DREAMING & SCHEMING - FABER

Writing seems to be a problem of some kind. It isn't as if most people can just sit down and start to write brilliantly, get up from the desk, do something else all day, and then, next morning start again without any conflict or anxiety. To begin to write- to attempt anything creative, for that matter- is to ask many other questions, not only about the craft itself, but of oneself, and of life. The blank empty page is a representation of this helplessness. Who am I? it asks. How should I live? Who do I want to be? Dreaming and scheming collects the very best of the non- fiction writings by Hanif Kureishi over the past fifteen years. These include political essays; diaries and accounts of his many collaboration in the fields of film and television; reflections on the influence of his father, analyses of both the craft and the job of writing; and above all, explorations of how the life of the mind expresses itself in creative endeavours.