Hanif Kureishi

{{About|the British playwright and screenwriter|the Indian street art artist and designer|Hanif Kureshi}}{{Short description|English writer (born 1954)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Hanif Kureishi

| honorific_suffix = CBE

| image = Hanif Kureishi.jpg

| imagesize = 150px

| caption = Kureishi in 2008

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|12|5|df=y}}

| birth_place = Bromley, Kent, England

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Playwright, screenwriter, novelist, film director

| period = 1976–present

| movement = Postcolonial literature

| notable_works = My Beautiful Laundrette
The Buddha of Suburbia

| education = Bromley College of Technology

| alma_mater = King's College London

| children = 3

| signature = Hanif Kureishi Autograph.jpg

}}

Hanif Kureishi {{Postnominals|GB|CBE}} (born 5 December 1954) is a British Pakistani playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, and novelist. He is known for his film My Beautiful Laundrette and novel The Buddha of Suburbia.

Early life and education

Hanif Kureishi was born on 5 December 1954{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=Kureishi, Hanif | id = U23470 | year = 2017 | doi =10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U23470 | edition = online Oxford University Press|location=Oxford}} Subscription needed. in Bromley, South London, to a Pakistani father, Rafiushan (Shanoo) Kureishi, and an English mother, Audrey Buss.Emily Ballou, [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/whims-of-the-father/story-e6frg8h6-1111118058817 "Whims of the father"], The Australia, 15 November 2008. His father was from a wealthy family based in Madras (now Chennai), whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mick |date=2024-11-20 |title='The worst thing is losing your hands': Hanif Kureishi on life as a tetraplegic |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-worst-thing-is-losing-your-hands-hanif-kureishi-on-life-as-a-tetraplegic-20241007-p5kgd3.html |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}} Rafiushan's father was a colonel and doctor in the British Indian Army. Rafiushan went to the same Cathedral School attended by Salman Rushdie, and the family was later close to the Bhuttos. Rafiushan's brother (Hanif's uncle), Omar Kureishi, was a newspaper columnist and manager of the Pakistan cricket team.

Rafiushan travelled to the UK in 1950{{Cite web|last1=Creative media|first1=Five on a bike|title=Interview – Hanif Kureishi in conversation with Kenan Malik |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQDEJ7CocE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/ixQDEJ7CocE| archive-date=12 December 2021 |url-status=live|via=YouTube |access-date=19 December 2014}}{{cbignore}} to study law, but he ran out of money and needed to take a desk job at the Pakistani high commission instead.{{cite interview|interviewer=Robert McCrum|first=Hanif|last=Kureishi|title=Hanif Kureishi interview: 'Every 10 years you become someone else'|date=19 January 2014|work=The Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/19/hanif-kureishi-interview-last-word|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226071430/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/19/hanif-kureishi-interview-last-word|url-status=live}} There he met his wife-to-be, Audrey Buss.{{cite news|last1=Lacher|first1=Irene|title=No Fear He May Offend : Literary bad boy Hanif Kureishi knows that the racial and sexual themes in his works will scandalize many. But those elements, he says, reflect the realities of a diverse, changing world.|date=25 May 1990|work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-25-vw-326-story.html|access-date=6 January 2023|archive-date=7 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707051243/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-25-vw-326-story.html|url-status=live}} He wanted to be a writer but his ambitions were frustrated, with his submissions to publishers turned down.

Hanif Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School and studied for A-levels at Bromley College of Technology.[http://hanifkureishi.co.uk/the-author/ Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906105922/http://hanifkureishi.co.uk/the-author/ |date=6 September 2017 }}. Retrieved 14 January 2016. While at this college, he was elected as student union president (1972). Some of the characters from his semi-autobiographical novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, are drawn from this period.{{cite web|first=Sue|last=Lawley|year=1996|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093nmp|publisher=BBC|title=Hanif Kureishi: Desert Island Discs|quote="I write really in order to keep myself alive, to interest myself to find out what I think"}}

He spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University, then withdrew. He later attended King's College London and earned a degree in philosophy.

