“I'd be interested to read it,” my friend said with just a hint of déjà vu in his voice, “although by the sound of things it is going to go over subjects and themes which have been written about and filmed many times over… you know, Bangladeshi and Western lives in the East end of London, misunderstanding, cultural clashes, multiculturalism blah, blah, blah”. And for the record, this was a fellow British Muslim speaking.

Being brutally honest, there was a tiny part of me which felt this way before I began reading Rabina Khan's warm and surprisingly direct book. In some ways such reactions are a measure of the extent to which these critically important issues and relationships have been written and presented in a stereotypical fashion.

Depictions of the stories; Bangladeshi generations learning to restart their lives in the East of London, the difficulties, failures and sheer power of spirit in which families have adapted themselves, their culture and identity, has for the most part been dwelled on in obvious themes, with inevitable outcomes. The gutsy young man / woman who overcomes the strictures and bigotry of his / her family, escapes and joins the far better

western lifestyle. Or there is the Romeo & Juliet model; Muslim Asian boy / girl meets British boy / girl, love blooms across the religious and racial divide but bigotry destroys true love or, eventually everyone lives happily ever after.

Ayesha's Rainbow's strength is that it written by someone who has lived, worked and tried to understand her community, its problems and failures from a position of wanting to understand it with empathy.