Press

Sharon’s short story, SEEP included in new anthology, The Book of Birmingham, Comma Press 2018

28th October 2018 Latest News, Uncategorised

Edited by Kavita Bhanot Featuring Balvinder Banga, Alan Beard, Jendella Benson, Kit de Waal, Sharon Duggal,Joel Lane, Malachi McIntosh, Bobby Nayyar, C.D. Rose & Sibyl Ruth Few cities have undergone such a radical transformation over the last few decades as Birmingham. Culturally and architecturally, it has been in a state of perpetual flux and regeneration, with new communities moving in, then out, and iconic post-war landmarks making way for brighter-coloured, 21st century flourishes. Much like the city itself, the characters in the stories gathered here are often living through moments ofRead More

Sharon announced as Creative Future’s 2018 Writer in Residence

11th April 2018 Latest News, Uncategorised

Creative Future April 2018 Newsletter: We’re delighted to announce that our 2018 WIR is Sharon Duggal. Sharon is a writer, campaigner and radio presenter/producer.  She was born in Birmingham to parents who immigrated to the UK from the Punjab, India. She now lives in Brighton & Hove. Her acclaimed debut novel, The Handsworth Times (pub. Bluemoose Books) is set against a backdrop of social unrest, neglected communities, incredible music and the healing power of direct action in 1980’s working-class Birmingham. It was The Morning Star newspaper’s fiction ‘Book of the YearRead More

Dread Town

21st January 2018 Reviews

From 3:AM Magazine. One night in my early teens, my father pulled into the road where we lived in the Lozells district of Birmingham. We had just returned from a family visit to a relative’s house on the other side of town. A few yards from home, we were met by a wall of police officers with helmets and shields blocking the street and told to exit our vehicle. Unknown to us – in a time before the internet, mobileRead More

This year’s City Read: Sharon Duggal on her debut novel

21st January 2018 Other

From Sussex Life. Brighton-based Sharon Duggal’s debut novel The Handsworth Times tells of the disaffection, violence and unemployment behind the 1981 riots. It is this year’s City Read, and has been called “a book for our times”. Jenny Mark-Bell finds out why. This year’s City Read is a debut novel from a Brighton-based author. In some ways, its 1981 setting depicts another country: one where the National Front marches unabashed, unemployment is high and riots cleave inner-city communities. But thereRead More

City Reads novel promotes community amid riots and racism

21st January 2018 Other

From The Argus. THIS cultural year in Brighton is shaping up to be quite the antidote – or mode of resistance – to the current social and ideological schisms playing out in the UK and abroad. Kate Tempest, Brighton Festival guest director, has already emphasised the important of empathy and community in the soon-to-be-announced schedule of events. Late last year she spoke to The Argus about her belief in the arts of a means of bringing people together. “You read a novelRead More

Duggal’s debut novel to be championed by City Reads

21st January 2018 Other

From The Bookseller. A debut novel from British Asian writer Sharon Duggal will be championed by City Reads 2017 in the Brighton and Hove area. The “relevant and important” novel, The Handsworth Times (Bluemoose Books), is set in 1981 and tells the story of the Agarwal family set against the backdrop of “Thatcher’s fractured Britain”. City Reads 2017 will launch on World Book Day (2nd March) and will feature a wide range of events themed around The Handsworth Times aimed to encourage residents acrossRead More

Bluemoose Books ‘Book that made my year’

21st January 2018 Reviews

From The Guardian, Hits and misses: indie publishers pick their books of 2016. Kevin Duffy Director, Bluemoose Books The book that made my year The Handsworth Times by Sharon Duggal: how one family struggles to cope after losing a son in the riots of 1981, when the National Front marched through the inner cities and communities fought against racism and injustice, struggling for their dignity. Our book that deserved to do better If You Look at Me I Am Not Here byRead More

Morning Star’s Book of the Year 2016

21st January 2018 Reviews

From the Morning Star. My book of the year is The Handsworth Times (Bluemoose), Sharon Duggal’s account of life in early-80s working- class Birmingham, which is defined by greater and lesser griefs. Mukesh Agarwal’s son Billy is knocked down and killed by a hurrying ambulance and, as he slips into even greater alcoholic incoherence and joblessness, the other family members move to different points of the grieving compass. Their son Kavi becomes totally nihilistic. Nina the eldest daughter escapes toRead More

Women Reads Books

21st January 2018 Reviews

From Women Reads Books. Mukesh Agarwal sits alone in the Black Eagle pub, unaware that a riot is brewing or that Billy, his youngest son, is still out on his bike…A mile away, at home in Church Street, Anila, one of the three Agarwal girls, is reading Smash Hits and listening to Radio One as she sprawls across the bottom bunk, oblivious to the monumental tragedy that is about to hit her family. It is 1981 and Handsworth is teeteringRead More

Amazon

21st January 2018 Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk. “The Handsworth Times” is an outstanding work in every aspect. It conveys a visceral sense both of time & place with a prose style that manages to be both clear & detailed, & also stylish & unostentatiously poetic. But for all its literary qualities, the book is also gifted with fiction’s first requirements, a rattling good yarn & an engaging cast of characters, & these are again managed with consummate & effortless skill. What Jane Austen does withRead More

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