In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Saima Mir

 Name:- Saima Mir

Job:- Author and Journalist

Website:- www. saimamir.com

X - @SaimaMir

Instagram - @saimamor_author

Introduction:-

Saima Mir is an award-winning journalist and author. Her novel The Khan is a Times and Guardian Bestseller and was shortlisted for the Specsavers Crime Fiction Debut Award.  It was also longlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Portico Prize. Her current book Vengeance is the second in The Khan trilogy.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

All The Colours of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

I’m writing the third in The Khan trilogy.

Favourite book:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Kishore Kumar and Stevie Nicks, because their sound takes me away to other times and places.

How do you relax?

I’m still figuring that out!

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

We Begin at The End – I love the character of Duchess and she lives in my head.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Keep writing but do it for the love of the story and the craft. No one else gets to decide if your story is worth telling. It is your job to tell it.

How would you describe your latest published book?

Vengeance is about the power that women could wield if we found each other and came together.

With  A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

Grace by Jeff Buckley

Sholay soundtrack

Ghalib by Jagjit Singh

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

Fleetwood Mac for the talent and the drama.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?

I saw Franz Ferdinand when I was in my 20s. I was with friends I loved, we were a bunch of bright young journalists and life was better than I knew.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Hanging out with all the talented authors and hearing them speak in beautiful surroundings where the arts are celebrated.

Vengeance by Saima Mir (One world Publications)

Two years into running her organised crime syndicate in the north of England, Jia Khan stumbles on a notebook her father - the previous Khan - kept on arrival from Pakistan in the 1970s. And what Jia finds in the journal sends her deep into the family's past. But once the sleeping dogs from those years are woken, they are set for attack. Meanwhile, Jia struggles to control unrest amongst those that oppose her. Worst of all, Jia must unravel a puzzling but terrible warning - one of her staff lies brutally slain, his corpse displayed in her garden despite her sophisticated security... Could a traitor be part of her inner sanctum.

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. #HCFW24