June 21, 2025 • 13 mins
In a previous life, crime writer AA Dhand dealt with a lot, including overdoses, violence, and abuse, to name a few.
Amit worked on the frontline of the NHS crisis, running his 100 hour pharmacy in Bradford - surrounded by drugs, drug dealers and giving him insight into the lives of addicts and the dealers preying on the vulnerable.
He turned these experiences into a crime thriller, The Chemist.
"I kind of wrote it as Dexter meets Breaking Bad. The idea came to me when I was at my pharmacy and I'd seen a very unfortunate drug deal go wrong and somebody had died outside my pharmacy...the whole area was on lockdown with police and helicopters."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In a previous life, crime writer AA Down to dealt
with a lot overdoses, violence, abuse A much worked on
the front line of the NHS crisis running his one
hundred hour pharmacy in Bradford. He was surrounded by drugs
drug dealers and he got a good insight into the
lives of addicts and the dealers, praying on the vulnerable.
His experiences inspired his new book, The Chemist. Ada down
(00:35):
to joins me now from the UK. I'm at good morning.
Thank you so much for being with us, Thanks having me.
The Chemist is such a good read. You're a master
of the twists, aren't you. I'd think to myself, Okay,
only one more chapter and then, you know, get on
with life, and then you drop a twist, and I
would just keep going and couldn't put the book down.
Is this one of the keys to a good thriller?
(00:57):
I think.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I think it's atty satisfying when you take you lead
the audience down the garden path and all the time
everyone's completely long place altogether. So I really enjoy that
element of surprise. It's really satisfying for me as a writer,
for the audience, and also I think for the audience,
I love the fact that they'll be reading it and
they'll be like, oh my god, how did he do
that to us? So, yeah, it's really enjoyable for me.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
The line and the publicity release reads, he knows how
to save you and he knows how to kill you.
A pharmacist is a great main character for a book
like this, with that power that they hold. Were you
very aware of that concept and it's potential for a
novel back when you owned a pharmacy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah. I kind of wrote it as Dexter meets Breaking Bad,
And the idea came to me because I was at
my pharmacy and I'd seen a very unfortunate drug deal
go wrong, and somebody had died outside my pharmacy. They'd
been murdered, and the whole area was at lockdown and
the police were there in helicopters, and I closed my
pharmacy and kind of retreating into the dispensary in the dark,
(02:01):
and I was thinking, God, if a drug dealer walked
into my pharmacy and threatened me to supply drugs to
all of my methadone addicts. That would be a really
bad position to be in. And I thought, how would
I get out of that if the lives of my
family was on the line. And I'm walking around the dispensary,
and I remember I wasn't by the ambient lighting was on,
(02:22):
just the emergency of plimitter lives, and I'm looking at
all the medication bays. But this time I've become the chemist,
and I'm looking at the medications now and weaponizing them
and thinking, how could I use medication which has always
been designed for good to do bad? To take down
a drug dealer, and Dexter meets Breaking Bad was born.
(02:43):
I suddenly started to realize all the medications I've got
side effects, They've all got interactions, and that line just
came to me. You know, the only difference between a
medication and a poison is the dose. And the novel
was born.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Within the book We The seating is kind of near
this council housing area called the Muse. Did you work
in an area near the council housing area like theirs?
What was it like where your fantasy was?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, there was an area which I have made into
the Mews. In the books of the dystopian world where
drug addicts, people on probation and I legal immigrants live
and I looked after an area like this in Leeds
and I remember having to go there wants to do
a welfare check on somebody who was really concerned about
I arrived from their daily medication. There were a blue
script of mine in England, methadonias prescribed on blue prescriptions,
(03:35):
hence I referred to them as blue scripts. And I
remember going to the state thinking I really don't want
to go onto this estate because it's a bit dangerous,
it's a bit dodgy. But I got out of my
car and all my blue scripts were there and they
were like, hey, the Chemist is here, because they affectionately
always referred to me as the Chemist, and they're like,
what's the Chemist doing here? And I was like, lads,
I need to go and do a welfare check on
this address. And I know worries man will escort you.
(03:56):
And I'm walking through this area and everybody's looking at
me and going, hey, the Chemist is here. And I
suddenly realized that I've got access because of my job,
because of the trust they have in me, because they
see me every single day for methodown you know, three
hundred and sixty five days of the year. I've got
trust and I've got equity. And they escorted me through
the estate. Nobody said anything to me, and again, I
(04:19):
just realized that actually my job as a pharmacist has
given me privileged access to worlds that nobody else would see.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And you felt protected, then, not threatened.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I felt totally protected. And we went to the address
that I needed to go to and they're like, am
it do you want to help you break the door down?
