Iqbal Hussain
Writer and composer
Despite having lived in London for more than 30 years, I was born and bred in Blackburn, Lancashire. I am as Northern and unadorned as a hotpot, my vowels remain largely flattened and I still crave the sarsaparilla sweets of my childhood.
I have written since I could hold a pencil. This progressed to tapping out stories on prehistoric typewriters from the auction rooms my father frequented. I would lose myself in my stories for hours at a time. The journey has continued ever since.
"After a few minutes, we followed Mother into the kitchen, to make sure she was okay. She was in near darkness, having stopped by the sink, staring out of the window. Behind her, the front hob was on, like it always was – an Eternal Flame. It cast the only light in the room. Something glinted on the window ledge: Mother’s wedding ring, a golden nugget among the cobwebs, Fairy Liquid and turmeric-stained Marigolds."
Extract from Northern Boy
Creative Future Writers' Awards Gold Prize
About me
I studied Mathematics at a small Welsh university, far from the cobbled streets of my childhood. But I chose to earn a living with words. I worked as a journalist, on publications ranging from the Guardian to the Young Telegraph.
In recent years, I've turned to fiction, writing short stories, often based on my Pakistani heritage. I feel a responsibility to record events that would otherwise be forgotten. My nature writing appears on websites such as The Hopper, The Willowherb Review and Caught by the River.
My debut novel, Northern Boy, a coming-of-age novel about being a “butterfly among the bricks”, was published in Summer 2024 by Unbound Firsts.
Until recently I worked for a City law firm, where I fixed document formatting for 27 years. But from January 2025, I took the plunge to become a full-time writer. A lifelong dream finally came true.
When I'm not writing, I enjoy long walks in Epping Forest, dreaming up new stories. I also compose music and would one day love to write a Gothic musical version of Dracula.