Bibliofile

Typographical errors are usually the bane of most publishers. But they may prove a boon for some. Editors in Penguin are praying fervently for a rich crop of typos in Patrick French’s new travelogue/history book, Tibet, Tibet, to be launched by rival Harper Collins in March. If there are as many in this book as there were in his first book, Liberty and Death, French has threatened to cross over to the Penguin stable.

French seems more intimidated by the dress regulations imposed by Delhi’s Gymkhana Club—where he is currently staying with his wife and three young children—than about accepting an offer to write the biography of the world’s prickliest writer, V.S. Naipaul. He not only dared to keep Sir Vidia on hold for several months till he finished his Tibet, Tibet, but even got Naipaul to agree to all his terms for doing the biography. The terms: full access to all archives, no interference and no pre-reading/censoring. Writing the biography (to be ready in four years) has already yielded its moments. The day, for example, when an autograph-hunter met the notoriously unsocial Nobel litterateur. After Naipaul had dutifully signed the book, French asked slyly: "Do you think she will ever read it?" Naipaul was unruffled: "Did you see the way she was holding the book? It was a batsman’s grip, not a reader’s."