Wildfire rips through Disunited Kingdom

Wildfire has pre-empted a book about the deepening divisions and tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK, written by writer and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor.

In They: Dispatches from a Disunited Kingdom, Manzoor will “blend reportage and memoir to investigate why Islam in Britain has become associated with segregation, Jihadism, child-sex exploitation and misogyny, and look for the people and stories that offer a powerful new vision for a different Britain,” the Headline imprint said. It will be published in hardback in autumn 2020.

Editor (non-fiction) Shoaib Rokadiya, who pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from Andrew Gordon at David Higham Associates, said: “It was an easy call to make because it’s a book my colleagues and I have long wanted to read. We were all immediately struck by how clear-eyed, poignant and—against the odds—hopeful Sarfraz’s take on this subject is. We can’t wait to bring it out into the world.”

Manzoor said: “As someone of Pakistani Muslim heritage married to a Caucasian, non-Muslim woman with whom I have two young children, the increasing divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims is not only of journalistic interest to me, but also deeply personal. I hope [the book] will offer glimpses of light in these dark times.”

Manzoor is also a broadcaster, documentary maker and journalist, and has appeared on programmes such as “Newsnight Review” and “Saturday Review”. The author’s memoir Greetings from Bury Park (Bloomsbury) has been adapted into a film.