In a library on an island off the coast of Essex
MERSEA ISLAND IS south of Colchester in the mouth of the Blackwater River, which flows through the south of Essex. Connected to the mainland by a cuseway, which gets submerged twice a day when it is high tide, Mersea Island feels like it is many hundreds of miles away from London, even though it is about 60 miles from Trafalgar Square and only a few miles from Chelmsford and Colchester. The island has two settlements: West Mersea and the much smaller East Mersea.
Although there are some working people on the island, many of its residents are retired. We did spot a few (less than five) people, who did not look as if their heritage was white British, but the island cannot be described as having a multi-ethnic population. The island is an outpost of the Anglo-Saxon heartland. It seems to be a friendly community. People with whom we spoke were very amicable. Having said this, a surprise greeted us when, out of curiosity, we stepped inside West Mersea public library, which is run by Essex County Council.
The library is a modern structure with a simple but pleasant, spacious reading room. Immediately after entering, we spotted a bookshelf with a notice above it. This had the words “Author of the Month”. The author whose books were prominently displayed on the shelves were by Vaseem Khan. He was born in east London in 1973, and studied at the London School of Economics. Then, he worked for ten years in India. His experience of India led him to begin writing detective novels set in India. My wife, Lopa, has read and enjoyed many of his books.
I am not sure why we were so surprised to see Vaseem Khan’s books given pride of place in the library in West Mersea. Maybe, it was because our experience of the island is that its population is far from being cosmopolitan. Lopa spoke to the librarian, saying how pleased she was that Vaseem Khan had been highlighted, and then began mentioning other British Indian authors such as Abir Mukherjee and Imran Mahmood. The librarian had read books by all these authors and spoke knowledgeably about them. She had chosen Vaseem Khan to be the author of the month because she had met him at a literary festival, and then invited him to speak in her library. We left the library having been highly impressed by what she had discussed with us.
One thing we forgot to ask her was how often Vaseem’s books were borrowed in comparison with other fiction writers’ volumes on the shelves. I would liked to have discovered whether her display of Vaseem’s books attracted much attention from the local, seemingly Anglo-centric, users of the library.
