Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is one of the UK's most famous and highly-acclaimed authors. An essayist and fiction writer, he was born in Bombay, but moved to England in his youth and now divides his time between the UK and New York...
He frequently returns to the Indian subcontinent in his work however, most notably his magical realist novel, Midnight's Children, for which he was awarded the Booker Prize, and which was subsequently selected as the 'Booker of Bookers' in 1993 - the best novel to be awarded the Booker Prize in its first 25 years.
He is perhaps most widely known however, for the virulent criticism he received following the publication of his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. Following death threats and a call for his execution from the then-leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, Rushdie was forced into hiding, appearing in public only sporadically. His most recent novel, Shalimar the Clown, was published in 2005.
On the show, Salman Rushdie discusses the divisions between the Muslim and Western worlds, the current debate over the wearing of the veil, and his views on it. He also discusses India and Pakistan, in particular how his frequent subject - the 'beautiful, mystical' Kashmir has changed over the years, and whether having a price on his head in the form of a fatwa influenced his writing. (In fact, he remarks; "I didn't really notice that".) He says of his work, "People might find this hard to believe, but I never set out to write a political novel. I set out, essentially to tell a love story."
Shalimar the Clown is priced £17.99, as is available from all good bookshops now.
