth cushions her from any genuine impact. Her grandfather is all set for Maryam to inherit his successful leather factory, favouring her over his disappointing son and teaching the steely minded girl everything he knows, from how to select a new leather wallet designed to carry double passports, to disciplining workers who’ve been caught stealing without involving the police – but is Maryam suited to this life? The second half takes us to 2019 and handles the duo’s deft navigation of public life in London: the two friends have found unexpected paths to their equally high- profile callings and now rub shoulders with the rich and powerful on their own terms. Yet they still wrestle with the same questions about expectations and obligations – and how to navigate the crests and falls of a lifelong friendship with someone who sees you as you truly are, yet never knows you inside and out.
The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho
BY PATERSON JOSEPH
enables him to explore more of London and stretch his wings, with the hope of one day truly taking flight. The book’s first section is a brilliant fever dream of whirling images and richly rendered short adventures. Charles explores the intoxicating worlds of the capital while also avoiding the terrifying slave catcher Jonathan Sill. He mixes with London’s high society from the vantage point of his uncertain position – not a slave, yet not free – and quickly becomes a curiosity to other Black Londoners, isolated from those who’d otherwise provide support and community. A later section settles into epistolary letters between Charles and his new beloved, growing closer while sharing truly nightmarish tales of everyday life on a plantation in the late 1700s. This book will inevitably make a superb drama for stage or screen: thought-provoking, enjoyable and hugely humbling within from the first page.
This first book from Paterson Joseph (better known as the highly successful film and TV actor) performs an “act of fiction” on the life of the real historical figure Charles Ignatius Sancho, who lived from 1729 to 1780. The result is this imaginative retelling that “adds to the growing canon of Black historical fiction” – a Dickensian, Sternian-style adventure that first seeks to entertain, but is built on years of research and hard facts about the true, pre-Windrush origins of Black British history. Born on a slave ship and orphaned shortly after his birth, young Charles is taken from a South American plantation and sent to England, where he is to live with his owner’s three ‘maiden aunts’ as a fashionable addition to their household. He acquires the nickname ‘Sancho’ and discovers a talent for theatrical performances. Craving education but denied it by the aunts, he is kept as an illiterate pet: his close friendship with housemaid Tilly
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK OCTOBER 2022 37
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