| Summary: | This PhD submission consists of my new novel, The Lost Act of the Terrorist (80,000 words), and a reflective thesis (20,000 words) which analyses both the production of this novel and my journey as a writer up to this point. I have divided the reflective component into three sections which trace the personal experiences, political events and literary sources that have influenced my development as a writer vis-a-vis my three novels. The first section looks, in particular, at the racism experienced by the children of the immigrants who came to Britain in the years following World War II and recounts the writing and reception of my first novel, Hond on the Sun (Penguin, 1983). In the second section, I trace the broader social, political and literary influences that impacted upon my development as a writer, in particular, progressive literature and Sufi poetry, and show its influences on my second novel, Wlllle There is Ltght(Comma, 2003). In the final section, I show how the reflective process involved in studying for this PhD helped to shape the creative component, and also provide a commentary on the succession of wars from 1940 to the present whose cumulative horror leave their mark on the main protagonist of the latest novel, Saleem Khan. Saleem Khan moves to the UK after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, returns home during the short war of 1971 (that, in turn, led to the creation of Bangladesh), returns home again during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan ((1979-1989), before becoming inextricably caught up in the post-9111 'war on terror'.
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