Renowned as one of the first few BBC Asian female presenters, Sahera Chohan has relaunched her late husband's book, Twenty Twenty. The book was first published in 1995 by the big publishing house Hodder, which at the time received rave reviews from The Times, Sunday Times and more. It is a book which eerily and accurately predicts a global pandemic that occurs in the year 2020 causing the world to communicate largely through virtual technology, with people wearing masks, a drastic reduction of air travel leading to ‘virtual tourism’, and nature fighting back for its survival due to mankind’s destruction of our planet! Tragically, Watts took his own life in 1999.
Here are some excerpts from an exclusive interview with Sahera.
What was your first reaction when the pandemic broke and you realised that it could potentially have been a Deja Vu moment for you?
SC: Just before Christmas, I’d gone for a walk with a friend and told her I would re-read Twenty Twenty in 2020, over 20 years after I’d first read it. So, when Lockdown happened, I pulled the book from the bookcase. I was amazed to be reminded of the references to a global pandemic causing the world to communicate largely through virtual technology, people wearing masks, a drastic reduction of air travel leading to ‘virtual tourism’, and nature fighting back for its survival due to mankind’s destruction of the planet.
I posted about it on social media and received many responses from people saying they wanted to order and read the book, or re-read it. Suddenly this book, that had been dormant for twenty odd years, came alive in the interest it was attracting. I have also heard the book was trending in March on TikTok, catching the attention of teenagers.
How did your husband come up with the idea of those details that coincide with today’s pandemic protocol?
SC: Good question and not one that I can answer with absolute certainty. What I can say is that Nigel was a very intuitive and sensitive person; ahead of his time. He was a deeply spiritual human being, a seeker and aware of so much.
I believe that being a writer, a creative, brings a necessary level of raw emotion and heightened sensitivity, which is required to bring characters to life, and to create strong storylines that exist deep within the imagination. Nigel had that in spades! Perhaps when we go deeply within, we find wisdoms that would otherwise be undiscovered.
If you were to document the current pandemic as a sequel to this book, what would majorly change?
SC: Twenty Twenty is a bit more dystopian than what we are going through currently, but it’s not far off and there’s nothing I would change. There are lots of references in the novel describing what we are going through, including cities being in Lockdown. In the Foreword Nigel very tellingly and beautifully wrote:
“I believe the consequences are clear enough: consider yourself a bag of bones separate from your environment, and you will have the moral immunity to treat the world and its contents as things.”
I think people should read the book and decide for themselves!
You’re one of the few women in the Asian community who is active in the media and literary circuit. What do you think keeps women from our community from participating more? Lack of opportunities or lack of inspiration?
SC: I am a former broadcaster, saying that, I think there are a few answers to your question - the system we live in - the fact that ‘diversity and inclusion’ is now under the spotlight is testament to the fact that people from BAME backgrounds do not have the same opportunities as their white counterparts. In 1995, I was the first Asian female presenter on BBC1’s flagship rural affairs programme, Countyfile; a show running seven years before I joined.
Look at board members within the private and public sector, people from ethnic backgrounds are still a minority. I believe this also contributes to the lack of confidence to apply for positions for fear of not getting them. That said, things have changed since my broadcasting days, and it’s positive to see more BAME people on TV, in the arts, in film. Is it enough? No! We still have a long way to go.
Do you wish to make this book into a documentary or a feature film?
SC: Yes! Nigel says he wrote it as a movie. When I re-read it, I saw it as a film and am on a mission to make it into a movie. It has all the elements – it is ‘Avatar meets Contagion!’
