Tina is a novelist, screenwriter and media commentator with a special interest in political and social issues. Born in the UK to Bengali parents, Tina developed her interest in politics from her mother, who herself was very politically active during her time at Kolkata’s Presidency College.
Tina's schooling was all in the UK. First a local primary school for a few years, then she won a scholarship to a prep school where she was a boarder, then another scholarship to a senior school where she once again boarded, but she didn't much like it there, so she swapped to local comprehensive (state-run) secondary school, where she took my GSCE and A'level exams. She took Maths, English, and Economics at A'level and then went onto New College, Oxford, to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
BV: What inspired you to write your book "The Antagonists"?
Tina: Mainly, the state of political affairs in West Bengal. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "Something is rotten in the state of West Bengal".
BV: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Tina: Well, I realized I could write, at quite a young age. English teachers always praised my stories; other teachers used to use words like "lucid" and "articulate" and "fluent" to describe my essays; when I was at boarding school, and my friends and I wrote to each other in the holidays, they would all ask me to write more frequently because my letters made them laugh. But even when I went to university, I decided to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics, not Literature. Even then, I never thought of writing as something I could pursue as a profession or commit my working life to. It was only in my last year at university that I decided that I wanted to write a novel.
BV: What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Tina: I don't think my writing itself is particularly quirky, I'm certainly not a post-modernist! But in terms of the process of writing, I do frequently talk to myself in my head, in the voices of my characters – and I sometimes notice people looking at me strangely, because I'm pulling a variety of facial expressions for apparently no reason.
BV: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Tina: That the story never plays out exactly how you think it will. The characters genuinely seem to take on a life of their own.
BV: What are the challenges you faced while drafting the book?
Tina: Physical ones. I was ill for a lot of my pregnancy so wasn't up to writing and then I had a small baby to look after. So, I was about a third of the way through, took a hiatus, and then finished the book – a lot of it was typed on my phone whilst my baby slept at my breast (because for a good while, she wanted to nap on me, not in a cot!). That takes commitment, I can tell you!
Tina Biswas
BV: What does writing mean to you? Any message for young writers?
Tina: Well, to referring back to the question above, as an exhausted mother, you don't write a book on your cell phone if you don't have what is almost a masochistic urge to write. Writing is not a career as much as it's a vocation. My message for young writers? Don't write because you have glamorous notions about attending literary festivals and being in the top ten book list on Amazon. Don't even write because you think it seems quite fun and 'why not?' – there are plenty of other things which are fun and don't bring as much pain. Write, simply because you can't conceive of not writing.
BV: Do you have any suggestions to help the young talents become a better writer? If so, what are they?
Tina: I'm not really in any position to give you feedback as I haven't yet read your work! What all writers should pay attention to though is the basics: grammar, syntax, phrasing. It doesn't matter whether a reader doesn't like your writing but they should at least be able to understand what it is that you've written! I recently read a manuscript and it was verging on unintelligible. It was like the person had vomited words onto the page. So, don't do that!
BV: Would you like to share your future plans.
Tina: Pretty much nothing in my professional life has worked out how I thought it would, so I no longer spend much time planning! I just write what I want to write and hope it finds an audience.
