Monica Ali, right, with Benaifer Bhandari on Tuesday at the fundraiser

BESTSELLING author Monica Ali denounced Suella Braverman’s treatment of refugees during a book talk in Highgate on Tuesday.

The Brick Lane writer was at Lauderdale House as part of a fundraiser for the women’s charity Hopscotch.

“Language is very important and we’ve been reminded of that with our home secretary,” she said.

“The way you speak about people matters. The attempt to dehumanise… I’m almost lost for words because if you just see numbers and talk about these people as less than and not real individuals then you start to see what we’re seeing at the detention centres.”

Ms Braverman, brought back into her role by new prime minister Rishi Sunak, has described an “invasion of the UK” – at the same time presiding over shocking conditions at the Manston immigration centre in Kent.

Ms Ali was born in Dhaka to an English mother and Bangladeshi father and grew up “between two cultures” in a small flat in Lancashire.

She recalled her father becoming a refugee when he was unable to flee East Pakistan (now Bangla­desh).

“I was only three but that sense of how life can be so fragile never leaves you,” the author said, speaking to Hopscotch’s CEO Benaifer Bhandari.

“People talk about inherited trauma. I don’t know about that but there is something to it.”

Islington mayor Marian Spall meets Ms Ali at Lauderdale House

Ms Ali published Love Marriage in February, her first novel in 10 years. She said choosing words carefully was important when writing sex scenes for it, adding: “You could say the narrative backbone hinges on sex in one way or another.

“Sex is how the protagonists grapple with their identities. But it’s not Fifty Shades of Grey.”

A scene when Bengali character Yasmin engages in revenge sex when she’s on her period was something Ms Ali said she “couldn’t bottle out of writing”, adding: “It was crucial for me to write it because it’s part of her journey as an individual, as a woman of colour, as someone who always obeyed the rules.”

On whether the recent attack on The Satanic Verses writer Salman Rushdie has deterred Ms Ali from writing about cultural taboos, the author was defiant: speaking your truth is a writer’s duty.

She said: “The freedom to write and to express yourself is crucial for all of us. Not just for writers but for all of us.

“The point at which you start to feel your own father looking over your shoulder or the wider world looking over your shoulder you should really just pack up. You should just stop because what’s the point? You won’t write anything true. If you’re influenced by fear or favour then it’s probably better to do something else with your life,” she said.

Ms Ali thanked Hopscotch for its “essential” work helping women on the fringes of society telling Ms Bhandari: “I can’t pretend to understand everything that all of your clients go through but I have a tiny inkling and I have my imagination and my empathy muscle that comes from the writing and I think those things tied together makes me feel very proud to be patron.”

Hopscotch, based is Euston and is the charity that the Mayor of Camden, Nash Ali, is raising money for during his time as the first citizen in the neighbouring borough.

He invited Marian Spall, his Islington counterpart, to be at the talk this week and she met the writer afterwards.

“Every penny means we get to keep helping those women and girls who are very easy to forget,” said Ms Bhandari.