Sathnam Sanghera was born in Wolverhampton in 1976. He is a journalist and a bestselling author. His book Empireland has been adapted into a documentary by Channel 4.
What’s your earliest memory?
Jumping up and down on the living room sofa, as my elder siblings left for school, pretending I could speak English like they could.
Who are your heroes?
Nowadays, it’s my mother. Her journey, as a barely educated Punjabi teenager, pushed into an arranged marriage in a foreign country, has been incredible. It has been amazing to watch her become a wise, funny, compassionate matriarch of a large, multicultural family in Britain.
What book last changed your thinking?
Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. It’s the perfect non-fiction book.
What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?
George Michael. It sometimes upsets me that I know so much about him. I could have employed that mental energy in learning a language or musical instrument instead.
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
I wouldn’t have liked to live there but I would have loved to have seen the factories of the Black Country, my home region, in action at the height of the Industrial Revolution. I’m obsessed with the art of Edwin Butler Bayliss, who was the only person around at the time who saw the beauty in it.
What political figure do you look up to?
Olaudah Equiano, the formerly enslaved man turned writer, for the role he played in taking on the evil of slavery.
Who would paint your portrait?
Lachlan Goudie. I have to say this, as he’s a renowned painter and a close friend. Although he’s forever telling me I’m impossible to paint because of my “weird-shaped head”.
What’s your theme tune?
It would have to be “Freedom! ’90”, by George Michael. For being by George, and for its sentiment.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Never agree to do something tomorrow that you wouldn’t do today. Doing this Q&A has been an example!
What’s currently bugging you?
The ever-shrinking value that humans put upon truth, evidence, compassion and justice.
What single thing would make your life better?
Not having to read the news.
When were you happiest?
In my mid-thirties, before I tore a hamstring badly, and could run for an hour without breaking into a sweat. I would run wherever I travelled. It’s such an amazing way to see the world. Nowadays, when exercising, I only ever see other people’s sweaty backs and crevices in hot yoga studios.
In another life, what job might you have chosen?
My parents never behaved like Asian clichés by pushing me towards medicine, but in some ways I wish I had pushed myself. It’s a wonderful thing to do with your life – something that takes you on to the front line of what it means to be human. And there are many doctors who are also great writers. It would have been amazing to do both.
Are we all doomed?
Of course we are. But that’s the point. It’s what gives life its fizz.
Sathnam Sanghera’s “Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe” is published in paperback by Penguin
[See also: Michael Palin Q&A: “When was I happiest? On stage with Monty Python”]
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This article appears in the 08 Jan 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Great Power Gap