And I was like, lads, you're all on probation, so
if you break this door down with me, you're going
to get into trouble. And I found the police and
we did a welfare check on this lady who had
unfortunately passed away. And I knew she passed away because
she arrived at my pharmacy every single morning for specific medication.
(04:49):
For two years. She'd arrived every day and then she
didn't arrive one day. And you always get worried on
that happens, because any change routine is a red flag.
And I cannot tell you I didn't feel in danger
at all. I felt empowered almost. I was like God,
I really am the chemist, and it was just a
moment where, you know, the novel really came to life.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And of course the Blue Scripts and the myth and
owned patients play a large part in this boog. Do
people understand your role in their care and how dangerous
it can be?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, they do. It's it's it's quite amazing that, you know,
the Blue Scripts when they come in, that they understand
this world. And I always have a really frank conversation
with them about when they come into the pharmacy, which is,
you know, I'm going to treat you like I treat
any other patient. So you'll wait in line for your prescriptions,
and I will supervise you in a very professional manner,
(05:42):
and I won't treat you like a tertiary person. Sometimes
they get treated like that. So I think I had
I had access and privilege because I've always treated people
with respect, especially in my Blue Scripts, because I see
the person behind what you what other people would just
see as the addicts. You think, oh, there's an addict,
and there's a very sort of hostile, cliched view of
(06:03):
what addicts should be on my steals and my criminal record,
whereas I get to know, you know, John Frank, Peter Luke,
the person behind the blue script, the person behind the addiction,
the person who's got a family, it's got a wife,
who's got kids, who's had hardship in life. It humanizes
them and this is a lovely relationship that is born
because again, the blue scripts see me every single day.
(06:24):
So if you think about it, how many, how many,
how many roles in life where you will see a
healthcare professional every single day. It's very rare. It's a
very unique relationship that is born.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about
Your role is a lot more than just providing them
with a medication. As you say, you are that person
that knows whether they are turning out there taking it,
whether they're okay, whether they're not. You know, you're probably
the the one and only person for a lot of
these people who know whether they're okay. There's quite a
lot of responsibility, isn't it beyond just dishing out some drugs?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It is, And I took it really seriously and I
wanted to get to know them. You know, I would
always say good morning to them. I would always say
you want a cup of tea. You know, I sometimes
you could just know if you say good morning to
somebody every single day, you know, on day fifty seven
they say good morning in a slightly different way, you
know something's wrong. So I'd be like, look, you know,
do you want a cup of tea? Do you want
to chat? I always used to say, you know, nobody
(07:18):
should go hungry in this world. And you know, so
if my blue trips were hungry, or they wanted a
cup of coffee and they wanted a piece of toad, stop,
listen to take a seat, I'll sort you out. So
I always took care of them, and I was very
aware that this interaction that they're having, which is a routine,
regular one, there's so much more that I can mind
from it. Rather than just being the person that hands
them some green liquid, I'm the person that they can be.
(07:41):
Therefore when they need help, I'm the person that can
be therefore when they need a shoulder to cry on,
I'm the person there when they just need an ear to,
you know, someone to listen to them. You wouldn't believe
how much equity that gives you as a healthcare professional.
So that when I go into areas like the muse
and they say, what's the chemist doing here? What do
you need now? And that's the difference you see in
that moment when I walked into that estate. They wanted
(08:02):
to repay those favors from me, have given them mendals,
cups of tea or a piece of TOAE store. Just
the fact that I would say good morning to them
every day and try them with respect. They were the
chemistry is here, what can we do for you? So
you know, it's a really really fantastic relationship that I
managed to form with my Blue scripts over twenty years.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Do recovering erics get the best key that they can
in the UK? Does the system work?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
No, they don't. Unfortunately, it's a very cost effective system
of healthcare. And by that what I mean is we
simply substituting one addiction for a cheaper version of of addiction.
You know, I've done my job for twenty two years
and I've seen one person in that time come off
of methadone. And the point is the methadone gives them
(08:44):
stability in terms of that it's going to fix their
opioid deficit and give them a bridge. I really wish
there was more we could do. I think addiction services
in the UK and in fact globally as some of
the poorest funded areas of health care that we have.
