Patrick French on India and Bollywood

He first came to Mumbai in 1996. That was also his first visit to India. He wanted to write about India.

But celebrated British writer and historian Patrick French did not expect the call for ban on his book Liberty or Death — India’s Journey to Independence and Division.

His take on Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s role in the Independence Movement wasn’t taken too kindly. The fear of being looked at as an outsider crossed his mind when he started out, but being married to an Indian woman has given him a different perspective.

“Back then, there was a feeling that people were obliged to be more respectable to the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi and they felt that I was too sympathetic to Jinnah. But today if somebody wrote a book on 26/11 nobody would be bothered in the slightest bit. I think it is to do with what is acceptable at a particular time,” says French.

Full report here DNA

Pakistan: Granta, Edited by John Freeman

When Granta magazine brought out a special India edition to mark the nation's "Golden Jubilee" year in 1997, the collection appeared to have a genuine sense of celebration, of a nation fighting to free itself from the ghost of colonial rule.

More than a decade later, Granta has turned its attention to India's beleaguered, bullet-riddled neighbour, Pakistan. What emerges is a land clouded in darkness, perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Pakistan is, 63-years after its birth, bent double with political strife, religious fundamentalism and rising militarism, when even its otherwise adored cricket team is mired in shame.

John Freeman, editor of the magazine, followed serendipitous, word-of-mouth leads and suggestions from the likes of the author, Patrick French to The Wire writer, Richard Price, to commission the 18 featured pieces. He gave the writers an open, unboundaried brief. What he received was some exquisitely-crafted pieces aboutdoomed love, teen romance, immigrant nostalgia. More often than not, however, the writing is framed within the unforgiving narratives of political repression, internecine savagery, and terror that overwhelm this collection.

Full review here Independent

Bhutan Literary Festival: Day 2

The Bhutan Literary Festival had an unexpected visitor today when King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the fifth king, said he wanted to meet writers from India. At a hastily convened tea, that included home-made samosas, at India House, the residence of Indian Ambassador Pavan Varma, the king dressed in a traditional black gho and accompanied by the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck who is a published author and a patron of the festival, mingled with writers, finally settling down to an impromptu poetry reading by Gulzar in Varma's drawing room.

Gulzar read his poems in Hindustani while Pavan Varma did the translations in English. The smallish crowd included writer and historian Patrick French whose biography of Francis Younghusband apparently impressed the Queen Mother to such a degree that French and his India-born wife, Meru Gokhale were among the few foreign guests she invited to the king's coronation in 2008.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Naipaul biographer wins US book critics award

Patrick French's account of the life of British writer VS Naipaul, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of VS Naipaul. won the top biography award at the National Book Critics Circle, announed on March 12.

Chilean novelist Roberto Bolano won the top fiction prize for his last novel, 2666. Bolano, who in 2003, won on March 12 for the 2008 English-language translation of his 900-page work set in Mexico. It was first published in 2004.

Six winners were picked from books published in the US in the past year. A 24-member board of the group determines the best books in each category. Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle includes nearly 700 reviewers.

My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, by Ariel Sabar, was the top autobiography.

August Kleinzahler's Sleeping it off in Rapid City and Juan Felipe Herrera's Half of the World in Light shared the poetry prize.

Seth Lerer's Children Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter, won in the criticism category.