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The Latest Breaking News from VS Naipaul

Pankaj Mishra: ‘VS Naipaul taught me you can write about your country with honesty’

The Indian writer on Hobsbawm, Russian fairytales – and the complete works of Jackie Collins

The Guardian - UK

Ram Mandir: A tug at long civilisational memory, discounted by some

It isn’t surprising that a large section of the western commentariat is ill-equipped to grasp the exuberant and deep resonance of the Indian populace with the Ram Mandir inauguration in Ayodhya. The inability to do so is often a case of lack of frames; the blinkered view missing most of…

Newslaundry

Friday essay: a poet, a disciplinarian, an illiterate grandfather – writers reflect on the teachers who shaped them

What does a writer’s education look like? Is it access to books, regular letter-writing, difficulty in childhood (war, illness, a brutal boarding school)? What talent or disposition primes the young writer for their training? In the push and pull of nature versus nurture, a key element is the right teacher,…

The Conversation

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

Patrick French: the biographer of VS Naipaul was a generous collaborator with twinkling wit

The writer and historian, who has died aged 56, was not only widely respected for his writing on India but a kind and optimistic man, says fellow academic Maya Jasanoff

The Guardian - UK

In Patrick French, the world has lost an important chronicler of lives

It was in the second half of 1997 that I first came across Patrick French’s work. I was a bit late; French was already two books old by then. Oddly, I learned of his work through an interview with him published in the Sunday supplement of an English daily. It…

Newslaundry

Patrick French, renowned biographer of VS Naipaul and India, dies aged 56

French is described by friends and peers as an ‘unfailingly generous’ human being whose writing about sensitive and complex issues surrounding India was widely admired

The Independent UK

Author Patrick French passes away

Author Patrick French, who is best known for writing the biographies of Sir Vidia Naipaul and Francis Younghusband, died on March 16, 2023 in London. He was 57 years old and was suffering from cancer.

The Times of India

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Kevin Jared Hosein: ‘The 1940s in Trinidad was like the wild west’

The teacher and writer on a golden age for Caribbean writers, editing in bed, and his encounter with VS Naipaul

The Guardian - UK

Paul Theroux: ‘Writing is a blood sport. One does have differences with people’

The prolific novelist and travel writer is 81 but shows no signs of slowing down. He talks about adventure, criticism… and that memoir by his ex-wife

The Guardian - UK

How Salman Rushdie has been a scapegoat for complex historical differences

The Chautauqua Institution, southwest of Buffalo in New York State, is known for its summer lectures – and as a place where people come seeking peace and serenity. Salman Rushdie, the great writer and influential public intellectual, had spoken at the centre before.

The Conversation

‘The pendulum has swung’: Why we female Trinidadian writers are having our moment

Monique Roffey, the Costa-winning author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, on the lit-boom that’s happening on the Caribbean island

The Guardian - UK

The Guardian view on Trinidad writers: women take the lead

Editorial: The latest shortlist for the Women’s prize for fiction is a show of strength for a small island

The Guardian - UK

Run and Hide by Pankaj Mishra review – a lyrical letter from the new India

The author’s first novel in 20 years explores the modern values of Modi’s India and the transnational lives of its influential elite

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