Irfan Master
"Irfan Master has created a richly detailed portrait of India in 1947 and peopled it with a collection of well realised characters, each of them almost strong enough to merit a novel in their own right"
I like to think that I always wanted to be a writer that, it was my destiny, but that’s not how it happened. I was a reader first, consuming everything in the school library, then the mobile library then the local public library. I read by lamplight, candlelight, torchlight and natural light. And I read everything: chapbooks, comics, newspapers, novels, Haynes manuals, poems, raps, lyrics, limericks and cereal packets.
I’ve always felt that I became a writer by osmosis. That is, I read so many books that I unconsciously absorbed the key qualities needed to be a writer. The only problem with this is, you can never tell when the process of moving from being a reader to a writer merge. I can’t say for certain. What I do know is that I waited a long time for this to happen. There are some days however, when I’m sitting at my desk and waiting for the words to come that I think it still hasn’t happened. When that occurs, it makes you think that perhaps the words will never come. Eventually they do. But, that doesn’t stop me thinking each time that they might not. This also makes me think that perhaps, the process is not yet complete, but that just makes me more determined to write. So it works, in a complicated and slightly uneven way. But, I don’t mind. Life can be like that sometimes.
I first started scribbling when I was 13, in little notebooks and on scraps of graph paper. I was hopeless at maths but I liked writing on the square notepaper - I felt the grids trapped my words and kept them safe. I wrote a lot and although I liked creating characters and worlds in my head, I kept the fact that I wrote hidden for almost 20 years. I wrote for a readership of one: Me. Only in recent years have I felt more comfortable sharing my work. I’m glad I did however, as I realised I have lots of stories to share.
That brings us to the present day. My first book, A Beautiful Lie published by Bloomsbury is now available to all. I intend to write many more stories in the years to come. I hope you enjoy them all.
To read Irfan’s revealing answers to the Booktopia Book Guru’s TEN TERRIFYING QUESTIONS…and to leave a comment - CLICK HERE
I’ve always felt that I became a writer by osmosis. That is, I read so many books that I unconsciously absorbed the key qualities needed to be a writer. The only problem with this is, you can never tell when the process of moving from being a reader to a writer merge. I can’t say for certain. What I do know is that I waited a long time for this to happen. There are some days however, when I’m sitting at my desk and waiting for the words to come that I think it still hasn’t happened. When that occurs, it makes you think that perhaps the words will never come. Eventually they do. But, that doesn’t stop me thinking each time that they might not. This also makes me think that perhaps, the process is not yet complete, but that just makes me more determined to write. So it works, in a complicated and slightly uneven way. But, I don’t mind. Life can be like that sometimes.
I first started scribbling when I was 13, in little notebooks and on scraps of graph paper. I was hopeless at maths but I liked writing on the square notepaper - I felt the grids trapped my words and kept them safe. I wrote a lot and although I liked creating characters and worlds in my head, I kept the fact that I wrote hidden for almost 20 years. I wrote for a readership of one: Me. Only in recent years have I felt more comfortable sharing my work. I’m glad I did however, as I realised I have lots of stories to share.
That brings us to the present day. My first book, A Beautiful Lie published by Bloomsbury is now available to all. I intend to write many more stories in the years to come. I hope you enjoy them all.
To read Irfan’s revealing answers to the Booktopia Book Guru’s TEN TERRIFYING QUESTIONS…and to leave a comment - CLICK HERE
All Irfan Master Books
$28.75