Kia Abdullah

Kia Abdullah (born 17 May 1982) is a British novelist and travel writer. She has written four novels: Life, Love and Assimilation (Adlibbed, 2006),[1] Child's Play (Revenge Ink, 2009),[2] Take It Back (HarperCollins, 2019)[3] and Truth Be Told (HarperCollins, 2020),[4] and has contributed to The New York Times,[5] The Guardian,[6] The Times[7] and The Telegraph [8] among other publications.[9][10][11]

Kia Abdullah
Kia Abdullah
Born (1982-05-17) 17 May 1982
Tower Hamlets, London, England
OccupationNovelist, writer
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
EducationBSc Computer science
Alma materQueen Mary University of London
GenreFiction, crime, thriller
Notable worksTake It Back
Years active2006–present
PartnerPeter Watson
Website
kiaabdullah.com

Background

Abdullah is of Bangladeshi descent and was born and brought up in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in a family of eight children.[12] Of her childhood, Abdullah has said: "[People] imagine poverty and misery, hardship and hand-me-downs. Of course I forfeited my fair share of material pleasures but a household of noise and colour is far better than possessions and privilege."[13]

Education

Abdullah was educated in England. She graduated from Queen Mary, University of London with a first class in BSc Computer Science.[14] Her final year thesis was titled A Program Slicing Tool for Analysing Java Programs.[15] Abdullah has an IQ of 150.[16] She was a member of Mensa International – a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile of IQ – but left within a year of joining.

Career

In 2006, Abdullah published her first novel Life, Love and Assimilation, which drew comparisons with Monica Ali's Brick Lane.[17] In 2009, Abdullah published her second novel, a psychological thriller called Child's Play.

From 2008 to 2010, Abdullah wrote about a range of topics, from politics to relationships, for The Guardian.[6] She also worked as Features Editor at Asian Woman magazine, during which time she interviewed a range of prominent Asian actors and musicians including Riz Ahmed, Meera Syal, Nitin Sawhney, Jay Sean and Anoushka Shankar.

Abdullah was an occasional guest on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show as well as BBC Asian Network's DJ Nihal show and spoke publicly about a range of subjects, from drug abuse[18] and gender inequality[19] to dealing with culture and identity as a British-Asian writer.[20][21] In 2009, her article on honour killings was nominated for a Muslim Writers Award.[22] In 2011, Abdullah was involved in a controversy over comments made on Twitter about three British students on overseas travel.[23]

Abdullah went on to join global publisher Penguin Random House where she worked on travel brand Rough Guides. In 2014, she quit her job to found Atlas & Boots, an outdoor travel blog now read by 250,000 people a month.[24] Abdullah has contributed to Lonely Planet[9] and Rough Guides[25] and has spoken about her travels on television,[26] radio,[27] print[28] and online.[29]

In 2019, Abdullah published her third novel Take It Back, which was chosen by The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times newspapers as one of the best new crime and thriller novels.[30][31][32] In 2020, she founded Asian Booklist, a website to help readers discover news books by British-Asian authors.[33] Abdullah's fourth novel, Truth Be Told, was published by HarperCollins in September 2020.[34]

Personal life

Abdullah is in a relationship with British travel photographer Peter Watson.[35] Abdullah was born and brought up as Muslim. In 2020, she stated that she identifies as a Cultural Muslim.[34]

Bibliography
Year Title Publisher ISBN
2020 Truth Be Told HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-0083-1472-9
2019 Take It Back HarperCollins ISBN 978-0-0083-1467-5
2009 Child's Play Revenge Ink ISBN 978-0-9558-0785-5
2006 Life, Love and Assimilation Adlibbed Ltd ISBN 978-1-8973-1200-1

References
  1. Life, Love and Assimilation. 17 May 2006. ASIN 1897312008.
  2. "Child's Play". Amazon.co.uk. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  3. Take It Back. ASIN 0008314675.
  4. Truth Be Told on Amazon. ASIN 0008314721.
  5. "Childless in a Houseful of Children". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  6. "Kia Abdullah". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  7. Dowle, Jayne. "Moving to the big city: For some buyers, living in the countryside isn't all it's cracked up to be". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  8. "Why I agreed to marry a man I'd met only once". The Telegraph. 16 August 2019.
  9. Planet, Lonely (2 March 2016). "Best places to travel in June 2016 - Lonely Planet". Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  10. "Finding Freedom in Writing a Language My Parents Can't Read". Literary Hub. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  11. "What I needed as a working-class writer | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  12. "About | Kia Abdullah". Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  13. "The Bengali East End: Histories of life and work in Tower Hamlets" (PDF). Idea Store.
  14. "Alumni profile - Kia Abdullah". QMUL.
  15. "A Program Slicing Tool for Analysing Java Programs" (PDF). Kia Abdullah. 28 April 2003.
  16. "Is joining Mensa a smart move?". The Guardian. 31 May 2010. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  17. "Vaani: "Launch of VAANI"". www.vaani.org. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  18. "British Bangladeshis battle against drugs". BBC News. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  19. "Kia Abdullah". IMDb. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  20. "Writing Wrongs" (PDF). Asiana magazine.
  21. "Kia Abdullah on writing Child's Play – The Asian Writer". theasianwriter.co.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  22. "Museum of Awards – 2009 | Young Muslim Writers Awards". ymwa.org.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  23. "Writer Kia Abdullah mocks death of gap year students on Twitter". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  24. "Kia Abdullah – Author, travel writer, seven of nine". Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  25. "Travel Features by Kia | Rough Guides". Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  26. Atlas & Boots (22 January 2016), Atlas and Boots interview on London Live, retrieved 12 August 2016
  27. Graeme Kemlo Speaks To Adventure Travellers Kia Abdullah And Peter Watson, retrieved 12 August 2016
  28. "Get Lost magazine" (PDF).
  29. "Peter & Kia | Hero and Leander". 2 December 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  30. Wilson, Laura (23 August 2019). "The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup". The Guardian.
  31. Kerridge, Jake (6 September 2019). "The 26 best thrillers and crime novels of 2019 so far". The Telegraph.
  32. Dugdale, John (8 September 2019). "The best new thrillers". The Sunday Times.
  33. "Asian Booklist: my response to the exhausting diversity debate | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  34. "It is possible to be a secular Muslim". inews.co.uk. 6 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  35. "Introducing Atlas & Boots | Royal Robbins Blog". 4 September 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
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