Transgender Resource Centre’s founder and head Priya Babu is all smiles. After two years of initially conceptualising her dreams of running a magazine for members of the transgender community, she has finally succeeded, she says.
“Trans News is finally live,” she announces.
Her Tamil and English e-magazine, which shines light on transgender history, trans rights, cinema, fashion and even has segments on health, make up and cooking, is sure to help more people see the achievements of the community, she says. The e-magazine was born in a home-cum office in Madurai.
Priya hopes that the magazine helps break stereotypes and provides the community a space to voice their opinion. The magazine features trans writers and trans models. It has a section to alert the community on job availability and an online shop to showcase the products sold by transgender persons.
“What began two years ago as a means to document our daily lives is now seeing the light of the day. We too need a space to showcase our beauty, our history and our role in society. I hope this magazine helps,” she says.
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‘Aval Nangai’
Priya has been an advocate of trans rights for almost two decades. Her organisation- Transgender Resource Centre in Madurai- has 170 books on members of the community. The centre has also documented news clippings of the community, to ensure that it can be used for research. Priya is also a filmmaker and regularly engages with students across Tamil Nadu about the rights of members of the trans community.
Although she has helped write books and has made a documentary film on trans rights, she says that she found the need to create a platform to record their daily thoughts and to capture the mood of the current times.
Priya Babu, head of Transgender Resource Centre and chief editor of Trans News
“I had earlier registered a magazine titled ‘Aval Nangai’ [She’s a Woman], hoping to create a print edition of the magazine. All the base work and the registration of the title was done. However, Covid-19 hampered all the preparation that we had done. We then decided to convert it to an e-magazine. Our writers all approved and we were ready to go,” she says.
Priya says that articles will be updated every three days to ensure variety.
The magazine’s writers include Padmini Prakash from Coimbatore, Viji from Chennai and Jeeva Rangaraj from Chennai, who will be regular contributors in Tamil. “A number of student volunteers have shown interest in helping us so they will be in-charge of translations. Secretary of TRC, Mahalakshmi Raghavan, will take a final look at our English version,” she says.
The magazine’s beauty segment features six trans women showcasing different ways of doing makeup. “I feel like the magazine will be an instrument in encouraging more people from our community to come forward and write, model and share their lives,” she says.
A photo shoot for Trans News magazine
Way forward
Priya says that the magazine’s first edition was created without any help from professionals. This home-grown brand hopes to evolve into a strong voice and lead the way for several other trans people to take charge of their own narrative.
In her first editorial note she writes, “Of course, the journey was not a bed of roses, it was filled with thorns of bullies, discrimination, economical crisis and abuses. This magazine aims at the future generation should not face the difficulties we have faced, so through our pen we are trying to root out the thorns in the path to reach their destination.”
Production company Excel Entertainment issued a statement on Friday announcing that changes will be made to the scene in Mirzapur 2 that features author Surender Mohan Pathak’s book Dhabba.
The decision comes after the author wrote a letter complaining about the way his work was portrayed in the scene.
Apologising to Pathak, creator and writer of Mirzapur 2 Puneet Krishna wrote, “It has been brought to my notice by you that there is a scene in the recently released series – Mirzapur Season 2 – which depicts a character named Satyanand Tripathi, reading a book named ‘Dhabba’ which as been written by you and this depiction is supplemented with an unrelated voiceover (VO) which has hurt your sentiments and the sentiments of your fans and well-wishers.
We sincerely apologize for the same and would like to convey to you that this was not done with any malicious intent or to tarnish/damage your reputation. We are aware that you are a writer of repute and your work is held in high regard in the world of Hindi crime fiction.
We would like to assure you that to rectify this situation, as discussed with you and as per your wishes, we will blur the book-cover in the scene or remove the VO within a reasonable time of 3 weeks.
Once again, please accept our sincerest apologies for inadvertently hurting your sentiments.”
Pathak responded to the statement and wrote, “We thank you for considering our letter and for your reply. We accept your apology and expect that the rectification will take place within the 3 weeks’ time as requested by you.”
The controversial scene shows actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda reading Pathak’s work with a voiceover that is unrelated to the book. On Tuesday, the author issued a statement against the makers of the show and claimed that the voiceover in the scene is ‘sheer porno’. He wrote, “The object appears to be an attempt to tarnish my image as a celebrated writer of Hindi crime fiction who is ruling the roost since last several decades. The sequence defames me as an author and puts me in bad light as a well-known mystery writer which I am since more than the last five decades.”
The author also threatened to take legal action against the makers of Mirzapur 2 if they did not change the scene within a week.
When India became independent in 1947 after 200 years of the British rule, it limped past its bloody history of Partition and riots. Spanning 1,349 pages, Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy brings to life snippets of this history.
