Viva Lewes Issue #161 February 2020

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ON THIS MONTH: TALKSathnam SangheraMulti-form writer“I’m not a writer,” saysSathnam Sanghera,novelist, author of thebest-selling memoir TheBoy with the Top Knot, andweekly Times columnist.“I’m a rewriter. I thinkit was Hemingway whosaid that the first draft isalways shit. With me, the80th draft is always shit, too. I rewrote my firstbook 120 times. All I do is write nonsense andkeep rewriting till it gets good. It’s an idiotic wayof writing.”Sathnam was born in Wolverhampton in 1976,the fourth child of a couple who had emigratedfrom the Punjab – separately – in the 60s. Thefirst book he’s referring to, The Boy with theTopknot, is a look at his (largely) traditional Sikhchildhood in the Black Country; the narrativeis framed by a visit home (from a Western-styleexistence in London) in his 20s, during which heaccidentally discovered his father was long-termschizophrenic, and that his elder sister, too, hadsuffered from the condition.“It was very, very, very, very, very painful,” he says,of the experience of researching and writing thebook. “My memory isn’t actually very good, so injournalistic fashion I interviewed a lot of peoplewho were there at the time.” This included hisparents, siblings and 54 first cousins. “If you patcha lot of other people’s memories together, you canactually paint quite a detailed picture.”A lot of what he wrote was then edited out. “Iwas really worried about losing my family, andmade the decision not to publish anything theyweren’t happy with. They all read a draft. Therewas one particular chapterI had to get rid of. At thetime it killed me, but nowI’m really grateful [to hiselder sister] because we’vegot something in our familywhich is still private.”The book was made intoa film, for BBC2, in 2017.“That was agony,” saysSathnam. “You have a stranger reinterpretingthe worst things that ever happened to you, forTV.” But he’s happy it reached a wider audience.“Schizophrenia is never, ever on TV. It’s ledto people having conversations they wouldn’tnormally have. That’s a very rewarding thing, asa writer.”Sathnam doesn’t do things by halves. His 2013novel A Material Marriage was an adaptation ofArnold Bennett’s 1908 novel The Old Wives’ Tale,set in a contemporary (2011) corner shop; toresearch it he worked ‘for a few months’ behindthe counter of a number of Black Countryconvenience stores. “There,” he says, “you see amicrocosm of the world.”He gave up his day job at the Times while hewas researching his last two books. During thepreparation of his soon-to-be-finished third, ‘apopular history about the British Empire’, hehas continued to work for the newspaper, whichhe finds difficult. “Moving between journalismand writing books is knackering; it’s like flickingbetween the 100 metres and the long jump.Journalism is about answering questions, andliterature is about asking them.” Alex LeithThe Lewes Lit, 11th February, All Saints Centre,7.30pm. lewesliterarysociety.co.uk35
Page 3: 161VIVALEWESEDITORIALA game is ‘a
Page 6 and 7: THE ‘GAMES’ ISSUEFood.63-69. Jo
Page 8 and 9: THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTISTRecent G
Page 10 and 11: THE PLACE TOMAKEWaves.History.Your
Page 12 and 13: Private retirement living at its fi
Page 14 and 15: BITS AND DICETRINITY GAMING CAFÉWh
Page 16 and 17: BITS AND TWITTENSLEWES HISTORY GROU
Page 18 and 19: BITS AND SKITTLESSKITTLES, ANYONE?E
Page 20 and 21: BITS AND BOBSFIVE MINUTES WITH...Ro
Page 23 and 24: PHOTOGRAPHYCARLOTTA LUKEFOCUS ON: T
Page 25 and 26: CARTOON25
Page 27: COLUMNEleanor KnightKeyboard worrie
Page 30 and 31: Easy Access Bathrooms“Safe bathro
Page 32 and 33: Incidental CharactersA game of Cons
Page 36 and 37: 36Photo by James McCauley
Page 38 and 39: J M Furniture LtdTRADING IN LEWES S
Page 40 and 41: 18-29 MarchHASTINGSARE WE ASKINGENO
Page 42 and 43: Alan Davie, ‘Seascape Erotic’,
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Page 47 and 48: ARTART & ABOUTOut of town (cont.)Qu
Page 49 and 50: Feb listingsSATURDAY 1A Night on th
Page 51 and 52: TUESDAY 11The Lewes Lit talk. With
Page 53 and 54: Feb listings (cont.)MONDAY 17 - SAT
Page 55: GIG GUIDE: FEBRUARYFRIDAY 14Jacquem
Page 58 and 59: JO O’SULLIVANINSTANT MESSAGINGThi
Page 60 and 61: UNDER 16sêêêêSky High Trampolin
Page 62 and 63: The Kings Head9 Southover High St,
Page 64 and 65: 64Photo by Saskia Puxley
Page 66 and 67: We are a family-owned business in t
Page 68 and 69: enjoy a complimentaryKir Royale- Fo
Page 70 and 71: THE WAY WE WORKOUTLewes-based portr
Page 72 and 73: THE WAY WE WORKOUTLisa Dickson at B
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Page 77 and 78: LEWES DISTRICTLewes Town & CountryR
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Page 81 and 82: FEATUREPlaying CupidThe maths behin
Page 83 and 84: FOOTBALLClaire RaffertyLewes FC’s
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Viva Lewes Issue #161 February 2020

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