Hanif Kureishi at What's the Story? #4

"The short story is like a photograph. You just get it. It's all there in the image." Hanif Kureishi

The What's the Story? events, fantastic enough in their own right, are heightened with a bubbling excitement, a warming intimacy and a sense of being in the presence of something rare and quite wonderful.What's the Story? takes place monthly at The Society Club, Soho (which appeared in this month's Vogue) - a charming, little book shop, with a large table in the centre for wine, coffee, cake and reading.

Photo by Adam Marek - me on far left.

The sharing of this table is just one of the reasons the evening feels like a gathering of friends at a dinner party rather than a literary circus. Next to you may be a journalist, a writer, or the family of the author reading but whoever it happens to be, they have never failed to be friendly, interested and interesting. Everyone agrees they'd never imagined it being so intimate. It has to be experienced to be believed.


"When you have children it changes the way you write. I had twins - the next day, I was a different kind of writer." Hanif Kureishi


On Saturday, rather than the usual four or more short story writers, it was an evening with Hanif Kureishi, who read two, brand new, unpublished stories. He was also interviewed by our host and founder of What's the Story?, Cathy Galvin and members of the salon.

Hanif is a screenwriter, novelist, short story writer and winner of many awards and is currently shooting a screenplay, just finished a novel and has recently published a new story in the RED anthology from Waterstones, edited by Cathy Galvin herself.


"As you get older, your imagination can go further, past your father, your mother, your family. You can see further. Imagine other's lives." Hanif Kureishi 

His first story, The Widow, was about a young man who becomes the lover of an insatiable widow to the annoyance of his father who had hoped to bed her himself. The young man, a journalist and expert at cunnilingus, discovers he is one of many lovers and is eventually dumped for daring to use the dead husband's writing room to work. The story is sexy, quite dirty actually, masculine, honest and very funny.




The second story was called The Race, and concerned a divorcing couple, on the last day they
would see each other, deciding to have a race around their local area - a long standing challenge between them. Full of bitterness and cruel imaginings of revenge and suffering, again it was the wicked one liners that proved Hanif is a master of humour in his, at times, brutally unsentimental stories.


Something that struck me about Hanif was that he really enjoyed reading his work and when he delivered his funny lines, he couldn't help but smile - in his joy at telling them and in the reaction to the audience's laughter, he revealed a playful, mischievous and boyish side to his character.

When interviewed, he was articulate and passionate about the art of writing and the world we live in and I was blown away by him, his insights and his writing. I was not the only one.

Another triumph for Cathy Galvin and What's the Story? The only monthly literary event that could truly be called a salon - think of a small dining room full of creatives, reading from their work and talking about their art. I can't wait until next time.

* Look out for courses and workshops planned for the new year with world class authors and tutors.*
* Contact Cathy Galvin and What's the Story at @cathygalvin1 on twitter.*