Bibliofile

Among the first to turn fact on its head and transform it into blockbuster thrillers was Larry Collins, who died of a cerebral haemorrhage on June 20, aged 75. The American journalist and his French doubles partner, Dominique Lapierre, became household names in India when they sold the Indian rights of their 1975 book, Freedom at Midnight, to Vikas, sparking off a paperback revolution here. They spent what was then considered an unheard amount of money—300,000 dollars—in researching their book on the last leg of India's freedom struggle, even bringing the only surviving assassin of Gandhi, Vishnu Karkare, back to India to reconstruct the events leading to Gandhi's killing. They broke one of the most pervasive publishing myths with that book—that it has to sell well in the UK to make the authors rich and famous. Sales in the UK were apparently much lower than in other countries, including India, where it continues to be a perennial bestseller.

One of the worst insults you can offer a writer is to suggest launching their books in the summer months of May and June. With even dedicated litpartygoers defeated by Delhi's 45°C temperature, no publisher dares to consider holding a book party. But Roli's Pramod Kapoor decided to brave the heat and hold a five-star mother-of-all-summer-book-parties for the celebration of an annual award by the Federation of Indian Publishers. This year's award for excellence in book publication went to Roli.