Coming of Age readings
by Esther Freud, Ali Seth, Jaspreet Singh and introduced by Sadia Shepherd
Three authors with different cultural backgrounds and childhood memories led a contemplative discussion about how childhood stories have influenced their writings. Sadia Shepherd introduced the morning event by stating that they would explore how ‘the stories you grow up with as children shape us as authors.’ Each read a short extract from a book of their own that they felt reflected the heading ‘coming of age’ Jaspreet Singh defined childhood as, ‘one of the most ignored areas’ He employed the child’s perspective in his story ‘17 Tomatoes’ to add a sense of lightness to his somewhat heavy subject-the location of Kashmir, this method had been previously explored by Italo Calvino who Jaspreet Singh said he was most influenced by. In contrast Esther Freud used her childhood memories to make sense and decipher her childhood as an adult. As Ali Sethi said, ‘a child’s perspective can renew the world for an adult.’ The coming of age process was also defined negatively as Ali Seth said, you ‘realize the world is more horrible and dangerous that you could have imagined’. From the often very emotive readings from their respective books it became clear that the juxtaposition of a child narrator read by an adult author was what made this such a fascinating talk.
