Manzu Islam

Manzu Islam was born in East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) where he lived through the 1971 war, walking the swamps for weeks to reach the refugee camps in India, then returning as a freedom fighter. He came to England as a political refugee and, after studying for a degree and working as a racial harassment officer in East London, he became interested in writing. He has written four earlier books including The Mapmakers of Spitalfields (1997), an anthology of short stories set both in Bangladesh and the East End, Burrow (2004) about an illegal immigrant in East London and The Song of our Swampland (2011).