Bibliofile

The Agent’s Secret
It may be gloomy times for the trade, but not for British literary agent David Godwin. Surely this must rank as his luckiest year in business—first he sold Sarita Mandanna’s debut novel Tiger Hills to Penguin India for a record advance, and then proceeded to break his own record by selling them Vikram Seth’s proposal for a "jump sequel" to A Suitable Boy. But the real story is not how Godwin managed to sell Seth’s new novel proposal to Penguin UK for a reported £1.7 million, but how he got Seth on his list at all. In Seth’s case, it’s the agent who has to prove himself worthy to be hired. A previous agent, Giles Gordon had to submit to a grilling by Seth on literature before he was hired. Godwin, alas, refuses to divulge what he finally did to convince Seth to cross over.

Last Summer’s Wine
If you’re wondering, as we are, where Penguin is finding the money for the fat advances despite falling sales, the answer probably lies in the 2008 figures, when Penguin UK had their best year, as did Atlantic and Canongate. In India the growth spurt is still on, with Penguin launching yet another imprint, Hamish Hamilton, with Arundhati Roy’s new collection of political essays, Listening to Grasshoppers and Pakistan’s Ali Sethi’s debut novel, The Wish Maker.

All These Writers
If you thought book launches were a vulgarism invented in the ’90s, think again. Raj Thapar, in her deliciously gossippy memoir, All These Years, recounts how Sheila Dhar succumbed to the temptation of a book launch in the ’70s, inviting not one but three ministers to launch This India.