Patrick Neate – författare

***Now a film starring Riz Ahmed, James Floyd, Billie Piper, Cush Jumbo, Roshan Seth and Antonio Aakeel***Meet Tommy Akhtar, Ugandan Asian cricket fan, devoted son, and not very successful private investigator with offices over his brother Gundappa's mini-cab firm in deepest West London.He's just woken up from his hangover (combing the parting on his toungue) when his next case comes through the door. It looks like just another investigation when hooker Melody comes into his office asking him to find her co-worker, Natasha, last seen meeting new client at a bar in Shepherd's Market.But as the search for Natasha intensifies, Tommy's world becomes increasingly sinister. He is drawn into a murder investigation, the criminal underworld, the world of fundamentalist religion and maybe even terrorist activities. Neate brilliantly explores the oddball underbelly and wierd cultural mix of London - The City of Tiny Lights - today and questions just what it really means to be British now. . .

Master storyteller Patrick Neate has written a funny, provocative and daring tale of London high- and low-life set among the capital's twirtysomethings. Featuring performance poetry; murder; Trafalgar Square's only fried-chicken induced battle; hat selling; bank robbery for the middle classes, love (and other social ailments); as well as pigeons - lots of crazed, angry thinking pigeons - The London Pigeon Wars is both a comic fable for our times and an exciting bird's eye view of life (and death) in the city.

Zambawi, a banana republic in sub-Saharan Africa, is on the verge of revolution. President Adini, dictator and eunuch, clings to power whilst his soldiers switch sides so often they don't know which uniform to wear. All in all, Zambawi is not the ideal location for student teacher Jim Tulloh to indulge in a spot of character building. Yet with the help of Musa, the local witchdoctor, some flatulent weed and headmaster, PK, Jim's days look set to be mellow in the extreme; until that is Jim is kidnapped from his bush school by the rebel Black Boot Gang. But it is when the Gangers invoke the spirit of Zambawi's Great Chief Tuloko that Jim's fate takes a really unexpected turn . . .

Spanning three continents and two centuries, Twelve Bar Blues is an epic tale of fate, family, friendship and jazz. At its heart is Lick Holden, a young jazz musician, who sets New Orleans on fire with his cornet at the beginning of the last century. But Lick's passion is to find his lost step-sister and that's a journey that leads him to a place he can call 'home'. Meanwhile, at the other end of the century, we find Sylvia, an English prostitute, and Jim, a young drifter. They're in search of Sylvia's past, lost somewhere in the mists of the Louisiana bayou.Patrick Neate has written a story that straddles time and space, love and friendship, roots and pilgrimage and everything between. Poignant and hilarious, it will hook you - like a favourite tune - till the end.

In the first year of the 20th Century, a young Englishman returns home from the Boer War. Disillusioned with Empire and fearful for the soul of Albion, he sets out on a pilgrimage into the West Country, determined to identify the key elements of the English character that they may be forever preserved. In the present day, a young London entrepreneur, owner of the 'cultural consultancy' Authenticity™, defines his contemporaries through their consumer choices with bewildering accuracy, wallows in money and contemplates his growing sense of dissatisfaction. His father, meanwhile, a junior minister in a failing government, is sent to Africa to deal with the continent's latest tin pot despot. He is as confident of success as he is ambitious of what that success will mean for his career. Unfailingly relevant, politically astute, moving and funny, Jerusalem is a loving portrait of Englishness as it never was, isn't now and, hopefully, never will be.

Pinballing around the major cities of the world, from where it all began in the projects of Brooklyn and the Bronx to the excessive madness of Tokyo, from the random violence of Johannesburg, to the shanty towns of Rio, Whitbread Award-winning writer Patrick Neate explores the way how, through hip hop, the potent symbolism of black America has been acquired, used and subsumed by cultures on every continent to create a uniquely different form of globalism. A stunning musical journey and cultural odyssey, "Where You're At" is the story of how hip hop conquered the globe and nobody noticed.

An inspiring mission to rescue young people from drugs and violence with music At a time when interest in Brazilian culture has reached an all-time high, and the stories of one person''s ability to improve the lives of others has captured so many hearts, this unique book takes readers to the frontlines of a battle raging over control of the nation''s poorest areas. Culture Is Our Weapon tells the story of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based organization employing music and an appreciation for black culture to inspire residents of the favelas, or shantytowns, to resist the drugs that are ruining their neighborhoods. This is an inspiring look at an artistic explosion and the best and worst of Brazilian society.

A stunning musical journey and cultural odyssey, Where You''re At is the story of how hip hop conquered the globe and nobody noticed.''A dazzling study of hip-hop ... illuminating and passionate throughout'' Observer''Neate tells it like it is ... This is a heartening appreciation of a wondrous thing: poetry for the masses. Neate loves it and so should you'' The TimesThis the definitive history of how hip-hop rose from a grassroots movement in tiny clubs and on literal streets to selling out arenas around the world and redefining the nature of popular music.Pinballing around the major cities of the world, from where it all began in the projects of Brooklyn and the Bronx to the excessive madness of Tokyo, from the random violence of Johannesburg, to the shanty towns of Rio, Whitbread Award-winning writer Patrick Neate explores the way how, through hip hop, the potent symbolism of black America has been acquired, used and subsumed by cultures on every continent to create a uniquely different form of globalism.

Ever since his dad died in a shock accident, thirteen-year-old Gabe’s world has been turned upside-down and back to front. Literally: Gabe has discovered the ability to tell stories which take him into the past, or imagine an impossible version of the present or future that seems as real as real. Gabe has no clue what is going on. But the answers may lie with his mysterious uncle Jesse, an online game called Small Town Hero which seems to mirror Gabe’s own life, a long-lost grandmother, and the very fabric of time and the universe.

Written by Whitbread Prize-winning author Patrick Neate.

Brazil is a conundrum; even as its culture enjoys an ever higher profile in the West, an undeclared, vicious and often ignored drug war is being fought on the streets of its cities'' favelas (shanty towns). Culture is Our Weapon: AfroReggae in the Favelas of Rio is a unique and remarkable book. It tells the story of this war through the eyes of both the protagonists and those it affects, revealing terrifying complexities of life on the frontline of one of the most damaging civil conflicts in Latin America. At centre stage of this ground breaking book is the extraordinary work of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based NGO which seeks to divert favela residents from the path of poverty and violence, through music and an appreciation of black culture. AfroReggae are a force for real social change; they are also a model for what is possible when an oppressed community decides to resist the twin onslaugh of violence and poverty. This book is co-authored by a prize-winning fiction and non-fiction writer.

Ever since his dad died in a shock accident, thirteen-year-old Gabe’s world has been turned upside-down and back to front. Literally: Gabe has discovered the ability to tell stories which take him into the past, or imagine an impossible version of the present or future that seems as real as real. Gabe has no clue what is going on. But the answers may lie with his mysterious uncle Jesse, an online game called Small Town Hero which seems to mirror Gabe’s own life, a long-lost grandmother, and the very fabric of time and the universe.