Career

Kureishi started his career in the 1970s as a pornography writer,{{Cite news|last=Donadio|first=Rachel|title=My Beautiful London|work=The New York Times|date=8 August 2008|accessdate=5 December 2021|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/magazine/10kureishi-t.html|archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205192632/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/magazine/10kureishi-t.html|url-status=live}}Interview with Hanif Kureishi, The Book Show, Episode 18, Sky Arts. under the pseudonyms Antonia French{{Cite web |url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/11/kureishi-hanif/ |title= Kureishi, Hanif |first= Surbhi |last= Sharma |date=May 2017|orig-date=Originally published Fall 1997|publisher=Postcolonial Studies @ Emory|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406134205/https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/11/kureishi-hanif/ |archive-date=6 April 2015 |url-status=live}} and Karim.Nahem Yousaf. Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia: a reader's guide, p. 8.

He went on to write plays for the Hampstead Theatre, Soho Poly, and by the age of 18, was with the Royal Court.

He wrote My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985, about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980s London, for a film directed by Stephen Frears. The screenplay, especially the racial discrimination experienced, contained elements from Kureishi's experiences as the only Pakistani student in his class at school.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} It won the New York City Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. {{cn|date=February 2025}} He also wrote the screenplay for Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987).{{cn|date=February 2025}}

His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel and was made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

In 1991 his feature film titled London Kills Me, which he wrote and directed, was released.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Kureishi's novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created some controversy as Kureishi recently had left his own partner (the editor and producer Tracey Scoffield) and two young sons; it was assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001, the novel was adapted into the film Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival.{{cn|date=February 2025}} The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Kureishi's drama The Mother was adapted as a film by Roger Michell, released in 2003. It tells the story of a cross-generational relationship with a reversal of expected roles: a 70-year-old English grandmother seduces her daughter's boyfriend.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

Kureishi wrote the 2006 screenplay Venus, for the film starring Peter O'Toole.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} A novel titled Something to Tell You was published in 2008.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

His 1995 novel The Black Album, adapted for the theatre, was performed at the National Theatre in July and August 2009.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

In May 2011, he was awarded the second Asia House Literature Award on the closing night of the Asia House Literary Festival, where he discussed his Collected Essays (Faber).{{Cite web |url=http://www.diplomatmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=434&Itemid= |title=Asia House |first=April |last=Gow |work=Diplomat Magazine |access-date=6 June 2013 |archive-date=3 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003214317/http://www.diplomatmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=434&Itemid= |url-status=live }}

Kureishi has also written non-fiction, including an autobiography, My Ear at His Heart. In it, he describes his relationship with his father, Rafiushan, who died in 1991.Cathy Galvin, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9722077/Hanif-Kureishi-the-pariah-of-suburbia.html "Hanif Kureishi: the pariah of suburbia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316162946/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9722077/Hanif-Kureishi-the-pariah-of-suburbia.html |date=16 March 2018 }}, The Telegraph, 13 December 2012.

Major influences on Kureishi's writing include P.G. Wodehouse and Philip Roth.

Other activities

In October 2013, Kureishi was appointed as a professor in the creative writing department at Kingston University in London, where he was a writer in residence.{{cite web|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/people/qa-with-hanif-kureishi/2008915.article |title=Q&A with Hanif Kureishi |work=Times Higher Education|first= John|last= Elmes |date=14 November 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307101610/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/people/qa-with-hanif-kureishi/2008915.article |archivedate=7 March 2016

}}

Personal life

Kureishi was living in West London in 2016. His entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as "music, cricket, sitting in pubs".

