Losing the Night
BBC Radio 4
An ominous little half-hour (19 February) began with the writer and economist Umair Haque prowling the small-hours streets with his photographer friend, Ruth. As the night buses laboured by, startled cats stared up from their hidey-holes and Ruth cast a rapt, professional eye on the irradiated tower blocks, Haque explained that, for him, living a nocturnal life was not a lifestyle choice but a matter of stark necessity.
Stricken by stomach pains and catastrophic weight loss, he had first been diagnosed with terminal cancer, only for the medical friend whom he later married to suggest that he might be suffering from porphyria. Her suspicions were confirmed: too much sunlight and Haque’s blood vessels would burst. There would be no more sitting in parks. After three days behind a curtained window, his symptoms disappeared.
21 February 2019, The Tablet
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