London Diary: South Asian literary stars & anti-vax discount

It’s still early days in Britain’s literary calendar with the awards season yet to kick in, but two South Asian-origin writers are already being billed as potential stars of 2022. Sorry, none of them has an Indian connection. One is of mixed Bangladeshi and English descent, and the other of Pakistani origin.

Monica Ali, whose literary career faltered after the extraordinary success of her 2013 debut novel, “Brick Lane”, is back with a new novel, “Love Marriage”, set in London about two junior doctors from very different cultural backgrounds: a daughter of Bengali immigrants, and son of a "Germaine-Greer like celebrity pundit".

Apparently, rival publishers went to war over it. The Sunday Times described it as "great return to form", "at once touching and satirical".

The other, Kasim Ali, has been hailed as “a thrilling new voice in British fiction”. His novel, “Good Intentions”, is being promoted as one of the most promising debuts of 2022. It’s about a young Muslim journalist from Birmingham who panics at the thought of introducing his Pakistani parents to his black girlfriend. She's also a Muslim but in his mother's view the "wrong" colour.

One critic praised it for “deftly exploring family obligation and racial prejudice alongside the flush of first love”. Another called it “a captivating and powerful modern love story” by a distinctive new voice.

Brace yourself for more hype in the coming months. And if one of them ends up getting anywhere near the Booker Prize, remember you first read about them here.

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Veganism, a con?

From a small grassroots movement, veganism has grown into a multi-billion Pound industry on the back of the claim that a vegan diet is just what you need if you want to stay healthy and fit.

Britain’s supermarkets are awash with an array of vegan substitutes for milk and meat (oat/almond/hemp milk; meat-free bacon, mince, sausages and “squeaky bean vegan pastrami-style sandwich slices”). Sainsbury’s alone boasts of more than 4,000 vegan products marketed as plant-based food—environmental-friendly, healthier, even tastier than real milk, eggs, and meat.

But slowly people are starting to discover that the emperor is wearing no clothes under that shiny marketing hype. Meet Tim Shieff, once a poster boy for veganism. He featured on the cover of vegan magazines and competed on the television series Ninja Warrior UK as the “vegan prince”.

He claimed that he “helped birth the wave that is now in every supermarket”. He has now revealed that all the while he was suffering from joint pain, chronic fatigue and depression. He blamed it on his old meat diet. But then, in sheer desperation, he tried some eggs and fish.

“I felt almost a veil of depression lift from my mind. All these niggling injuries started to recover within a short space of time,” he told a newspaper.

And he’s not the only one. Jayne Buxton, author of The Great Plant-Based Con, said, “People think they’ve made an entirely positive choice when they give up meat, but the reality is that they’ve been conditioned to believe this by the narrative being promoted by a whole range of vested interests.” Which include “corporations that have set out to capture a slice of the very lucrative plant-based processed food market”.

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Antivax discount

Want a discount at a leading seaside British hotel? All you need to do is show that you have posted anti-vaccination comments online.

Camelot Castle Hotel in Cornwall is offering a five per cent discount and a free drink to those who can show on arrival a “social media communication by you, that has bravely opposed the enslavement of mankind”. Its owner John Mappin is a known conspiracy theorist who has described masks and vaccines as “holocaust of the mind” whatever that might mean.

He has also suggested that the Duke of Edinburgh died as a result of being vaccinated. Guests at his Camelot Castle hotel have previously reported that they found “conspiracy theory material” in their bedrooms.

It’s not known how many have accepted the offer but local tourism authorities are not amused. Visit Cornwall, the Cornish tourist board, said it fully supported the local and national vaccination drive and urged people to get a jab —“and get a booster if you have not already done so”.

For all the negative headlines, however, the hotel apparently remains popular judging from the gushing reviews on Tripadvisor.

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...Meanwhile, the BBC is reportedly planning a Big Brother style reality show which will bring a group of vaccine sceptics under one roof and confront them with scientific evidence challenging their “misconceptions” about vaccination.

“The participants will be presented with evidence about the safety and success of the vaccine to see if they will soften their stance. At the end of the experiment, they will be confronted with a question: do they want to get the vaccine?”, The Times reported.

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And, lastly, even as Britain is lecturing the rest of the world about British ethics and values, its own prime minister and the monarch-in-waiting are being investigated by the police—one for criminal breach of Covid lockdown rules; the other in connection with cash-for-honours scandal. Hands up, Boris Johnson; and Prince Charles.