This week, armed with tea and Jaffa cakes, I speak to the writer Amer Anwar at his home in west London. Amer is the author of Brothers in Blood and Stone Cold Trouble – crime thrillers set in Southall, populated by British Asian gangsters, and peppered with punch-ups, Punjabi swear words, and cunning plans. 

Before Amer had even finished a draft of his first book, it won the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award – but nevertheless, he struggled to find a publisher. In the meantime, he hatched his own cunning plan to publish and promote the book himself; he made it to the shelves of Waterstones and garnered such good reviews that the book was ultimately picked up by the publisher Dialogue Books.

You can buy Amer's novels and lots more at the In Writing bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

This episode of In Writing is sponsored by Curtis Brown Creative. Use the code INWRITING20 for £20 off one of their four, six, or ten-week online writing courses. Go to http://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk to
find out more.