Iqbal Hussain is a writer from Blackburn, Lancashire and he lives in London. His work appears in various anthologies and on websites including The Willowherb Review, The Hopper and caughtbytheriver. He is a recipient of the inaugural London Writers' Awards 2018 and he won Gold in the Creative Future Writers' Awards 2019. In 2022, he won first prize in Writing Magazine's Grand Flash competition and was joint runner-up in the Evening Standard Short Story Competition. In 2023, his story 'I'll Never Be Young Again' won first prize in the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature short story competition. He was also Highly Commended in the Emerging Writer Award from The Bridge Award.
'What a joyful tale. A Blackburn Bollywood Billy Elliot' Patrick Grant ‘Billy Elliot meets Bollywood in this novel steeped in nostalgic detail yet completely fresh and new. I adored it. I laughed and cried and nodded my head in recognition. If it doesn’t get a movie deal there is no justice' Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things 'Incredibly moving . . . The fundamental premise is about being true to yourself. So powerful for any of us from a South Asian heritage background . . . There's so much that I loved . . . This is big screen stuff' Farzana Chaudry, BBC Three Counties Radio 'This book had my heart from the first page. What an absolute gem of a read. Funny, frank and full of energy' Jen Bowden, Northern Voices podcast 'A stunning exploration of one young boy’s experience of refusing to conform . . . this book is close to perfection, not least because the balance of humour and pathos is spot on' Bookaholic Bex, blogger