Hideous Kinky

A young mother and her two daughters travel to Marrakech, Morocco, during the 1960s. The mother, Julia, is disenchanted by the dreary conventions of English life, hence the journey. They live in a low-rent Marrakech hotel and make a living out of sewing dresses and with some money sent by the girls' father, an artist in London.

Whilst the mother explores Sufism and quests for personal fulfilment, the daughters rebel. The elder, Bea, attempting to re-create her English life, wants to get an education and insists on going to school. The younger, Lucy, dreams of trivial things, like mashed potatoes, but also yearns for a father. Her hopes settle on a most unlikely candidate.

The girls match their mother with Bilal, a Moroccan acrobat; the relationship turns sexual and he moves in, becoming almost a surrogate father. However, Julia's friend encourages her to travel to Algiers and study with a Sufi master at a school that advocates the "annihilation of the ego." As money vanishes, Julia's response is to claim that "God will provide," albeit in the person of Bilal.

In 1998, the novel was adapted into a film, Hideous Kinky, directed by Gillies MacKinnon.

• 1992, UK, Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0-241-13179-0, Pub date 30 January 1992, hardback (First edition)
• 1992, USA, Harcourt ISBN 0-15-140216-7, Pub date 1 July 1992, hardback
• 1993, UK, Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-017412-5, Pub date 25 February 1993, paperback
• 1998, USA, W.W. Norton ISBN 0-88001-593-4, Pub date ? April 1998, paperback
• 1999, UK, CSA Word ISBN 1-901768-20-1, Pub date ? January 1999, Audio book cassette (narrated by Esther Freud)
• 1999, USA, ScreenPress Books ISBN 1-901680-25-8, Pub date 11 March 1999, paperback (Film screenplay)

• Hideous Kinky. Penguin. 1993. ISBN 9780140174120.
• Mullan, John (16 September 2008). "Guardian book club: Esther Freud" (Podcast).