Hampstead’s Pat Holden draws on her memories of the expulsion of the Asian community from Uganda in her debut novel

Pat Holden, who lived and worked in Uganda during the 1970s draws inspiration from her memories of a period of recent history still fresh in the minds of many, though not often explored in fiction: the expulsion of the Asian community by Idi Amin. It was a time of political turmoil that led to almost 40,000 Ugandan Asians fleeing to the UK, left with a question that Pat poses in the novel, and remains relevant today in discussions of migration: Where do you belong when your home is no longer your home?

1972 Uganda. Freya, naïve and newly married, arrives from England, anxious to settle into expatriate life at an agricultural project with her husband, Roger. When the house servant, Keziah, becomes pregnant, Freya suspects Roger may be the father. Her struggle to come to terms with this, and the eventual birth of the baby, leads her into relationships with Satish, the Asian director of a charity where she takes a job, and with Wensley, a visiting West Indian cricketer.
Increasingly at odds with Roger and the narrow world of the expatriate community, Freya’s struggle is set against a backdrop of violence and political turmoil, which culminates in Idi Amin’s expulsion of the Asian community. The upheaval forces a life-change dilemma upon Freya. Her story explores a young woman’s coming of age intellectually, emotionally and sexually. It confronts what it is to be threatened with expulsion from home, and asks where people really belong.
Pat Holden lived and worked in the 1970s in Uganda, Malawi, Nigeria and Egypt. This was followed by a career as a social anthropologist working in international development in the UK, New York, Geneva and Barbados. She has trained as an actor and solo performer and written plays. This is her first novel.

Pat explains: “I have vivid memories of the time when I lived in Uganda and of the trauma and suffering experienced by the Asian community but also by the Africans who were suffering under Idi Amin. I distinctly remember the tense arguments between Idi Amin (through radio Uganda) and the British Government (through the BBC world service) over the proposed expulsion. It was a time for me personally of understanding new and conflicting worlds and ideas. I wanted to use this as a backdrop in a novel exploring a young woman’s coming of age through personal and sexual awakening.”

RELEASE DATE: 28/10/2023 ISBN: 9781805140474 Price: £9.99