I heard an interview with David Baddiel recently, where he talked about “how he wrote”; he said (and I am paraphrasing): I sit down at my computer, look at the internet for a bit, realise I should do some writing, do some writing, reward myself by looking at the internet again… Of course, he did then explain about his actual approach, but his account resonated with me. Clearly, real writers waste lots of time too looking at Twitter and Wikipedia… This is how I wrote The Kosher Delhi: When I wasn’t looking at the internet, I tended to write as follows: On a morning, I would write a few pages…

This is a brief blog post to provide context for a series of tweets I am now commencing on Twitter. These are tweets I am posting because I wanted to acknowledge, and provide some background on the various things that influenced me when I wrote my novel, The Kosher Delhi. The influences come from all directions: the books I have read; the music I listen to; locations; people – a significant set of influences; the food (restaurants, dishes, influencers); films; and a ‘miscellaneous’ category with a few esoteric influences… Most of these things influenced me positively; a few I’m sad I was influenced by, but they did, and in some…

One of the most common questions I am asked is, How long did it take you to write your book? The simple answer is I started The Kosher Delhi around July 2016 and we are still doing final edits on it now, in April 2019. But the heart of it I wrote in about a year. I then submitted the novel to multiple agents before I was accepted by my publisher. Thereafter, I have been doing on-going changes and making minor tweaks as I have received more and more feedback from early readers (friends and family) and my publisher/editor, and as I learn and understand what is needed and what…