Although it is set against the backdrop of a newly independent India of the 1950s, Seth draws inspiration from the times when he was penning the novel- 1992- at a time when India was witness to devastating riots over the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The incidents are echoed in the novel, in the way the Raja of Marh builds a Shiva temple next to the old mosque in the fictional town of Brahmpur.
Twenty seven years after the novel was published, Netflix and BBC released a web series based on Seth’s book, in the same name. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mira Nair, the six-episode series depicts the mammoth historic novel with a more romantic and modern flair.
Similar to Seth’s novel, the Netflix original and BBC One production, A Suitable Boy is set in 1951 and is divided into two main storylines based on the families- Khan, Kapoor, Mehra and Chatterji.
The episodes unravel across three cities- Calcutta, Lucknow and Brahmpur. The story revolves around Mrs Rupa Mehra (Mahira Kakkar) and her quest in finding a suitable husband for her 19-year-old daughter Lata (Tanya Maniktala). While the story follows the three suitors for Lata, she refers to her freedom to choose her match when she tells Kabir Durrani (Danesh Razvi): “India is a free country now.”
Lata, who is a student of literature at the University of Brahmpur, resents the idea of her mother choosing her future husband and has plans of her own. Later, though, she realises that her mother is only watching out for her happiness and security.
The three suitors battling belong to three different cities.
In the first episode, Lata’s encounter and love story with Kabir, son of a Mathematics professor in Brahmpur, unfolds. Kabir represents the culture, religion and conflict at Brahmpur. In one of the scenes, Mrs Mehra interrogates Lata about ‘the first boy’ and breaks into nervous cries after finding out that he is Muslim. The second suitor- Amit Chatterji (Mikhail Sen), the elder brother of her sister-in-law Meenakshi (Shahana Goswami), is a poet from Calcutta. The third suitor, Haresh Khanna (Namit Das) is an ambitious shoe manufacturer.
While the end goal is for Lata to select a suitor for marriage, the series respects the novel’s plotline and embeds other stories along. A major chunk of screen time is given to Maan Kapoor (Ishan Khattar), the feckless son of revenue minister of Purva Pradesh Mahesh Kapoor (Ram Kapoor), and his scandalous love story with courtesan singer Saeeda Bai (Tabu).
Nair retains the main flow of the novel, but with a constraint. The entire Shiva temple fiasco and the communal tension is visually well represented but the frames seem hurried. While the novel elaborates on the tense relationship between Mahesh Kapoor and home minister LN Agarwal (Vinay Pathak), the series gives a subtle hint of it and offers no added information, which leaves the viewers confused.
Nair takes cinematic liberty- like in the Holi scene when Maan pushes Agarwal into a fountain, thereby angering the minister. In the novel, it was head of the English department at the Brahmpur University Professor Mishra who was pushed, earning him the name ‘the White Whale’.
The story trails through communal, racial, economic and social aspects of the society back in 1993. The book carries a detailed history of the 110 characters included and introduced in different sections. Each representing their own identity and narration- like Malati (Sharvari Deshpande), Lata’s friend, who is portrayed as a strong character.
The series cuts short the background story of each character, leading to sudden unexplained appearances. Easily flowing into the background and nuance of each character, the main story runs parallel along with the subplots. However, adapting a vast novel into a six-episodes series comes with its own shortcomings.
Netflix released the first trailer of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rajkummar Rao, and Adarsh Gourav’s upcoming film The White Tiger on Wednesday. Adapted from Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name, which won the 40th Booker Prize in 2008, the film marks Adarsh Gourav’s acting debut.
The trailer, which runs for a little over two minutes, touches upon several points from Adiga’s novel, which is a social satire. Gourav plays the role of Balram Halwai, the primary narrator of the story. In the trailer, we get glimpses of Balram’s journey- beginning his journey from the country’s underbelly to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Rao and Chopra Jonas play the role of an NRI couple (Ashok and Pinky), who hire Balram as their chauffeur.
The audience sees a dark depiction of a social uprising with Balram’s character saying, “I am just one who has woken up, while the rest of you are sleeping.”
The film was reportedly shot in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Dhanbad and Agra. It will release in select theatres in December, before premiering on Netflix in January 2021.
Earlier, while talking about the film in a social media post, Chopra Jonas had written: “Balram’s rise from a poor villager to successful entrepreneur in modern India showcases how hunger and the lack of opportunity can build and drive a human being’s animal instinct of survival.”
“Rajkummar Rao, already one of the most prolific actors in India, will showcase depths very few can. The film is powerful. It will make you uncomfortable, and most importantly it will entertain you,” Chopra Jonas had written on Instagram.
Netflix’s The White Tiger has been written, directed, and produced by Ramin Bahrani. The executive producers for the project are Chopra Jonas and Golden Globe Award winner Ava DuVernay.
