Novelist Philip Hensher discusses his new novel Scenes from Early Life with his husband, Zaved Mahmood, on whose early life the work is based. Mahmood was born in Dacca, then in Pakistan, in late 1970. Shortly after his birth, East and West Pakistan split during a vicious war of independence. The war led to millions of innocent deaths and the emergence of a new country, Bangladesh. Scenes from Early Life is part novel, part autobiography and part history of a brutal civil war. 

Hensher has published a number of novels including The Mulberry Empire. In 2003 he was listed as one of Granta’s 20 best young British novelists. His semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2008. Mahmood is a human rights lawyer.

The discussion will be chaired by Dr James Hawes, director of creative writing at Oxford Brookes University’s Department of English and Modern Languages and author of Speak For England, A White Merc With Fins, Excavating Kafka and Rancid Aluminium..