Bibliofile

Sir V For Vendetta

The vendetta launched by the Naipauls against his once-authorised biographer has left the unflappable Patrick French unmoved. When Bibliofile asked for his reaction to the Naipauls’ scathing aspersions in the London Times, this is what he had to say: “Naipaul cooperated with me throughout the research and writing of The World is What It Is. He had a complete copy of the manuscript for over a month, at the end of which he did not ask for any deletions. Lady Naipaul asked for some additions, which I made. She agreed on the final manuscript with Vidia’s agent, his publisher and myself in London on December 19, 2007. So I don’t know where this is coming from.”

Cloud-Capped Stars

These days it looks like there is a star Pakistani writer under every rock you overturn. After the emergence of the little-known Daniyal Mueenuddin as an exciting voice in English fiction, it’s now the turn of a 79-year-old ex-bureaucrat, Jamil Ahmad. A discovery of Penguin India, his collection of stories on the tribal areas on the Pak-Afghan border, The Wandering Falcon, touted as the next Kite Runner, is hitting bookshops early next year.