Adiga had, in fact, dedicated his novel to Bahrani when it was first published. The director has previously helmed films like Fahrenheit 451,99 Homes, At Any Price, Plastic Bad, Goodbye Solo and Chop Shop.
American author Jeff Kinney released the 15th installment of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series The Deep End on Tuesday.
The book is about wimpy kid Greg and his family’s journey on a camping trip. The story revolves around the family’s botched road trip as they find themselves stranded at a recreational vehicle park in the midst of heavy rain and rising water levels. Reportedly, the book may be the last one of the series.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the author released his book at driveways. The launch, which was called ‘The Deep End Drive-Thru Pool Party Tour’ kickstarted in Massachusetts in the US and followed norms of social distancing.
Kinney came up with the book idea and character Greg in 1998 and continued to work on them for nine years before showing it to the publisher. Since its initial publication in 2007, the series has won many regional and national awards around the globe including, two Children’s Choice Book Awards and six Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards for Favorite Book.
His Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal (published last April) and the 14th book in the series- Wrecking Ball (published last November) became bestsellers.
Kinney has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington DC, area and moved to New England in 1995. Kinney lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story.
Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is working on a new film franchise that will be based on the books of bestselling English author Agatha Christie, reported Variety.
Variety reported that the first film, due to start shooting in early 2021, will introduce a young female protagonist who is thrown into solving a murder, and teams up with an unlikely companion to solve the case. Details of which Christie novel is being adapted for the film have not been revealed yet. The cast is being finalised.
Future films will follow the duo as they continue to investigate multiple murder mysteries. The films will be produced by Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) and Bharadwaj.
The filmmaker is renowned for his Shakespeare trilogy- Maqbool, Omkara, and Haider, based on the English bard’s Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet, respectively.
“Agatha Christie had a tremendous skill of defining emotional chaos, dysfunctional relationships and the turmoil in her characters while engaging us in a riveting mystery,” the National Award winning director told Variety. “It is an honor to create an Indian franchise of a pair of young investigators looking to take over the world with their intelligence and charm. ACL have been such amazing partners and we are all excited to be on this journey.”
“I’m truly excited at the prospect of developing a new Agatha Christie film franchise in India, and am delighted to be partnering with Vishal, who is a multitalented and visionary filmmaker with a terrific track record for adapting works to create memorable pieces of cinema,” said Christie’s great grandson James Prichard, who is also the chairman and CEO of ACL.
“(Bhardwaj) has also demonstrated a real passion and understanding of my great grandmother’s characters and stories and I very much look forward to seeing where this project takes us.”
Authors Maryse Condé, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Anne Carson, Javier Marías and Ko Un have been billed as the top contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature this year.
Other authors who are being seen as potential winners of the top honour in the literary world include Yan Lianke, Annie Ernaux, Can Xue, Cormac Mc Carthy, Don De Lillo, Marilynne Robinson, and Jamaica Kincaid.
Nominations of the Nobel Prize are a closely-guarded secret. According to the Nobel Prize Organisation, the statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominations, whether publicly or privately, for 50 years.
In 2020, several analysts have predicted the secret jury to pick a ‘safe choice’ for the prize.
Nobel (1)
(Text Source: Nobel Prize Organisation)
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 was awarded to Austrian author Peter Handke, a decision that prompted severe backlash and criticism due to Handke’s alleged denial of crimes committed by the Serbs during the 1990 war in erstwhile Yugoslavia. In 2018, it was awarded to Polish author Olga Tokarczuk. The announcement for the 2018 and 2019 prizes were made jointly in 2019, since the Nobel was postponed in 2018 over sexual and financial misconduct allegations levelled against an academy member.
Ahead of the announcement, we compile a list of this year’s probable nominations for the top honour.
Maryse Condé – The French novelist, critic, and playwright is best known for her worldwide bestseller Segu. She was awarded the 2018 New Academy Prize for ‘alternative novel’. Her latest novel The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana explores racism through satire.
Lyudmila Ulitskaya – A contemporary Russian novelist and short story author, she is known for her works such as Sonechka, The Green Tent, and several short stories. She was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2014 and her latest work is called Funeral Party.
Haruki Murakami – A man who needs no introduction, Murakami is known for his best-selling works like Kafka on the Shore, 1Q84, Norwegian Wood and more. While the Japanese author had withdrawn his name from the Nobel Prize in 2018, this year fans are expecting him to win.
Margaret Atwood – Canadian poet and novelist, Atwood is known for her new-age hard-hitting writings in books like The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace, The Year of Flood and more. She has won several awards, including the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o – Kenyan novelist, scholar, and playwright, Ngũgĩ writes about resistance, justice, and his political beliefs. His work includes A Grain of Wheat, the River Between, Petals of Blood and more. He abandoned English and primarily wrote in his native tongue Gikuyu.