It's really tragic and a lot more needs to be
done to rectify that.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The chemist of the book Eaters Can he is a
really intriguing, rich protagonist. I feel like there is so
much more to learn about him.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, and for me it was like, Okay, I've written,
you know, the Verdie novels with Dco Harry Verdi, and
a lot of novels. You know, you can see a
detective and then there's a bad guy, and there's a
very formulaic way of writing those books. But this in
the community pharmacy, you know, for me, it was really fascinating,
really exciting to go in there because again I'm weaponizing
the drugs. I'm the expert who knows in fact, you know,
I take out one of the bad guys using a
(09:33):
medication that everybody will have at home in their medicine drawer,
medicine you can buy from your corner shop, from your
petrol station. It's not always about the big sexy heroine
oxycontins of this world. The fact is every single medication
in the right hands could be deadly. So it was
really amazing for me to take viewers into the pharmacy
world in a way that they probably have never seen before.
Because Iris can't is that person that will go with
(09:55):
that extra mile. He's in a relationship where so his
ex wife is on methadone a very small dose, and
she's really on that because she just wants to see
him every day. There's this unrequited love story and she
gets itself into a really bad situation with a drug dealer,
and it just has to intervene. And again, how far
would you go for somebody that you love? How far
would you go to protect those around you? How far
(10:16):
would you go to save your own lives? And then
you realize that the chemist just can't because he's got
this access to this world of the muse, because there's
trust there. He becomes a really dangerous character and everybody
underestimates him up their peril because, as they say in
the book, but he's just a chemist, Yeah, but he's
so much more than that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't want to talk, you know, I don't want
to say word about the unpredictable ending, But you hate
to set yourself up beautifully for a SEQ. Well, I'm
presuming this is going to be a series.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, I'm writing. I'm on writing the Secret at the moment. Yeah. Absolutely.
I like to get into the world. I like to
set it up with the first novel that would introduce
readers to a world I haven't seen before. Do it
in a sort of hopefully a dynamic, exciting, sort of
pacey way, because like I said, you know, the best
is yet to come. You know, I've set up address
for anarchy at the end of the day book, so
it'd be really interesting to see where I take him
(11:08):
in the next book.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Did you always want to be a writer? How did
you end up being a pharmacist?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know, I was. I was brought up in a
white working class estate in Bradford and parents had a
corner shop, and I kind of did the South Asian
thing of you know, going to university and trying to
get the best job that I could get to ensure
that I could lift my family and myself out out
of you know, sort of relative poverty, to be honest.
So I did the tried and tested formula of you know,
(11:34):
who around me is doing well, and I had some
family friends at pharmacists and it's like a good stable career.
I'd also been raised in customer service in a corner shop.
I'd always been in a retail environment, so it felt
like a natural fit. And I wanted to be a pharmacist.
But obviously I had this hobby in this passion of
reading Siller as I was reading Stephen King and Thomas
Harris way before I should have been, you know, probably
ten eleven years old, I was reading them. So when
(11:55):
I qualified as a pharmacist, it was really just a
hobby that became something, you know, I was I was
writing a novel I started in two thousand and six.
It'll be ten years to get published one point one
million unsuccessful words. But it was just passion that I had,
you know, a side hustle that ended up becoming a
full time job. So it was a hobby that basically
became my full time gig.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I love the way, you know how many unpublished works
they were. Twenty fifteen, you became the first South Asian
writer to get a publishing deal in the UK. Others
have followed since. You're also bringing the you know your
people to life in your books and now in TV
adaptations as well. How important is it for you to
have that representation in both characters and writers.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, it's really important. I aspired to live in a
world where we don't fetishize representation anymore. It's not like, oh, yeah,
who's the South Asian person we can go to. I
want it to be so normalized that there are lots
of South Asian writers. There are lots of South Asian
TV shows. Obviously when I first started, I did hear
a lot, but you know, South Asians don't write crime.
They're write wonderful literary works of fiction that when man
book apprizes, or they write about arranged marriages or terrorism.
(13:00):
Because there wasn't a single commercial crime fiction writer out there,
which is probably why it took me ten years and
I had a lot of rejections along the way, but
I was like, well, at some point we're going to
change this narrative, I'd like to be the one to
do it. And the same with the TV adaptation that
took seven years. For Verdie, it was like, well, we've
we've seen South Asians on TV and comedic roles are
very cliche ridden worlds. Where's the cool Maverick, Where's the
(13:22):
blue schwallis from Die hard. Where's that kind of gong
ho sort of character that's going to break all the rules.
