It’s been just over a year since Hanif Kureishi’s world turned upside down. What should have been an idyllic afternoon, on Boxing Day 2022, savouring the delights of Rome, turned into a nightmare from which the author has not fully emerged. After going for a walk, he felt faint and collapsed in the apartment of his partner Isabella d’Amico, coming round to find himself paralysed – unable to move his limbs as a result of the fall and its impact on his neck and spine.