British writer and editor Sara Nisha Adams announced herself as a great new literary talent with her acclaimed 2021 novel The Reading List.
That accomplished debut as a storyteller raised expectations for her newly published novel The Twilight Garden. The story set across different time periods is connected by a community garden, which was once filled with life but is now in an abandoned state.
She cleverly unites diverse people across different time periods in a relatable story about togetherness and keeping community spirit alive.
Eastern Eye caught up with the skilled author to discuss writing, her successful debut novel, new book, inspirations and why she loves writing about friendships.
What first connected you to writing?
My love of writing grew from my love of reading. Ever since I can remember I’ve been carrying books around with me, as well as notebooks or scraps of paper, so I could write my own stories. I’ve always been fascinated by the ability to create whole worlds in your imagination, through both writing and reading. It’s like magic.
How did you feel when your first book, The Reading List, was published?
It has always been my dream to be a published author, so it felt completely surreal that it came true. I do feel so proud of myself for having done it, and grateful to all the people who helped me along the way, from my publishing team, editor and agent to my friends and family too.
How much did the positive reviews of your debut book mean to you?
They were such a boost. You never know how people will feel about your book when you’re writing it, and it’s terrifying, but I’ve had so many wonderful messages from readers and reviewers saying it’s become one of their favourite books, or that it found them at just the right time, which means everything. To know that these characters belong to readers now, rather than just me, is a huge privilege
Has the success of your first book put pressure on you or was it motivating?
I was much more aware that people would be reading the second one when I was writing it, which does increase the self-doubt. I had to push that aside to write freely. But I hope that people who liked The Reading List will enjoy The Twilight Garden too. And I think people who didn’t like my first novel might really like this one. It’s similar in tone, but so different, with many more layers and complexities (I think). It was a more challenging book to write, but it’s so close to my heart now. I really hope people get from it the hope and love I put into it.
What inspired your new novel?
When I was living in a top floor flat in Stoke Newington, I was dreaming of the slightly unkempt garden below, belonging to our downstairs neighbours, and that’s where the idea for the shared garden came from – it was wish fulfilment really.
Tell us more…
I loved living in Stoke Newington, but we knew very few of our neighbours, despite knowing their taste in music or favourite TV shows – having heard it through the terrace walls.
After chatting to a neighbour, who had lived there for generations, I got the sense that there was a time when neighbours invited each other over for tea and had chats over the fences.
So, I wanted to imagine that world in the novel too, depicting the change over time, and how the shared garden might bring that community back again.
The cover of her new novel
Tell us a little bit about the story?
We follow Winston and Bernice – neighbours who don’t get along but share a garden. When they start receiving leaflets and photographs through their doors, they discover pictures of their garden years ago, when it was blossoming and blooming.
It might just be the seed to set them on their way.
And then we see the garden decades earlier, through the story of two best friends and neighbours Maya and Alma, who created a space for their friends and community to share.
What was the biggest challenge of writing The Twilight Garden?
The two timelines – there are lots of strands in this book, which I loved writing, but making sure they were layered and unravelling in the right way was quite a challenge – so huge thanks to my editor for helping me piece it all together as clearly as possible.
Who are you hoping connects with this story?
I hope anyone who has felt lost or out of place might connect with the characters in this book. It’s so much about finding your home and finding family. And anyone who loves gardening, or is keen to start, I hope they enjoy it too.
Is it fair to say that themes of forming friendships is something that you really connect with?
Yes, I love writing about friendships. They are hugely important to me, and I love reading about them, especially about those early stages of forming friendships, and ones between unlikely companions.
As a writer and editor, what according to you makes for a good book?
Great characters and a great voice – they’re always what I’m drawn in by. I love a good plot, but for me, the voice, characters and heart of the book are what keep me there.
What do you enjoy reading and do you have a favourite book?
I read all genres, but my favourite book of all time is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy – masterful, immersive, and heart-breaking.
What inspires you as a writer?
Other stories, and brilliant prose – when I read an incredible book, it always makes me want to push myself further, to write better. But other than that, I believe life and people are pretty inspiring.
Why do you think we should pick up your new book?
Because it’s hopeful, and full of heart and characters who I really hope will ‘grow’ on you – pun intended – and stay with you.
The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams is available now (HarperCollins)
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A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5