Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Monday, October 5th, 2009
Yesterday I was interviewing William Dalrymple at the Henley Literary Festival before a sell-out crowd, (possibly drawn to him rather than me), about his extraordinary new book ‘Nine Lives’ which centres on the spiritual extremism shown by nine individuals within the Indian sub-continent.
Equally impressive was his bibliography where he lists 122 books that helped with his background material. For ‘India Exposed’ I relied solely upon Google, seeking three to four independent sources before committing facts and figures to paper during the six months research, and I wondered over what period he’d read these books and if Google would have shortened the research. It was more an author-to-author question so I saved it till the end of our joint book-signing that followed. Sadly, once his queue finished he rushed off to listen to Rick Wakeman who followed us. That’s rock’n'roll for you.
Our thanks to all who came for their support. May our books bring you pleasure.
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Sunday, September 27th, 2009
Here’s an interview I did recently with Shutterbug Magazine radio in San Diego, California (requires quicktime player – which you can download here for free)
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
The first UK review of ‘India Exposed,’ (over two pages in today’s Daily Mail), is enthusiastic but suggests an inaccuracy in my description of the erotic Tantric carvings at Khajuraho.
Without wishing to be pedantic, if anyone knows about 900 year-old slow sex, it’s me.
Tags: book, review
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Friday, August 21st, 2009
There’s hard sell, soft sell, and there’s Hollywood scriptwriter Ric Hardman. (Or there was, he’s just died). Though better known for saving the career of Tab Hunter, he switched to novel writing and immortally described his Sunshine Rider in 1988 as “a new coming-of-age Western which shows that a man can do what a man’s gotta do and still be a vegetarian”.
Curiously, it never made the screen.
Tags: hollywood, obituary, scriptwriter, Writing
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Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Promoting my new book ‘India Exposed’ involves writing articles and talking talks which demand a killer intro., a first paragraph that will grip the audience.
(Former colleague Vincent Mulchrone of the Daily Mail, the King of Intro’s, produced his best on the eve of the 1966 World Cup when he wrote, ‘West Germany may beat us at our national sport today, but that would be only fair. We beat them twice at theirs.’)
But what subject could adequately introduce the anarchistic, archaic, madness that is India, where half the nation ignore the red tape created by the other half, creating a billion-strong circus that somehow works?
Salvation came today with news of Punjab taxi driver Harpreet Dev who in 2003 found his Fiat drove only in reverse so – being Indian – he adapted the gear box to have four reverse gears and one forward, painted ‘Back Gear Champian’ on the side, and now drives only backwards at speeds up to 50 mph, thanks to a special government licence to reverse anywhere in the State. Thanks Harpreet.
Tags: India, intro, Writing
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
That’s it, then. News photography is dead. So says a spokesman for the owners of the Gamma Agency of Paris, who have just filed for bankruptcy – and they didn’t come much better than Gamma. Maybe I’ll end up demonstrating the old skills to school parties at some provincial craft museum as they superglue me to my milking stool. More from Gamma’s eulogy here
Talking of death, the Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, has written of life in protective custody since threats from the Camorra in 2006 when his mafia exposé ‘Gomorrah’ was published. Moving writing in beautiful English from a man who, despite a team of armed guards and forever on the move, can die at any moment.
While soldiers face the same, they have occasional lulls in battle or R&R behind the lines; not for Saviano who, at twenty nine, faces an open-ended 24/7 threat of execution for writing the truth in a First World democracy. Read the full article here.
Tags: gamma, news
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