The Nobel is given to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, according to the words of Alfred Nobel’s will.
Priyanka Chopra took to social media on Saturday to announce that her book Unfinished has become the number one best-seller in the US in less than 12 hours.
Thank you all for taking us to number 1 in the US in less than 12 hours! I hope you all love the book. ❤️ https://t.co/HHckbxxRSv
Though the book will be available from January 19, 2021, pre-orders have started on Amazon. On Friday, the actor-cum-producer unveiled the cover of her memoir on Instagram. “Ironically, I named this memoir years before I started writing it. Having been a public person now for 20 years, with so much life to live and a long list of things to check off my list personally and professionally, I am very much #Unfinished. BUT the funny thing about writing a memoir is that it forces you to look at things differently, reconciling so many things you thought you had put to bed. In doing so I’ve realized that being ’unfinished’ has deeper meaning for me, and has in fact been one of the most common threads of my life,” she wrote.
The Sky is Pink actor hopes that after reading her book, fans will get the same motivation to “pick up, walk away, leave things unfinished and move on”. In another post, she wrote that her life wasn’t a fairytale and that she learned not to shy away from change.
“My parents taught me at a very young age to have courage of conviction, and I’ve never been ambivalent about this. I have always been guided by my curiosity, drive for challenge, and intrinsic need to constantly evolve and move forward. I have taken many leaps of faith, often times when I was advised not to…and even when I too was afraid,” she said. She also shared video montages of the biggest moments in her life, including winning the Miss World crown in 2000, her wedding, UNICEF visits and more.
The actor, who is in the USA, will be seen in Netflix’s adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger, co-starring Rajkummar Rao. Chopra has also signed two deals with Amazon Prime- Citadel and Sangeet. She will also star in We Can Be Heroes and a film with comedian Mindy Kaling. She also co-produced Amazon Prime Video’s Evil Eye.
Harper Collins has announced the release of a new book, Stoned, Shamed, Depressed by Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava. The book is a study of India’s teenagers and speaks of the lives of young people in the internet era. Touted as “an explosive account of the secret lives of India’s teens”, the book aims at offering an insight into the minds of young people and what drives them.
According to a release from the publisher, the writer “investigates the secret lives of India’s urban teens and comes up with an eye-opening account – of struggles with addiction to substances, social media and gaming, dealing with intense peer pressure, bullying and body shaming and the resultant physical and mental health issues.”
The book has accounts from the teenagers themselves and also features inputs from parents, teachers, and child psychologists. The author is a former TV journalist who worked with NDTV for 15 years as a senior news anchor and senior news editor. She also writes for publications both in India and abroad.
Westland has announced the publication of award-winning author Perumal Murugan’s new novel, Estuary (Kazhimugam in Tamil). The book has been translated from the Tamil into English by Nandini Krishnan and will be published on 20 July under Westland’s language imprint, Eka.
Estuary explores the human condition—the pathos, helplessness, anguish, and the frustration of failure and the near-insanity to which it can drive someone—through the endearing story of a father and son.
Murugan’s first novel in an urban setting, it is also a razor-sharp parody of everything from e-commerce to the fitness industry, art appreciation to political manipulation, grind schools to social networks, plagiarism to moral policing, religion to legalese.
Commenting on the new book, Perumal Murugan said in a statement released to the press, “This is my first novel which is not set in the countryside. Writing about a town and urban experience gave me the thrill of entering and exploring a new world.”
Nandini Krishnan the translator said, “Translating Murugan’s work is as much a challenge as a delight. He is a Tamil scholar, a craftsman of language and narrative, and a son of his soil. I was often in a dilemma—should I go with literal translation, or take ownership of the book and translate the tone and flavour of his language? I would consult him about this. I will cherish our conversations about the translation, because I had a glimpse of Perumal Murugan, the professor. He would take me to the interior villages of Tamil Nadu with evocative description, and could never resist speaking about the etymology of words and idioms. I believe these conversations gave me the tools to capture the lyricism and imagery that are as integral to his writing as his skill as a storyteller.”
Perumal Murugan is the author of eleven novels, five collections of short stories and five anthologies of poetry in Tamil. Three of his novels translated into English—Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat,Trial by Silence and A Lonely Harvest—were shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature in 2018 and 2019.
His other novels translated into English include Seasons of the Palm, shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize in 2005, Pyre, Current Show and One Part Woman. Murugan is now the principal at the Government Arts College in Namakkal.
HarperCollins India has acquired the global rights to actor Lillete Dubey’s memoir that will be published in 2021. The untitled non-fiction book will mark the actor’s debut as an author. The actor is best known for her work in Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like A Man, one of India’s longest running English plays. A few of her memorable roles in movies have been in Monsoon Wedding, Zubeidaa, Baghban, Kal Ho Naa Ho, and The Lunchbox. She has also worked in the British film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel.
