Bibliofile

Trevor Fishlock, author of two amusing and observant books on India—India File and Cobra Road—is back in India but not for another book. He has been hired by Cox & Kings to accompany a group of British tourists. All the dry-humoured author has to do, apart from answering questions on the mysteries that are India, is to deliver five lectures to the privileged lot. Will one of them be on his theory about how India breaks down the stiffest-lipped traveller and reduces him to temper tantrums?

Manil Suri, whose The Death of Vishnu is now being hailed in London as the literary debut of the year, is still overwhelmed by his "reincarnation" as a writer in India. From the pan-wallah near his parents’ apartment house in Mumbai, to the bania, the tailor, the Xerox shop owner to even the vegetable seller, all have heard of his book, thanks to the media blitz. "The story," he recalls in The Daily Telegraph, "seemed to demand guilt...but my residents began to hack their own paths through the story".