The readers who enjoyed Alex Rutherford’s Raiders of the North, a work of historical fiction on Babur, would probably have conjured up an idea of what the author might look like. But few would have known that Alex Rutherford is actually the pen name for the husband-wife team of Diana and Michael Preston, who have authored several books of non-fiction, including one on the Taj Mahal. They were both in Delhi for the launch of the second book of their quintet on the Mughal emperors. Excerpts from an interview with Diana Preston.
Why the pseudonym Alex Rutherford?
We decided to have a pseudonym on the advice of agents and publishers. They said that we’ve spent the last decade writing non-fiction books and if we were to have a change in direction writing historical fiction, to avoid confusing readers we should find a new name. They also seemed keen that it should be a single rather than a double name. We thought we could get around that by having an androgynous first name. So we chose Alex. And then we thought of something that would go nicely with that and would sound quite robust. We chose Rutherford because we are both admirers of Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand scientist. I’m afraid we stole his surname.
Full interview here TOI Crest
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