About the book, the actor said, “This will be a memoir that explores my theatrical journey of over four decades and my experiences as an actor for the past 20 years in films and television, both national and international. Both these journeys were unusual choices at the time and both very different from the norm in a sense. From the exuberant 1970s to this unimaginably altered, almost dystopian world that we have inherited after Covid-19, it is both the tracing of a professional life where passion ruled all, and the inextricable connection that it always had with my personal life, and how these two mirrored and informed each other.”
Known for her work in theatre, both nationally and internationally, Lillete Dubey has garnered critical acclaim for her on screen presence too. She is also a theatre director and is the founder of The Primetime Theatre Company. Her memoir will be about her craft: theatre and cinema. The book will also be interspersed with anecdotes about life-defining personal moments together with the experiences and anecdotes of working with an incredible array of talents and personalities.
Krishan Chopra, Publisher, HarperCollins said, “Lillete Dubey’s forthcoming memoir of her four-decade career in theatre and films is one that anyone will relate to. It provides a deep look at the world of entertainment and its passionate and talented inhabitants.”
Commissioning editor of the book, Ananya Borgohain, added, “While Lillete Dubey is unanimously admired by theatre and cinema lovers, this book will widen her audience as she shall be offering life lessons to a younger generation, drawing inspiration from her craft and years of interacting and collaborating with some of the most creative minds in India. This book will be a profound contribution to performing arts in our country and by publishing it, we also hope to encourage more Indian parents to let their children pursue this discipline professionally.”
HarperCollins India has launched a limited series of digital-only short stories, eSingles, by bestselling author Ravinder Singh. These are among a handful of works to be launched during the lockdown that has hit the publishing industry pretty hard. In a statement, the publishing house said these are, “Quick reads that will cheer you up and bring you hope in trying times.” The ‘eSingles’ will be released on Kindle, Google Play and, Juggernaut.in.
“Co-authored by some of the most promising new voices in English fiction in India, each eSingle explores a different facet of modern love and relationships. In My Ex, a man runs into the only woman he has ever loved and gets a chance to find answers to questions he’s spent years asking. In My Mother’s Boyfriend, a marriage falls apart, and a question arises – can you find love again in your twilight years? A Kiss in the Air brings us the thrill of the chase and the excitement of finding a connection with a stranger,” according to the statement.
The series will reportedly have a periodic weekly release over the next couple of months, one fresh eSingle to be released every Friday.
Ravinder Singh said, ‘I’m excited about the e-singles series. The consumption of short-format content is on the rise across all mediums. There is a demand for quick reads, and these e-singles give me an opportunity to bring more stories to my readers, within a shorter timeframe. This, while I continue to write my next novel at the same time. Also, this is a great format for non-readers who want to read, but are intimidated by novels that are 300-odd pages long.’
Swati Daftuar, Senior Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins said, ‘Now, more than ever, we are turning to the written word, to books and stories that offer hope and solace. And with these e-singles, Ravinder Singh offers us exactly that – a balm for the soul. These are quick reads that are so absolutely satisfying and comforting, so perceptive in the way they portray love and its many faces and forms. These are stories you’ll be able to access, start, and finish in those small pockets of time you get for yourself between daily chores and work meetings. They’ll bring their readers both joy and hope, and what better time than now to publish stories that do that?’
The first eSingle in the series, My Ex, co-authored by Ravinder Singh and Ruchi Kokcha, released on 29th May. The blurb for this story reads thus: “Years ago, Ishita broke Vinay’s heart. Now, fate has brought them together again. For a long time, Vinay has asked himself the same questions over and over again – why did she leave him? What went wrong? Was their love not strong enough? Now, he has a chance to find the answers he’s been searching for. But is he ready to face the truth?” The eSingle is priced at Rs. 49.
Kalki Krishnamurthy’s Ponniyin Selvan is among the most read Tamil works of all time. The novel initially appeared as serialised fiction in Kalki magazine starting in 1950 for over three years, and has caught the imagination of several generations of Tamils. Mani Ratnam is now attempting to recreate it’s magnificence on the big screen, with a stellar cast.
Ponniyin Selvan
Ponniyin Selvan is also most famous for artist Maniam’s iconic art that lent the characters great depth and fandom. To this day, his artwork evokes the magic and grandeur of the novel, and is used as the cover image for the perennially bestselling books as well. From when the story first unfolded, from the very first episode, artist Maniam’s work accompanied the story.
In a new video, his son, artist Maniam Selven, talks about his impressions of these images. “From an artist’s point of view, the narration by Maniam Selvan, describes the varied attributes of the characters such as gait, appearance, hair styles, costumes, body language, facial expressions and compositions to name a few. In this video, two of the main characters are described. Princess Kundavai. Hero and Warrior Vandiyathevan,” the description of the video reads.