So I think representation is really important. But like I said,
it has to be something that isn't fetishized. It has
to be something that's just so routine and so mundane
that nobody talks about representation representation anymore because it's so
normal and so routine.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Absolutely much, thank you so much for your time, and
thank you so much for the book. Loved it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Oh, thank you so much for your time. Thanks guys, that.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Was UK author Aa Dan to. His new book is
called The Chemist. It's in stores now.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In a previous life, crime writer AA Down to dealt
with a lot overdoses, violence, abuse A much worked on
the front line of the NHS crisis running his one
hundred hour pharmacy in Bradford. He was surrounded by drugs
drug dealers and he got a good insight into the
lives of addicts and the dealers, praying on the vulnerable.
His experiences inspired his new book, The Chemist. Ada down
(00:35):
to joins me now from the UK. I'm at good morning.
Thank you so much for being with us, Thanks having me.
The Chemist is such a good read. You're a master
of the twists, aren't you. I'd think to myself, Okay,
only one more chapter and then, you know, get on
with life, and then you drop a twist, and I
would just keep going and couldn't put the book down.
Is this one of the keys to a good thriller?
(00:57):
I think.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I think it's atty satisfying when you take you lead
the audience down the garden path and all the time
everyone's completely long place altogether. So I really enjoy that
element of surprise. It's really satisfying for me as a writer,
for the audience, and also I think for the audience,
I love the fact that they'll be reading it and
they'll be like, oh my god, how did he do
that to us? So, yeah, it's really enjoyable for me.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
The line and the publicity release reads, he knows how
to save you and he knows how to kill you.
A pharmacist is a great main character for a book
like this, with that power that they hold. Were you
very aware of that concept and it's potential for a
novel back when you owned a pharmacy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah. I kind of wrote it as Dexter meets Breaking Bad,
And the idea came to me because I was at
my pharmacy and I'd seen a very unfortunate drug deal
go wrong, and somebody had died outside my pharmacy. They'd
been murdered, and the whole area was at lockdown and
the police were there in helicopters, and I closed my
pharmacy and kind of retreating into the dispensary in the dark,
(02:01):
and I was thinking, God, if a drug dealer walked
into my pharmacy and threatened me to supply drugs to
all of my methadone addicts. That would be a really
bad position to be in. And I thought, how would
I get out of that if the lives of my
family was on the line. And I'm walking around the dispensary,
and I remember I wasn't by the ambient lighting was on,
(02:22):
just the emergency of plimitter lives, and I'm looking at
all the medication bays. But this time I've become the chemist,
and I'm looking at the medications now and weaponizing them
and thinking, how could I use medication which has always
been designed for good to do bad? To take down
a drug dealer, and Dexter meets Breaking Bad was born.
(02:43):
I suddenly started to realize all the medications I've got
side effects, They've all got interactions, and that line just
came to me. You know, the only difference between a
medication and a poison is the dose. And the novel
was born.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Within the book We The seating is kind of near
this council housing area called the Muse. Did you work
in an area near the council housing area like theirs?
What was it like where your fantasy was?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, there was an area which I have made into
the Mews. In the books of the dystopian world where
drug addicts, people on probation and I legal immigrants live
and I looked after an area like this in Leeds
and I remember having to go there wants to do
a welfare check on somebody who was really concerned about
I arrived from their daily medication. There were a blue
script of mine in England, methadonias prescribed on blue prescriptions,
(03:35):
hence I referred to them as blue scripts. And I
remember going to the state thinking I really don't want
to go onto this estate because it's a bit dangerous,
it's a bit dodgy. But I got out of my
car and all my blue scripts were there and they
were like, hey, the Chemist is here, because they affectionately
always referred to me as the Chemist, and they're like,
what's the Chemist doing here? And I was like, lads,
I need to go and do a welfare check on
this address. And I know worries man will escort you.
(03:56):
And I'm walking through this area and everybody's looking at
me and going, hey, the Chemist is here. And I
suddenly realized that I've got access because of my job,
because of the trust they have in me, because they
see me every single day for methodown you know, three
hundred and sixty five days of the year. I've got
trust and I've got equity. And they escorted me through
the estate. Nobody said anything to me, and again, I
(04:19):
just realized that actually my job as a pharmacist has
given me privileged access to worlds that nobody else would see.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And you felt protected, then, not threatened.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I felt totally protected. And we went to the address
that I needed to go to and they're like, am
it do you want to help you break the door down?
And I was like, lads, you're all on probation, so
if you break this door down with me, you're going
to get into trouble. And I found the police and
we did a welfare check on this lady who had
unfortunately passed away. And I knew she passed away because
she arrived at my pharmacy every single morning for specific medication.
