Sarfraz Manzoor is a writer and broadcaster who was installed as the University of Bedfordshire’s chancellor last month. His memoir, Greetings from Bury Park, on growing up in 1980s Luton, was adapted for the 2019 film Blinded by the Light.
Where and when were you born?
I was born at home in a small village, not that far from Lahore in Pakistan, in June 1971. One month before I turned three, me, my mum, my older brother and my older sister came to Britain to join my father. We all moved to Luton because my dad was working at the Vauxhall car factory.
How has this shaped you?
Luton and my childhood made me the person I am – the things that I saw shaped what I thought was possible in my life. My childhood ended up being the material I revisited in my work, and my memoir is almost entirely based around the time that I spent growing up in Luton, and then I made the movie. So Luton was both formative for me as a person but also ended up giving me the subject which I have spent quite a lot of my creative life focusing on.