Although he acknowledges his father's Pakistani roots, Kureishi rarely visits Pakistan. A 2012 visit sponsored by the British Council was his first trip to Pakistan in 20 years.{{Cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9722077/Hanif-Kureishi-the-pariah-of-suburbia.html|title=Hanif Kureishi: the pariah of suburbia|first=Cathy|last=Galvin|date=13 December 2012|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=16 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316162946/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9722077/Hanif-Kureishi-the-pariah-of-suburbia.html|url-status=live}} Kureishi's uncle was the writer, columnist and Pakistani cricket commentator and team manager Omar Kureishi.Andreas Athanasiades, [http://euroacademia.eu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Andreas_Athanasiades_Re-imagining_Identity-Revisiting_Hanif_Kureishis_My_Beautiful_Laundrette.pdf "Re-imagining Identity: Revisiting Hanif Kureishi's My Beautiful Laundrette"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219122832/http://euroacademia.eu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Andreas_Athanasiades_Re-imagining_Identity-Revisiting_Hanif_Kureishis_My_Beautiful_Laundrette.pdf |date=19 December 2014 }}, University of Cyprus. The poet Maki Kureishi was his aunt.{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=elm3N0mPP6AC&q=Maki%20Kureishi&pg=PA27| title=Hanif Kureishi| author=B. J. Moore-Gilbert| publisher=Manchester University Press| year=2001| isbn=978-0-7190-5535-5| access-date=6 December 2020| archive-date=5 February 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205133226/https://books.google.com/books?id=elm3N0mPP6AC&q=Maki%20Kureishi&pg=PA27| url-status=live}}

He is bisexual.{{Cite news|last=Lacher|first=Irene|title=No Fear He May Offend|work=Los Angeles Times|date=25 May 1990|accessdate=5 December 2021 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-25-vw-326-story.html|archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205185848/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-25-vw-326-story.html|url-status=live}} He has twin boys from his relationship with film producer Tracey Scoffield{{Cite news |first1=Katie |last1=Law |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/hanif-kureishi-i-had-to-write-about-the-theft-it-was-all-that-was-left-to-me-10295457.html|title=I had to write about the theft — it was all that was left to me|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=3 June 2015|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=7 November 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171107112216/https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/hanif-kureishi-i-had-to-write-about-the-theft-it-was-all-that-was-left-to-me-10295457.html|url-status=live}} and a younger son from a previous relationship.

Kureishi's family have accused him of exploiting them with thinly disguised references in his work, with his sister Yasmin writing a letter to The Guardian about it.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pw.org/content/author039s_sister_writes_next_chapter_kureishi_family_feud |title=Author's Sister Writes Next Chapter in Kureishi Family Feud |work=Poets & Writers |date=11 March 2008 |access-date=6 June 2013 |archive-date=23 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223193704/http://www.pw.org/content/author039s_sister_writes_next_chapter_kureishi_family_feud |url-status=live }} She says that his descriptions of her family's working-class roots are fictitious, and their father was not a bitter old man. Yasmin takes issue with her brother for his thinly-disguised autobiographical references in his first novel The Buddha of Suburbia, as well as for the image of his own past that he portrays in newspaper interviews. Hanif's father felt that Hanif had robbed him of his dignity in The Buddha of Suburbia, and didn't speak to him for many months. There was further furore with the publication of Intimacy, as the story was assumed to be autobiographical.

In early 2013, Kureishi lost his life savings in a suspected fraud.{{Cite news |first1=Miles |last1=Brignall |first2=Rupert |last2=Jones |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/may/03/hanif-kureishi-victim-suspected-fraud|title=Author Hanif Kureishi loses life savings to suspected fraud|newspaper=The Guardian |date=3 May 2013|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-date=9 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309150407/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/may/03/hanif-kureishi-victim-suspected-fraud|url-status=live}}

In 2014, the British Library announced that it would be acquiring the archive of Kureishi's documents spanning 40 years of his writing life. The body of work was to include diaries, notebooks and drafts.[http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event156434.html "Hanif Kureishi – My Beautiful Film Career"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220105740/http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event156434.html |date=20 February 2014 }}, British Library, 2014.