(04:49):
For two years. She'd arrived every day and then she
didn't arrive one day. And you always get worried on
that happens, because any change routine is a red flag.
And I cannot tell you I didn't feel in danger
at all. I felt empowered almost. I was like God,
I really am the chemist, and it was just a
moment where, you know, the novel really came to life.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And of course the Blue Scripts and the myth and
owned patients play a large part in this boog. Do
people understand your role in their care and how dangerous
it can be?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, they do. It's it's it's quite amazing that, you know,
the Blue Scripts when they come in, that they understand
this world. And I always have a really frank conversation
with them about when they come into the pharmacy, which is,
you know, I'm going to treat you like I treat
any other patient. So you'll wait in line for your prescriptions,
and I will supervise you in a very professional manner,
(05:42):
and I won't treat you like a tertiary person. Sometimes
they get treated like that. So I think I had
I had access and privilege because I've always treated people
with respect, especially in my Blue Scripts, because I see
the person behind what you what other people would just
see as the addicts. You think, oh, there's an addict,
and there's a very sort of hostile, cliched view of
(06:03):
what addicts should be on my steals and my criminal record,
whereas I get to know, you know, John Frank, Peter Luke,
the person behind the blue script, the person behind the addiction,
the person who's got a family, it's got a wife,
who's got kids, who's had hardship in life. It humanizes
them and this is a lovely relationship that is born
because again, the blue scripts see me every single day.
(06:24):
So if you think about it, how many, how many,
how many roles in life where you will see a
healthcare professional every single day. It's very rare. It's a
very unique relationship that is born.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about
Your role is a lot more than just providing them
with a medication. As you say, you are that person
that knows whether they are turning out there taking it,
whether they're okay, whether they're not. You know, you're probably
the the one and only person for a lot of
these people who know whether they're okay. There's quite a
lot of responsibility, isn't it beyond just dishing out some drugs?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It is, And I took it really seriously and I
wanted to get to know them. You know, I would
always say good morning to them. I would always say
you want a cup of tea. You know, I sometimes
you could just know if you say good morning to
somebody every single day, you know, on day fifty seven
they say good morning in a slightly different way, you
know something's wrong. So I'd be like, look, you know,
do you want a cup of tea? Do you want
to chat? I always used to say, you know, nobody
(07:18):
should go hungry in this world. And you know, so
if my blue trips were hungry, or they wanted a
cup of coffee and they wanted a piece of toad, stop,
listen to take a seat, I'll sort you out. So
I always took care of them, and I was very
aware that this interaction that they're having, which is a routine,
regular one, there's so much more that I can mind
from it. Rather than just being the person that hands
them some green liquid, I'm the person that they can be.
(07:41):
Therefore when they need help, I'm the person that can
be therefore when they need a shoulder to cry on,
I'm the person there when they just need an ear to,
you know, someone to listen to them. You wouldn't believe
how much equity that gives you as a healthcare professional.
So that when I go into areas like the muse
and they say, what's the chemist doing here? What do
you need now? And that's the difference you see in
that moment when I walked into that estate. They wanted
(08:02):
to repay those favors from me, have given them mendals,
cups of tea or a piece of TOAE store. Just
the fact that I would say good morning to them
every day and try them with respect. They were the
chemistry is here, what can we do for you? So
you know, it's a really really fantastic relationship that I
managed to form with my Blue scripts over twenty years.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Do recovering erics get the best key that they can
in the UK? Does the system work?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
No, they don't. Unfortunately, it's a very cost effective system
of healthcare. And by that what I mean is we
simply substituting one addiction for a cheaper version of of addiction.
You know, I've done my job for twenty two years
and I've seen one person in that time come off
of methadone. And the point is the methadone gives them
(08:44):
stability in terms of that it's going to fix their
opioid deficit and give them a bridge. I really wish
there was more we could do. I think addiction services
in the UK and in fact globally as some of
the poorest funded areas of health care that we have.
