Sarfraz Manzoor
Evening Standard
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Sarfraz:
I was attacked by a stranger and the police have not even got back to me
It was Mike Tyson who noted that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. My plan had been to go for an early evening post-dinner walk — and it had been going fine until I got punched in the face. → Read More
I grew up in a house without books — it was the BBC that educated me
One has a right to judge of a man,” wrote Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray, “by the effect he has over his friends.” One also has the right to judge an institution by the effect it has over its enemies. The BBC’s enemies include a clutch of Right-wing newspapers, the Conservative Party and Elon Musk. This should suggest to anyone sane that the BBC should be cherished and championed but… → Read More
It isn’t that I wanted kids, it’s that I didn’t want to miss out on them
It has been impossible to pick up a newspaper recently without being faced with the photograph of a smiling white woman in her thirties or forties telling us how happy she is to have decided not to have children. The articles had titles such as “Women without children aren’t selfish — we’re self-aware” and “I’m childless by choice — but please stop asking me about it” and were prompted by the… → Read More
‘It made me wish I had made more records’: Natalie Merchant on returning to music after losing her voice
Emergency surgery on her spine led to months of enforced silence for the former 10,000 Maniacs singer-songwriter. But rather than take it easy, she’s been raising her teenage daughter, campaigning against fracking and has a new album out → Read More
Outrageously high ticket prices and rip-off resales are killing live music
The first time I went to see Oasis in concert was in September 1994. It was the week their debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released and I paid £7 to see them at the Hacienda in Manchester. Buying the ticket was pretty painless — I just went to Piccadilly Records, handed over some cash and was given a paper ticket in return. → Read More
Phones are taking away our children, we need to ban them in more places
There are times when I swear my daughter has a deeper relationship with her phone than she does with me. Laila is 11 and we bought her an iPhone earlier this year after she waged a relentless campaign that featured crying, begging and accusations that we were going to make her the laughing stock of her class unless we conceded to her demands. We held out for as long as we could because we feared… → Read More
Saim Sadiq on his banned trans love story, Joyland: ‘We spend our lives trying to hide our desires’
The director’s debut won the Cannes Jury prize, yet was denounced in his native Pakistan. He discusses masculinity, religious censorship and challenging the patriarchy → Read More
Hallelujah! I’ve found the secret to feeling eternally young at long last
We were on a family walk in the countryside and I decided to grab a selfie with my daughter. She asked to see the photograph. “You look really old,” she said. I looked at the photograph, studied the man next to the young girl and grudgingly concluded that she was not wrong. “That’s because I’m middle-aged,” I said with more than a hint of defensiveness. “You’re not middle-aged, dad,” my daughter… → Read More
Help! I just can’t seem to make new friends
I met up with my friend Emily last night. Like most of my closest friends we first met when we were in our twenties, but in recent years have found that marriage, children and the general busyness that flows from both means we rarely see each other. The fact that she lives in Tunbridge Wells is also problematic, on multiple levels. → Read More
Timothy Hutton on The Sex Party: ‘Do I think it will be controversial? I don’t know
He won an Oscar at 20 for Ordinary People, acted with the ‘brat pack’ and worked with Polanski and Lumet. As the star makes his London stage debut, he looks back – and anticipates giving audiences a shock → Read More
Become an MP? Thanks, but I’d rather tuck into a wallaby’s tackle
Have you heard about Katie?” my wife asked as she came home from the school run. Katie is the mum of my little boy’s friends so I assumed the news was about an upcoming children’s birthday party. I assumed wrong. “She wants to be an MP,” my wife continued. “She is hoping to be a candidate at the next general election.” My wife was expecting me to say “That’s so great” — what I actually said was,… → Read More
As I watch my friends’ kids grow up I regret having my own so late
My friend Mary messaged me recently to update me about her daughter. “Megan had her third gig tonight,” she wrote, “she’s made the decision to get certified as a yoga teacher. It’s just wild that my little girl is a grown-up now. So weird.” → Read More
Jean-Michel Jarre: ‘I feel sorry for those who are scared about the future’
Sarfraz Manzoor meets the electronic music pioneer to discuss his new album ‘Oxymore’, his absent film-composer father, being obsessed with making music, and why David Guetta is like his ‘little brother’ → Read More
I am clinging to my surefire tactic to get through these days of anxiety
These are anxiety-inducing days. The pound tanking, interest rates rising, mortgage payments set to increase — and that’s just this week’s bad news. Then there’s the worries we all have that only our nearest and dearest will usually know about. In my case, I wake up every morning unsure if my daughter will go to school or refuse — the uncertainty of what we will wake up to means my wife and I… → Read More
Where have all the grown-ups in politics gone? I’m older than the PM
For the first time in my life I am older than an incumbent prime minister. Liz Truss is 47 and I am 51. → Read More
I would never have met my wife in the hasty age of Tinder
Marriage, goes the old joke, is not a word, it’s a sentence. This weekend I will be exactly 12 years into my term. In past years I have marked my wedding anniversary by revisiting photographs from my wedding day but lately I cannot do that without feeling a little sad. → Read More
‘My mum made outfits for us to wear on Top of the Pops’: how the Real Thing made You to Me Are Everything
‘I took a white label record to my local hangout in Liverpool. The DJ put it on and the floor filled up. We knew then we were on the button’ → Read More
Are politicians with such self-belief really a good thing?
There is something supremely weird about anyone who aspires to be prime minister. They may pretend, with varying degrees of success, to appear normal but there is nothing normal about believing that from a population of 70 million there is no one more deserving or capable of leading the country than you. There may have been a time when the desire for such power might have been connected to… → Read More
Dads like me are learning the truth that modern men can’t have it all
My vote for the most misery-inducing words on Twitter — even beating “future Prime Minister Liz Truss” — is “some personal news”. That is how some deeply annoying people prefer to announce their latest career project, whether it is their new commissioning gig, Netflix series, radio show, podcast and so on. → Read More
Sajid Javid’s brave resignation was driven by principle
It was, as ever, the child of an immigrant who did the entirely necessary job that no one else wanted to do. Sajid Javid’s resignation as health secretary on Tuesday evening precipitated a torrent of departures that ultimately led to the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership. → Read More