On 26 December 2022, Kureishi was hospitalised following a fall in Rome, which left him with spinal injuries and unable to move his limbs.{{cite news | last=Knight | first=Lucy | title=Hanif Kureishi says he may never be able to walk or hold pen again after fall in Rome | newspaper=The Guardian | date=6 January 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/06/hanif-kureishi-fall-rome-spinal-surgery-novelist-screenwriter | access-date=6 January 2023 | archive-date=6 January 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106184140/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/06/hanif-kureishi-fall-rome-spinal-surgery-novelist-screenwriter | url-status=live }} According to Kureishi, the fall triggered a near-death experience. He was convinced he was going to die while in hospital,{{Cite news |date=5 February 2023 |title=Death was chattering to me, says writer Hanif Kureishi |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64523505 |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205133223/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64523505 |url-status=live }} later saying that his partner, Isabella d'Amico, helped keep him calm and saved his life.{{Cite news |date=5 February 2023 |title=Hanif Kureishi says life 'completely changed' after collapse |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64524922 |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205063126/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64524922 |url-status=live }} He has since written about the fall and his recovery process on social media and in a blog.{{cite web |last1=Newman |first1=Cathy |title='I don't know if I will ever hold a pen again': Hanif Kureishi on the 'hell' of life after his accident |url=https://www.channel4.com/news/i-dont-know-if-i-will-ever-hold-a-pen-again-hanif-kureishi-on-the-hell-of-life-after-his-accident |publisher=Channel 4 |date=13 July 2023 |access-date=18 July 2023}} His detailed memoir, including diary entries on the accident, Shattered, was published in 2024.{{cite news| last=Kureishi | first=Hanif | title=Hanif Kureishi on his accident: 'I believed I was dying, that I had three breaths left. It seemed like a miserable and ignoble way to go' |newspaper=The Guardian | date=12 October 2024 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/12/hanif-kureishi-on-his-accident-i-believed-i-was-dying-that-i-had-three-breaths-left-it-seemed-like-a-miserable-and-ignoble-way-to-go }} Article has extract from Shattered detailing the days after the fall.

In September 2024, the BBC released a biographical documentary "In My Own Words" by his close friend Nigel Williams in which the writer revisits his life and career via the medium of old archive footage.{{Cite news |title=In My Own Words: Hanif Kureishi review – Author revisits hedonistic life after entering a zone of death |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio/2024/09/17/in-my-own-words-hanif-kureishi-author-is-refreshingly-indifferent-to-being-liked-in-this-moving-documentary/ |access-date=20 September 2024 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}

Recognition, awards and honours

Kureishi was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours for services to Literature and Drama.{{Cite web|url=http://www.cccb.org/en/participants/file/hanif-kureishi/229475|title=Hanif Kureishi|website=Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona|access-date=16 September 2018|archive-date=16 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916093237/http://www.cccb.org/en/participants/file/hanif-kureishi/229475|url-status=live}}{{London Gazette|issue=58557|date=29 December 2007|supp=y}}

In the same year, The Times included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.{{Cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90|url-access=subscription|title=The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 |date=5 January 2008 |work=The Times|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511204023/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3127837.ece |archive-date=11 May 2008}}

He has also won a number of literary awards, including:{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

1980 Thames Television Playwright Award, The Mother Country
1981 George Devine Award, Outskirts
1986 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette
1986 Nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette
1987 Nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette
1990 Whitbread First Novel Award, The Buddha of Suburbia
2007 National Short Story Competition, shortlist for "Weddings and Beheadings"
2010 PEN/Pinter Prize
2013 Outstanding Achievement in the Arts at The Asian Awards{{Cite web |url=http://bollyspice.com/57703/asian-awards-winners-night-event |title=Winners at the Asian Awards |publisher=Bollyspice.com |date=18 April 2013 |access-date=6 June 2013 |archive-date=31 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531002802/http://bollyspice.com/57703/asian-awards-winners-night-event |url-status=live }}

Written works

=Novels=

1990 The Buddha of Suburbia, London: Faber and Faber
1995 The Black Album, London: Faber and Faber
1998 Intimacy, London: Faber and Faber
2001 Gabriel's Gift, London: Faber and Faber
2003 The Body, London: Faber and Faber
2008 Something to Tell You, London: Faber and Faber
2014 The Last Word, London: Faber and Faber
2017 The Nothing, London: Faber and Faber
2019 What Happened?, London: Faber and Faber

