Noren Haq

Light Once Lost - Historical Fiction

Noren Haq is a nocturnal and relentless writer of plays, short stories, flash fiction and poetry. She featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, reading from her short story Rearranged which was published in an anthology in 2020 (A Match Made in Heaven, Hope Road Publishing) and her poem Spare Room was published in issue three of Zero Readers in November 2021. Her novel Light Once Lost won a place in the One More Chapter competition in May 2021 and in 2022 she was selected for Playwrights’ Studio Scotland’s mentorship programme and has since written her first full length play.

What Made you enter the Cheshire Novel Prize?

At first, I wanted to enter to have a deadline to work towards so I could finally write out those elusive words ‘The End.’ Yet, the more I learned about the prize, the more excited I became about entering. As I followed along on Twitter, the openness and generosity of the prize had me from the start. Feedback for everyone? A supportive online community? A chance to be included in the showcase?? The big win for me at that point was to finish my novel but all the amazing extras definitely pulled me in.

What did it feel like when you were LL and then SL?

I felt nervous the day the long list was announced. I was convinced I wasn’t going to be on it but still, a trace of hope flitted in and out of my heart. It was the end of Ramadan and we were all abustle making preparations for the Eid festival, when my compulsive checking of Twitter yielded results. To tell me it was posted on Instagram. I’m not on Instagram. I ran up the stairs shouting incoherently at my husband to check his account and couldn’t believe it when I saw the name of my novel appear in that line up. My husband was shouting ‘You did it!’ while I sat stunned into very rare silence. Shock turned to sheer joy as it sunk in and then quickly to terror as I hadn’t yet finished writing my novel. I dropped everything and put all my time into completing it. When I found out I had been shortlisted I was absolutely stunned. It took a long time to sink in and it just felt so wonderfully surreal.

What was the reaction from those around you/family and friends?

They were all so happy for me and have been supportive throughout as they put up with me obsessing about my novel and reading chapters for me as I went. My son was so excited he began designing the house at Ravenswood Park (the country estate where my novel is set) on Minecraft and my brother-in-law is keen to get a signed copy once it’s published and wondered if there are any zombies in it. (Sorry bro, but no…)

You were unrepresented when you entered the Cheshire Novel Prize, can you say what’s happened since?

I am still unrepresented, but I have since met the most wonderful and supportive people, including the amazing judges and readers of the competition, the long listers and of course the short listers, those fabulously talented women I’ve had the privilege of sharing this journey with. The Cheshire Novel Prize has been such an uplifting and joyous experience that has given me confidence in my writing and allowed me to meet such kind and generous friends.

How did you come up with the idea for your book?*

I thought about the idea behind my novel for a whole year before I started writing it in 2020. It began in response to the Islamophobia, racism and misogyny I have both witnessed and experienced as a hijab wearing Scottish Muslim woman of Pakistani descent. I really wanted to write a central character that faced all the challenges of the diaspora but who did so with strength, dignity and humour. I particularly wanted my protagonist to have a mixed cultural heritage in order to explore the conflict that comes with this split identity. I knew the book had to have a haunting quality to show what it feels like to carry the weight of migration with all its consequences of prejudice and being othered. I also wanted it to be about family history and the secrets buried within families and communities and I felt that a crime novel would be the best way to achieve that.

Being a real Austen addict, I set the novel in 1810. The Regency era seemed fitting, as it was a time of great upheaval in India and also because there is a certain level of commonality between Austen’s world of community and social graces and South Asian culture, which I was keen to explore.

What’s it about?

Ravenswood Park is haunted. By memories of the past and misdeeds of the present. After 30 years travelling the Orient, James Pemberton receives a letter from his brother William, telling him to come home at once. Disturbed by this urgent summons, James begins the long journey back to England. Yet he does not return alone. Having converted to Islam in his youth, he brings his daughter, Zaheena, a bold and intelligent young woman, a trained fighter, tutored by a direct descendent of Wing Chun.

Zaheena is an English lady in manners and education and yet veiled like a Turk. She fights against the intolerance and superstition around her as she struggles to find a place in refined society. She must shine a light in dark places to find the truth about her uncle’s suspicious death and solve the mystery of the haunting of Ravenswood Park.

What’s your writing routine?

As an English teacher, playwright and mum of three, having a set writing routine is challenging. I have two kids at school and am home educating my youngest little insomniac, so with limited time and space, I tend to snatch every available opportunity to scribble out the voices in my head, whether that’s on the train, at the kids’ swimming lessons, or more often than not, late into the night when everyone is (finally) asleep. My husband is so wonderfully supportive, freeing me up to write whenever he can, allowing me time to plan and research new ideas while shouting ‘who ate all the biscuits?’, before realising it was me.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently editing my novel, and am also very excited that I’ve started writing book two. It’s wonderful to get back into that world again, although I am fighting off ideas that are screaming at me to be written down for book three. All while studiously NOT daydreaming about who would play the characters in the film version…

What are your favourite books and why?

It goes without saying I am hugely influenced by all of Austen’s work, as well as other classics, including Jane Eyre, Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. I absolutely love books with a real emotional pull like Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I’m also a huge fan of novels that are darkly atmospheric and quietly thrilling, such as The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. Other firm favourites include Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie.

Any tips for writers intending on entering the competition?

Write the story you need to write. Wander the paths that excite and intrigue you without the distraction of what others might think. Enjoy the process and the endless possibility as your writing takes shape. Keep going and going and going till it’s done. Then edit it until you love it, because the love you have for your story, your characters, for the words on the page will shine out and resonate with readers. And don’t let self-doubt hold you back. Press send. Because you never know the impact your words may have or what wonderful things might happen in this life changing competition.