Bibliofile

One man who doesn’t have to stoop to invent an alter ego to sell his books is Iraq’s most famous closet writer, Saddam Hussein. Of his two romantic novels, Zabibah and The King and The Fortified Castle, the first was adapted into a six-hour musical and the second became an instant bestseller. Now Iraqi bookstores are full of his first non-fiction. Men and the City is the first volume of Hussein’s autobiography under his famous pen-name, Written By He Who Wrote It. It covers his life up to age 22. As one would expect, the book is a mix of sentimental reminiscences like "She told me stories while her loving hands played with my hair...", some half-truths and sometimes, plain lies.

WB. Yeats’ last wish in life was to visit the land of the Upanishads, whose philosophy shaped his poetry, especially A Vision. It fell to daughter Ann to dissuade her ailing father. Sixty-four years after his death, the Irish poet with a Hindu soul was the centre of a celebration at the Irish embassy. The occasion: to launch Dr Shalini Sikka’s book, Yeats and the Upanishads.