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When Guy Kennaway, 63, a white, middle class, overweight, English, Tory-voting writer met Hussein Sharif, 22, an African-born, inner city, Tory-hating Muslim, they assumed they had little in common. But newly related by marriage, they decided to go on a walk through Britain to get to know each other. Guy's mission was to explain to Hussein how wonderful British life and culture was, and Hussein's was to describe to Guy the realities of life as a young black Muslim in Britain in 2019. Over a forty-mile hike they made friends, fell out, told stories, encountered strangers, argued, laughed and got very sore feet. Held up by COVID-19 and dramatically diverted by BLM, they reached the end of their walk together, but for both of them it marked the start of a new and more important journey.
About the author
Guy Kennaway is a writer of fiction and memoir. He is best known for his novels ONE PEOPLE, about village life in Jamaica, BIRD BRAIN, about a bunch of optimistic pheasants, and for his memoir TIME TO GO about killing his mother (with her permission). His novel, THE ACCIDENTAL COLLECTOR, won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2021. His latest memoir is FOOT NOTES, a broad comedy about race and nationality which he wrote with his relative Hussein Sharif. And his most recent novel is Good Scammer. 'In all my writing my aim is to delight and amuse,' Kennaway has said. 'Hopefully I make people laugh out loud. Laughter is our most effective weapon in the battle against the difficulties and struggles of life. If I can transport my reader to a happy, joyful world, my mission is successful.'
