Stars of the Story

One of the highlights for me of the Bangladesh trip was meeting again with Hasina and Mr Hoque.  These, some of you might remember, are the lovely, lovely family who adopted me (or rather I adopted them!) and without whom I don't think I would ever have developed such a permenant relationship with the country.

This time, with some trepidation, I handed them a copy of A Blonde Bengali Wife, and said I hoped we would still be friends once they had read it!  By default, Hasina and Mr Hoque - his name is Nozmul but he'll always be Mr Hoque to me!) have starring roles in the book, and whilst I dearly love them and I hope I always wrote with affection, there is no getting away from the fact that they are real characters - in every sense of the word!

Well, here's waiting on their reviews...

Oh, and on a personal note, Simon dealt with the whole trip magnificently: the heat, the food, the travel, the crowds of people - nothing fazed him and he seemed to love it all, especially the joys of having 40-odd older brothers and sisters for a few weeks.  In fact, Dinah (friend, literary agent and travel companion) are already wondering if and when a repeat visit is possible!