UNIMAGINED
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A standalone book – not part of the UNIMAGINED Trilogy.
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Approximately 165 non-fiction vignettes, flowing and interconnecting – very readable and perfect for the British commuter on a crowded train – exploring and connecting subjects which polite British people don't generally discuss in casual conversation: Religion, Religious History, Theology, Mythology, Science (Time, Space, Gravity, Energy, Matter, Evolution, Astronomy, etc), Spirituality, Metaphysics, Reality, Quantum Physics, Society, Sexuality ... all woven together in an extraordinary tapestry with a compelling narrative ...
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As John Cleese once explained: 'The reason we prefer to limit ourselves to talking about the weather is that there can be no possibility of acute embarrassment and painful awkwardness arising.’ … ‘How is your wife?' … ‘She’s dead’ … the possibilities for discomfiture and mortification are endless …
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Manuscript completion in September 2026.
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All global rights available.
ADVANCE REVIEW
𝑽𝑬𝑰𝑳𝑺
𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏
𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝑵𝑬
by
𝗜𝗺𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗱
How do you free yourself from beliefs that have made you afraid without surrendering your capacity for wonder?
That is the question I find at the heart of this genuinely engaging, distinctive and often unexpectedly moving book.
𝙑𝙀𝙄𝙇𝙎 interweaves science, religious history, philosophy, economics and personal experience. Its interconnected vignettes approach enormous questions in the spirit of a conversation rather than a lecture.
What holds this ambitious mixture together is Ahmad’s voice: curious, irreverent, frequently funny and willing to expose his own vanities. The man contemplating the nature of consciousness is also preoccupied with airline status, enjoying hotel breakfasts and discovering that he was not quite as clever as he thought.
His greatest strength is that he does not rewrite himself as the enlightened observer who always knew better. He lets us see the prejudices he inherited, the uncomfortable insights he resisted and the gradual dismantling of his certainties.
Consequently, the book is not merely about what people believe. It is about what those beliefs do to them: whom they fear, whom they permit themselves to love, and whether they dare to think.
The personal stories are often compelling regardless of whether one accepts their metaphysical interpretation. Two former religious antagonists finding reconciliation over dinner can say more about overcoming division than pages of abstract philosophy.
There are reservations. Some passages repeat their point; some polemics become too sweeping; occasionally, conviction outruns the evidence. The book is strongest when its sceptical voices are allowed to challenge the narrator meaningfully – not merely interrupt him.
But those imperfections do not erase its considerable appeal. At its best, 𝙑𝙀𝙄𝙇𝙎 combines intellectual adventure with human vulnerability, and its humour keeps bringing grand explanations back into contact with ordinary life.
It deserves to be widely read – and it will be – not because Ahmad has demonstrated an explanation for everything, but because his search is absorbing, humane and worth accompanying.
You do not have to agree with all of 𝙑𝙀𝙄𝙇𝙎 to value the encounter. That is a strength of the book, not a consolation prize.