=Story collections=

1997 Love in a Blue Time, London: Faber and Faber
1999 Midnight All Day, London: Faber and Faber
2019 "She Said, He Said", The New Yorker

=Collection of stories and essays=

2011 Collected Essays, Faber and Faber{{Cite book|title=Collected Essays|first=Hanif|last=Kureishi|date=1 March 2011|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0571249831}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/13/hanif-kureishi-collected-essays-review|title=Collected Essays by Hanif Kureishi – review|first=Leo|last=Robson|date=13 March 2011|website=The Guardian|access-date=18 September 2017|archive-date=18 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918110554/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/13/hanif-kureishi-collected-essays-review|url-status=live}}
2015 Love + Hate: Stories and Essays, Faber & Faber

=Plays and screenplays=

1980 The King and Me, London: Faber and Faber
1981 Outskirts, London: Faber and Faber
1981 Borderline, London: Faber and Faber
1983 Birds of Passage, London: Faber and Faber
1988 Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, London: Faber and Faber
1991 London Kills Me, London: Faber and Faber
1996 My Beautiful Laundrette and other writings, London: Faber and Faber
1997 My Son the Fanatic, London: Faber and Faber
1999 Hanif Kureishi Plays One, London: Faber and Faber
1999 Sleep with Me, London: Faber and Faber
2002 Collected Screenplays Volume I, London: Faber and Faber
2003 The Mother, London: Faber and Faber
2004 When The Night Begins, London: Faber and Faber
2007 Venus, London: Faber and Faber
2009 The Black Album (adapted from the novel), London: Faber and Faber

=Nonfiction=

2002 Dreaming and Scheming: Reflections on Writing and Politics, London: Faber and Faber
2004 My Ear at His Heart, London: Faber and Faber
2005 The Word and the Bomb , London: Faber and Faber
2014 A Theft: My Con Man , London: Faber and Faber
2024 Shattered: A Memoir, London: Penguin

=As editor=

1995 The Faber Book of Pop. London: Faber and Faber

Filmography

Kureishi's films include:{{IMDb name}}{{Screenonline name|id=469222|name=Hanif Kureishi biography and credits}}

=Screenplays=

1985 My Beautiful Laundrette
1987 Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
1991 London Kills Me (and director)
1993 The Buddha of Suburbia (television miniseries, based on the novel)
1997 My Son the Fanatic (based on his own short story of the same title)
1999 The Escort (with Michel Blanc)
2003 The God of Small Tales (short) (with Akram Khan)
2003 The Mother (adapted from the play)
2006 Venus
2007 Weddings and Beheadings (2007)
2013 Le Week-End

=Story basis only=

2001 Intimacy

=Producer=

2006 Souvenir

References

External links

[https://www.bl.uk/people/hanif-kureishi Hanif Kureishi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230508002150/https://www.bl.uk/people/hanif-kureishi |date=8 May 2023 }} at the British Library
{{British council|id=hanif-kureishi|name=Hanif Kureishi}}
Waraich, Omar. [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=21767 When Bombs Speak Louder Than Words, Interview with Hanif Kureishi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110326003308/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=21767 |date=26 March 2011 }}. [http://www.dailystar.com.lb The Daily Star, Beirut -International Herald Tribune] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920005543/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/ |date=20 September 2020 }} 28 January 2006
[http://brooklynrail.org/2006-07/books/hanif-kureishi-with-hirsh-sawhney/ "In Conversation: Hanif Kureishi with Hirsh Sawhney". The Brooklyn Rail, July/Aug 2006]
[http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/creative-writing/hanif-kureishi-on-narrative Audio interview with Hanif Kureishi] from OpenLearn, 12 January 2007
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/09/090911_forum_060909.shtml Audio: Hanif Kureishi in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion show] The Forum