Patricia Duncker is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Set against a backdrop of the War on Terror and the Iraq conflict, the heroine of her latest novel, Miss Webster and Cherif, is a spinster in her 60s. After succumbing to a serious mysterious illness, her doctor advises her to travel "far away". She flies to North Africa and meets a handsome young Arab man who turns up on her door step saying that he is the hotel manager's son, Cherif. Jenni Murray talks to Patricia Duncker about the novel's themes of terrorism, war, fear of strangers, racism, and friendship.
Miss Webster and Cherif is published by Bloomsbury Books. ISBN: 0747582777 |
