English Harem, The Tv Tie-In

Description: This is a publication to coincide with a major new ITV drama starring Martine McCutcheon and Art Malik. In this hilarious, provocative and highly topical story of food, love and Islam, Anthony McCarten exposes the flaws inherent to our multicultural society, and explores the nature of racism from a startlingly original angle. Supermarket checkout girl Tracy Pringle has a very lively imagination indeed. In front of her, as she blip-blips herself into a daydream, walk past not boring housewives with screaming children or tired office clerks, but the likes of Lord Byron, Lawrence of Arabia and Princess Leia. It comes as no surprise, then, that she turns a blind eye when Her Majesty herself pops a packet of Mr Kipling's Bakewell tarts into her handbag without paying. Obviously, the management sees it differently, and Tracy is given the sack on the spot and forced to find herself another job. But nothing can prepare her for the new life that awaits her at the Taste of Persia restaurant, where she is flung headlong into a clash of cultures, languages, dinner plates, religions and a rather tricky domestic arrangement...

Review: "Everyone who reads McCarten's generous, humane, funny, and moving novel will come away enriched." - Timothy Mo "High farce laced with some acute observations on racial prejudice, bigotry, the strength of women's bonds, and an exploration of Islam" - Eve "Anthony McCarten dares to speak of English multiculturalism in the satirical tongue that most native writers keep mute" - Observer "Anthony McCarten's sparkling new novel manages to deal with big issues - cultural differences, religion, marriage - in a funny and often very moving way" - Dublin Sunday Tribune"

Author Biography: Anthony McCarten's debut novel, Spinners (1998), won international acclaim, and has since been translated into four languages; it was followed by The English Harem (2002) and Brilliance (2003). McCarten has also written twelve stage plays, including the worldwide success Ladies' Night, which won France's Moliere Prize, the Meilleure Piece Comique, in 2001. McCarten has also adapted another of his plays, Via Satellite, into a feature film that he directed, which had its world premiere at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.