British Library acquires Hanif Kureishi archive
LONDON (AP) — Screenwriter and novelist Hanif Kureishi, who has charted ructions in British society from punk rock to radical Islam, has sold his personal archive to the British Library.
The library said Wednesday the material, bought for 100,000 pounds ($164,000), includes diaries, notebooks and manuscripts of works including his acclaimed 1990 novel "The Buddha of Suburbia."
Kureishi gained fame with his script for the 1985 movie "My Beautiful Laundrette," set among racist white punks and Pakistani businessmen in Thatcher-era London. In 1990s works such as "My Son the Fanatic" and "The Black Album," he was one of the first writers to chart the rise of radical Islam among young Britons.
His most recent work is the novel "The Last Word."
The library said it hoped to have the material available to researchers by the end of 2014.