Videos on other important characters Nandini, Aditya Karikalan and Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar, will follow next.
For nearly 13 years, fans have been waiting for some kind of announcement from author Stephanie Meyers about her book Midnight Sun, the fourth book in the bestselling Twilight series. The book, a prequel, is told from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the main man/vampire.
The author took to her website to make an announcement with a countdown clock and on Monday, her website crashed because of the influx of traffic. In the statement, the writer mentioned the release date, the events planned around the book, as well as her writing process.
midnight sun cover
“I hope this announcement doesn’t seem ill-timed; I really considered delaying the release until the world was back to normal. However, 1) who knows when that will be? And 2) you guys have waited long enough. Much longer than long enough, actually.” Her statement said, referencing the long wait for the book.
The Twilight Series – Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn – follows the story of Edward Cullen , a vampire, and Bella Swan, a human teenage girl. The story of the novel apparently came to the author in a dream. The books have sold over a 100 million copies. Midnight Sun releases on 4 August.
Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore born on this day in 1861 was a polymath who wrote, painted as well as composed.
Read this poem on freedom which rings just as true for our times as it did for his.
***
Freedom from fear is the freedom I claim for you my Motherland!—fear, the phantom demon shaped by your own distorted dreams;
Freedom from the burden of the ages, bending your head, breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning call of the future;
Freedom from the shackles of slumber wherewith you fasten yourself in night’s stillness, mistrusting the star that speaks of truth’s adventurous path;
Freedom from the anarchy of destiny whose sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds, and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as Death;
Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet’s world, where movements are started through brainless wires, repeated through mindless habits; where figures wait with patience obedience for a master of show, to be stirred into a moment’s mimicry of life.
The following verses are from Manimekalai, a Tamil Buddhist epic, generally dated around 5th Century CE. It follows the life of Manimekalai, who is the daughter of Madhavi from Silappathikaram (the premier epic in Tamil literature).
O’ Gallant conqueror of Lust,
Eliminator of hateful doctrines,
Great one who strives to do right to men,
Ancient one who doesn’t yearn for heaven,
One who is unperturbed by others thoughts,
Wise One who helps others obtain wisdom,
One whose ears block hateful words,
One whose tongue utters only truth,
One who went to hell to redeem the sinners,
One who eradicates the misery of Nagas,
To praise thy hallowed feet, instead of worshiping,
will be impertinent of my tongue to do,
said the beautiful damsel…
A goddess, Deeva Thilakai takes Manimekalai to the Gomukhi pond on the auspicious day of Vaikasi Visakha (Buddha Poornima?). They pray to Buddha and go around the pond. Manimekalai is given the ‘Amudha Surabhi’ (never empty food bowl) which will satiate the hunger of all living beings.
On receiving the bowl, she is happy and praises Buddha. “You conquered the God of Lust (who tried to disturb Buddha’s meditation under the Bodhi tree). You eliminate the hateful doctrines and show us the true path. You try to do right to all men. You are beyond hell and heaven, having attained true Nirvana. So you don’t yearn for heaven. Others thoughts don’t reach and disturb you. You are the wise one who gives wisdom to others. Your ears close to hateful speech. Your tongue utters only the truth. You visited hell to redeeem sinners there. (Buddha is supposed to have visited Hell in one of his births to redeem the sufferers there). You’ve walked the country of Nagas (South India?) to eradicate their misery. It will be impertinent of my tongue to praise your hallowed feet. I should only bow down and worship you”.
The original in Tamil:
மாரனை வெல்லும் வீர நின்அடி
தீநெறிக் கடும்பகை கடிந்தோய் நின்அடி
பிறர்க்குஅறம் முயலும் பெரியோய் நின்அடி
துறக்கம் வேண்டாத் தொல்லோய் நின்அடி
எண்பிறக்கு ஒழிய இறந்தோய் நின்அடி
கண்பிறர்க்கு அளிக்கும் கண்ணோய் நின்அடி
தீமொழிக்கு அடைத்த செவியோய் நின்அடி
வாய்மொழி சிறந்த நாவோய் நின்னடி
நரகர் துயர்கெட நடப்போய் நின்அடி
உரகர் துயரம் ஒழிப்போய் நின்அடி
வணங்குதல் அல்லது வாழ்த்தல்என் நாவிற்கு
அடங்காது என்ற ஆயிழை…
Notes:
In the Tamil verse, every line ends with ‘hallowed feet’. I have used it only once, to read easy in English. Na.Mu.Venkatasamy Naattar in his commentary helpfully says “Since Manimekalai was overcome with joy, she kept repeating hallowed feet in every line. We can take it at the end of her felicitations”.
