Check out this article, in The Sunday Times, then read the blog entry below:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6725532.ece

No wonder Yusuf Islam and his wife may seem wary of the mainstream media! Here is a deconstruction of the article:

1) The journalist begins the piece in typical fashion with a disparaging reference to him praying. If he had been a Buddhist, meditating, I'm sure it would've been seen as a positive matter.

2) He seems 'foreign' to her. Has she never met Londoners - with London accents - who 'look foreign'? Uhm, that's around a third of the population of our capital city.

3) "... but sometimes the foreignness of him is so tangible he might as well hail from Pakistan".
Why is Pakistan always held up as the repository of all things negative and alien? ... (more)

Letter to The Independent, 13/7/09:

Dear Editor,

" 'We need publishers to start taking risks again' "(John Geller, MD, Books Division, Curtis Brown Literary Agency, from 'Two Weeks to Save Britain's Book Trade', Cahal Milmo, Independent, 13/7/09).

Well, boo-hoo and ho, ho, ho. Finally the big boys of corporate publishing have realised the truth that eventually you reap what you sow! Some of us were telling them that a decade ago. We should have zero sympathy for these people.

Hypothesis for readers and writers: Most corporate fiction publishing is run by cowards, the culturally illiterate and liberal imperialists. Discuss.