Good Intentions: ‘Captivating and heartbreaking’ Stylist

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Imran’s relationship with his parents by turn helps Nur consider his own parents, his expectations of them. “It’s fascinating to me as the author that I sat down and subconsciously created a mirror narrative to Nur’s relationship with Yasmina through Imran. And his relationship with his parents and his family,” he says, adding that alongside questions of masculinity, parents show up again and again in his writing. Parental guidance Ali sent ‘Emily’ a picture of him lying in his bed before asking for images in return, saying he was performing an inappropriate act. Nur wants to be a good son to his parents and a good boyfriend to Yasmina. He wants the best for his family, but also the best for his future. Nur has kept Yasmina a secret, putting growing strain on his first serious relationship, because although his parents want the best for him too, their aspirations do not match his and he doesn’t want to upset them with his choices. But is love really a choice for him, and how does Nur decide where his loyalties lie? Judge Nield told Ali: “Emily didn’t exist, happily, for you and for her and there was no child hurt by these offences. When I was writing it, it started with the very simple idea of an interracial relationship without a white person. Then all of these complexities arose through the writing itself.” Out of the writing came Imran, “one of my favourite things about Good Intentions”, Ali says. “Like, I love him. I think he is fascinating and really cool and really funny. And I didn’t plan for him. I truly love him so much because he goes through this journey in the book that I did not plan. All I knew was that Nur needed a friend. And then he became this complex character. I didn’t plan for him to be a gay Muslim. When I was writing, it just happened. It just felt right that he was [a gay Muslim].” What I’m really interested in is the question of: do we give our parents a chance to evolve with us? Or do we just accept that they are who they are?

I wanted, too, to ask questions that I felt weren’t being asked. Of parents’ expectations of their children, of the way my culture can judge, of the way it can often feed into our very worst traits. I strove for authenticity above all. Absorbing, compelling, and beautifully written . Its ending brought me close to tears." —Beth O'Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare

'General manager' of drug dealing enterprise Kasim Ali jailed as part of Operation Blade

I feel like the book could have dived into the Nur’s anxiety more and the stigma that surrounds his dealing with depression in his Pakistani-Muslim community, because the book highlighted great points about mental health. The unbearable deflection he put onto his parents the entire book derailed that component. The story kept repeating the same questions Nur had in his mind with no concrete answers nor a solution to resolve his doubts and worries. It seemed like the author was pushing for Nur to have a climactic moment, when at the end Nur was more lost than ever before. Once considered a true-blue constituency, Labour candidate Emma Dent Coad caused a major upset by winning Kensington in 2017 – becoming the first Labour MP to represent the constituency. Kensington was then the second most marginal Conservative gain from Labour in the 2019 general election, when Tory candidate Felicity Buchan took the seat by just 150 votes. Salman Shaikh announced he was running earlier this week. He is the founder and CEO of The Shaikh Group, an NGO that focuses on diplomacy and mediation in the Middle East. Prior to that, he was the director of the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center, a think tank. He has also held various roles within the United Nations, including political adviser to the secretary-general’s personal representative for Lebanon and programme officer for the special representative for children in armed conflict. He is a Labour activist who has lived in Kensington for more than 30 years. When Riz Ahmed gave a speech in Parliament in 2017 about Muslim representation on screen, I had hoped it might be the turning point. Ever fallen in love with messy, confusing consequences for everyone involved? Then Good Intentions is for you' Stylist

It's the countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve and Nur is steeling himself to tell his parents that he's seeing someone. A young British Pakistani man, Nur has spent years omitting details about his personal life to maintain his image as the golden eldest child. And it's come at a cost. As I said earlier, one of the major topics discussed in this was the world of technology, and the hardships of the dating world while the technological advancement of online dating is happening simultaneously. Ali presents a topic thoroughly discussed, but said in a way never done before:I related to Nur at some parts but was also so frustrated with him... Because we focus on Nur's pov, I found myself failing to see how self-absorbed he was until he was called out for it by the other characters in the story.