வாழ்த்த வயதில்லை வணங்குகிறேன் – ‘I’m not old enough to praise you, so I worship you’ is a cliched sentence in Tamil Nadu political oratory in the last decade. So when I found that this phrase had its origin in an epic written 1500 years ago, I was extremely pleased. One keeps finding such nuggets as one explores Tamil literature.
மாரன் – God of Love / Lust
தீநெறி – தீய நெறி – hateful doctrines
கடும்பகை – strong enmity
நின் அடி – your (hallowed) feet
கடிந்தோய் – கடிதல் – removal / elimination
துறக்கம் – heaven
எண்பிறக்கு ஒழிய – பிறரது எண்ணங்கள் தீண்ட முடியாத உயரத்தில் – not touched by others thoughts
இறந்தோய் – one who has given up
கண் பிறர்க்கு – wisdom to others
கண்ணோய் – கண்ணோட்டம் உடையவன் – One who is wise
தீமொழி – hateful words
செவி – ear
வாய்மொழி – வாய்மை + மொழி – true words
நாவோய் – நா + உடையவன் – tongue
நரகர் – sinners
உரகர் – Nagas
வணங்குதல் – Bow / Worship
வாழ்த்தல் – Praise / Bless
நாவிற்கு அடங்காது – my tongue should not do
ஆயிழை -girl wearing beautiful jewels / damsel / woman
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe broke the Internet, as they say these days. A video of the actor reading the first chapter of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (aka Philosopher’s Stone) is evoking nostalgia of all sorts across the globe.
As part of the ‘Harry Potter at Home’ series of Wizarding World, the actor is reading the book. “Daniel will be the first of many exciting contributors to help us read through the first Harry Potter book, as he introduces the Dursleys, who don’t like anything mysterious. Enter a cat reading a map, owl-filled skies and whispers about the Potters. So, get comfy and enjoy! You can register with the Harry Potter Fan Club to get all the latest updates on further video readings too,” the website said, “Harry Potter At Home is the Wizarding World’s way of bringing Hogwarts closer to you, as we all continue to stay at home and keep safe.”
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“Stephen Fry, David Beckham, Dakota Fanning, Claudia Kim, Noma Dumezweni, and Eddie Redmayne are amongst the cast of narrators, with more surprises and special appearances from across the Wizarding World and beyond to come. Each will be reading different sections of this iconic book – with its themes of family, friendship, courage and overcoming adversity – to families around the world,” according to Wizarding World.
Find the video of Daniel Radcliffe’s reading here.
Seema Sonik Alimchand’s new book Jubilee Kumar The Life and Times of a Superstar, the biography of Bollywood actor Rajendra Kumar, published Hachette India, offers a rare inside peek at the life of a little-known big star.
In conversation with Silverscreen India, Seema talks about the process of writing about Rajendra Kumar, her insights on the actor, what his life was like, and more.
In her foreword to the book, Dimple Rajendra Patel. Rajendra Kumar’s daughter says, somewhat wistfully that not much is remembered by the young today of the man once called Jubilee Kumar. When you began work on the book, how interested were you in the life of the actor and how much did you know?
Born in a film family and due to my mother’s love for films, I had watched most films including those that starred Rajendra Kumar. I knew of Rajendraji’s basic life story, and of a few rumors. Also, I remember seeing him on a flight to the USA in the late 1990s, and was thrilled when he returned my greeting. Little did I know that one day I’d write his biography.
Seema Sonic Alimchand
Thereafter, often times the thought came to mind that I should approach his family but I let it slip until Dimple herself contacted me in 2017 and a story revealed itself from within the simplicity of his life journey. Jubilee Kumar-Rajendra Kumar’s struggle to get a foothold in the film industry, his resilience, his gratitude, his stardom, his knack of recognising winners and, his playing to the audience as the good son the good husband, the good doctor made for an inspiring biography.
You have written two other biographies, what were you able to channel from those experiences here? While authorised biographies come with the blessings of the person being written about or their family, they have their own restrictions. For instance, about the somewhat controversial things? How do you deal with this?
Rajendra Kumar with wife Shukla Tuli in their first apartment in 1959
There was a common thread in all. The families, especially the children seemed extra cautious, often exchanging warning looks during the interviews. But surprisingly in both Deedara and Jubilee Kumar, Mrs Dara Singh and Mrs Rajendra Kumar were very forthcoming. There seemed to be a comfort level, and a trust factor with me. It was only ethical then that keeping in mind their sentiments and angst (perhaps) I state the truth in as subtle a manner as possible.