It's really tragic and a lot more needs to be
done to rectify that.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The chemist of the book Eaters Can he is a
really intriguing, rich protagonist. I feel like there is so
much more to learn about him.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, and for me it was like, Okay, I've written,
you know, the Verdie novels with Dco Harry Verdi, and
a lot of novels. You know, you can see a
detective and then there's a bad guy, and there's a
very formulaic way of writing those books. But this in
the community pharmacy, you know, for me, it was really fascinating,
really exciting to go in there because again I'm weaponizing
the drugs. I'm the expert who knows in fact, you know,
I take out one of the bad guys using a
(09:33):
medication that everybody will have at home in their medicine drawer,
medicine you can buy from your corner shop, from your
petrol station. It's not always about the big sexy heroine
oxycontins of this world. The fact is every single medication
in the right hands could be deadly. So it was
really amazing for me to take viewers into the pharmacy
world in a way that they probably have never seen before.
Because Iris can't is that person that will go with
(09:55):
that extra mile. He's in a relationship where so his
ex wife is on methadone a very small dose, and
she's really on that because she just wants to see
him every day. There's this unrequited love story and she
gets itself into a really bad situation with a drug dealer,
and it just has to intervene. And again, how far
would you go for somebody that you love? How far
would you go to protect those around you? How far
(10:16):
would you go to save your own lives? And then
you realize that the chemist just can't because he's got
this access to this world of the muse, because there's
trust there. He becomes a really dangerous character and everybody
underestimates him up their peril because, as they say in
the book, but he's just a chemist, Yeah, but he's
so much more than that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't want to talk, you know, I don't want
to say word about the unpredictable ending, But you hate
to set yourself up beautifully for a SEQ. Well, I'm
presuming this is going to be a series.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, I'm writing. I'm on writing the Secret at the moment. Yeah. Absolutely.
I like to get into the world. I like to
set it up with the first novel that would introduce
readers to a world I haven't seen before. Do it
in a sort of hopefully a dynamic, exciting, sort of
pacey way, because like I said, you know, the best
is yet to come. You know, I've set up address
for anarchy at the end of the day book, so
it'd be really interesting to see where I take him
(11:08):
in the next book.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Did you always want to be a writer? How did
you end up being a pharmacist?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know, I was. I was brought up in a
white working class estate in Bradford and parents had a
corner shop, and I kind of did the South Asian
thing of you know, going to university and trying to
get the best job that I could get to ensure
that I could lift my family and myself out out
of you know, sort of relative poverty, to be honest.
So I did the tried and tested formula of you know,
(11:34):
who around me is doing well, and I had some
family friends at pharmacists and it's like a good stable career.
I'd also been raised in customer service in a corner shop.
I'd always been in a retail environment, so it felt
like a natural fit. And I wanted to be a pharmacist.
But obviously I had this hobby in this passion of
reading Siller as I was reading Stephen King and Thomas
Harris way before I should have been, you know, probably
ten eleven years old, I was reading them. So when
(11:55):
I qualified as a pharmacist, it was really just a
hobby that became something, you know, I was I was
writing a novel I started in two thousand and six.
It'll be ten years to get published one point one
million unsuccessful words. But it was just passion that I had,
you know, a side hustle that ended up becoming a
full time job. So it was a hobby that basically
became my full time gig.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I love the way, you know how many unpublished works
they were. Twenty fifteen, you became the first South Asian
writer to get a publishing deal in the UK. Others
have followed since. You're also bringing the you know your
people to life in your books and now in TV
adaptations as well. How important is it for you to
have that representation in both characters and writers.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, it's really important. I aspired to live in a
world where we don't fetishize representation anymore. It's not like, oh, yeah,
who's the South Asian person we can go to. I
want it to be so normalized that there are lots
of South Asian writers. There are lots of South Asian
TV shows. Obviously when I first started, I did hear
a lot, but you know, South Asians don't write crime.
They're write wonderful literary works of fiction that when man
book apprizes, or they write about arranged marriages or terrorism.
(13:00):
Because there wasn't a single commercial crime fiction writer out there,
which is probably why it took me ten years and
I had a lot of rejections along the way, but
I was like, well, at some point we're going to
change this narrative, I'd like to be the one to
do it. And the same with the TV adaptation that
took seven years. For Verdie, it was like, well, we've
we've seen South Asians on TV and comedic roles are
very cliche ridden worlds. Where's the cool Maverick, Where's the
(13:22):
blue schwallis from Die hard. Where's that kind of gong
ho sort of character that's going to break all the rules.
So I think representation is really important. But like I said,
it has to be something that isn't fetishized. It has
to be something that's just so routine and so mundane
that nobody talks about representation representation anymore because it's so
normal and so routine.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Absolutely much, thank you so much for your time, and
thank you so much for the book. Loved it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Oh, thank you so much for your time. Thanks guys, that.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Was UK author Aa Dan to. His new book is
called The Chemist. It's in stores now.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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