Rushdie to write memories of his life under threat

Famed Indian-origin controversial writer Salman Rushdie has started to pen down memories of his life under threat from Islamic radicals, apparently feeling that the danger to him may have abated. Rushdie has began to write about what he calls his life's lost chapter, the years he spent in hiding from the death fatwa issued against him by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

It was on Valentine's Day in 1989 that Khomeini called for the death of everyone involved in the publication of Rushdie's fourth novel 'The Satanic Verses', which he said was blasphemous.

This week, at an event organised by the literary magazine Granta, 63-year-old Rushdie confirmed that the moment to write about his life in mufti had arrived. "I am writing it now," he said. "I found it kind of annoying that other people kept offering versions of it that were all bulls..."

During those critical years, Rushdie is believed to have lived in 30 different locations but apart from occasional last-minute appearance at literary gatherings, dinners and one on stage at Wembley Stadium during a U2 gig, his exact whereabouts and activities for most of that time remain a mystery.

He was guarded round the clock by Special Branch officers at an estimated cost of 11 million pounds. British bookshops were bombed.

Full report here Indian Express

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