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Hanif Kureishi talks to Rosie Boycott

Shattered

Hay Festival 2025, 

A chance to hear novelist and playwright Hanif Kureishi – who will join us digitally – speak about the devastating fall which left him without the use of his limbs, and the effect it had on his creativity. Kureishi fell at home on Boxing Day in 2022, and spent the subsequent year in hospitals in Italy, before he returned home to London.

Unable to hold a pen but compelled to write during his time in medical care, he dictated his words to family members, and authored a series of dispatches from his hospital beds. These were shared on social media and online, and form part of his book Shattered. The author (on screen via digital link) speaks to journalist Rosie Boycott (present in person) about his experiences, and how his time in recovery awoke within him new feelings of gratitude, humility and love.