For those unable to make the journey, some of the contents can be viewed at Exhibition opens noon – 6pm on Saturday 12th, Sunday 13th, Wednesday 16th, Thursday 17th, Friday 18th, Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th December.

Dan Cruickshank will cut a ribbon at noon. It opens tomorrow at 25 Princelet St, E1 6QH, a breathtaking unrestored eighteenth century house and you are all invited to visit under socially-distanced conditions. Read iDiva for the latest in Bollywood, fashion looks, beauty and lifestyle news.Since September, I have been working behind the scenes to curate an exhibition for the Spitalfields Trust about the culture and history of Brick Lane and the Truman Brewery. 'I write … to tell a good story and, along the way, I let my interest come out in one form or another, exploring issues like immigration, globalisation and cultural adaptation,' Ali said. Her main intention though, remains to deliver an entertaining read. 'I feel that fiction is very good for exploring the complexity, which in two or three words you can’t really do justice to.' 'Whether it’s the right statement or the wrong statement, it’s good to have the social debate.'Īli would not be drawn on contentious questions such as who and what needs to change in Western societies to overcome ethnic rifts. 'Of course you’re going to have cultural sensitivity but it has become problematic in terms of who is allowed to speak,' she said. The kitchen staff come from Ukraine, Belarus, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan among others and is at one point dubbed the 'United Nations task force.'ĭebates over immigration and cultural adaptation, even heated ones, should not be skirted, said Ali, who was born in Bangladesh to British-Bangladeshi parents and raised in northern England. 'There is no point in writing if you fear that perhaps someone is looking over your shoulder.' In The Kitchen centers on a British hotel chef who is plunged into crisis by the death of one of his employees. 'You have to try and write with the door closed,' she said at the Frankfurt book fair. The author, who was accused of giving London’s Bangladeshi community and particularly people from the Sylhet region a bad name in her 2003 novel Brick Lane, said that thoughts of potential controversy have no place in a writer’s mind. Image courtesy Reuters Brick Lane author Monica Ali, undeterred by charges of ethnic misrepresentation in her best-selling debut, lays out yet another multi-ethnic tangle for her latest work In The Kitchen.

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