Topknot Memoir Love Secrets & Lies

Could not be more enjoyable, engaging or moving Observer"Its 1979, Im three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the secondhand, floralpatterned settee, and lean forward, like Im presenting myself for execution."For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mixtapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30panhour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect topknot. And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twentyfour, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past from his fathers harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets. I absolutely loved it. Heartbreaking and wonderful. He writes beautifully Maggie OFarrellTragic, funny and disturbing. It will challenge you, and may even change you Carole Angier, IndependentPublished in hardback as If You Dont Know Me by Now | Sathnam Sanghera The Boy with the Topknot : A Memoir of Love, Secrets & Lies