In the latest dispatch from A Room for London – a hotel installation in the shape of the boat in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness – we hear from the Egyptian novelist and political activist Ahdaf Soueif.
As part of a year-long project by Artangel, a writer is invited to stay in the boat, which is moored on top of London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, for four days every month - tasked only with writing an essay on the theme of London, rivers and/or Conrad. For Soueif, the boat throws up issues of belonging and prejudice, the brutal "culling" of disadvantaged populations in both Europe and Africa, and the history of resistance that is etched into the cityscapes of London and Cairo.
During the year we are also live-streaming a series of concerts from A Room for London; take a look at what's been going on here.