Rajendra Kumar’s quote in the book about acting out romance scenes with beautiful women is a rare peek into the actor’s mind, something stars don’t talk about often. (“Imagine when two young people sigh and their breaths merge, when they embrace and feel each other’s heartbeats… For me too, it was a delicate moment. It made me very weak, actually, and almost broke down my defences”) It’s candid and vulnerable…
Yes it is. Watching the videos of Rajendra Kumar talking about his life, one could sense, his honesty, confidence, and his awareness. Vulnerability like he depicted in most of his films might have been a part of his persona too.
Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Sridhar
You write about the morbidity and melancholy that had steeped in, while he played the doctor in Sridhar’s Dil Ek Mandir. The man he recommended for the role went on to win a Filmfare, while he told himself, he was happy with Yousuf saab’s compliments. Was the film hard on him?
He was a star and one of the highest-paid actors at the time. He must have been used to the brickbats along with the bouquets. When Rajendrji was talking about the above incident I saw only matter-of-fact confidence visible on his face. However, actors, I feel choose to act unaffected although in reality, they might be highly sensitive with, fragile ego’s.
Rajendra Kumar’s lines after the song ‘Dost Dost Na Raha’ in Sangam about suffering in silence, written by himself, are a peek into an actor who seemed to care about his role and that character’s image in the audience’s mind, in some deeper manner. Was that the sense you got as well while writing about him? We don’t usually get to see these things about actors who work in commercial cinema.
I think other than the commercials, quality work was of utmost importance to Rajendraji, but he respected his audiences and therefore his image. When working on his biography, Rajendra Kumar’s videos and his family interviews suggested that he was happy and lived the good life. But like leading man Ranbir Kapoor had said on Koffee with Karan, all actors are melancholic.
young RK around 30 years old
When we think of stars, we think of the glamour, the popularity, the wealth. The book recasts them, from the Saira Banu issue to his son’s acting career and struggle with health in the later years. How difficult was it for the family to talk about this? A biography, in that sense, makes and unmakes the myth of an actor, doesn’t it?
Yes it does. Like I said earlier, the family was quite forthcoming even when speaking of Sairaji. Also I believe I managed to tap into the hidden emotions and the unsaid words in Rajendra Kumar’s videos, his wife’s candidness, and his son’s bittersweet memories. You are right when you talk of the fame, wealth, and glamour and having it all, but apart from these Rajendra Kumar the star, like any other human being was made up of his struggles, his deprivations, disillusionments, and weaknesses. In the book, his introspection, his morbidity, his self-belief, his climatic decline, and his bouncing back are his reality too.
Jubilee Kumar_cover spread
All photos courtesy: From the personal archives of the family of Rajendra Kumar
On World Book Day, HarperCollins announced the publication of a unique collection of contemporary poetry, selected and translated by Gulzar. The collection will be out in July 2020.
Speaking about the new collection, Gulzar said in a statement, “A Poem a Day began as a thought – why not have a poem to read for every day of the year, selected from the wonderful Indian poetry that has been written since 1947? I started with some of my favourite poets, but almost before I knew it, we had poetry by 279 different poets writing in as many as 35 languages. I firmly believe that poetry doesn’t know any borders, so, along with poets from Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala, Goa, Odisha, I included poets writing in Tamil in Sri Lanka, in Bangla in Bangladesh and in Urdu and Punjabi in Pakistan. The poems appear in English translation, which is a language that, thanks to our history, a majority of Indians are familiar with. But I wished to make the poems my own, and to write them again in my own way in a language and idiom that is truly our own; therefore I transcreated the poems (except the ones that were originally written in Hindi or Urdu) in Hindustani, the language in which I write. This was a massive project but a very rewarding one too.”
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“The poetry of India can be truly known only if one takes into account the poetry of all its languages. A Poem a Day is my tribute to the many languages of India that happen to be local yet form a part of our national identity,” the poet-lyricist said. “It is also a personal selection of the Indian poetry that contributed to my journey of becoming a poet, and the poetry that I have found the most memorable. I feel we need poetry and the power of words more than ever in the difficult times we are going through; I hope that A Poem a Day will be a companion many of you will want to have by your side as we walk into the future.”
The jury for The JCB Prize For Literature for the year 2020 has been announced. It’s a Rs 25-lakh award presented each year to a work of fiction by an Indian author. “The Prize aims to celebrate Indian writing, and to help readers across the world discover the very best of contemporary Indian literature. It makes significant awards also to translators, without whose work no reader can appreciate the scale and diversity of a literature written in over twenty languages. Authors shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature receive Rs 1 lakh, their translators (if any) Rs 50,000. The winning author receives Rs 25 lakh; if the winning work is a translation, an additional Rs 10 lakh is awarded to the translator.”
The winner of the first edition of the prize was Benyamin’s Jasmine Days translated by Shahnaz Habib. The 2019 winner was The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay.
The jury for the year 2020 features dancer-actor Leela Samson (Chair), author Aruni Kashyap, author and professor Tejaswini Niranjana, playwright and director Ramu Ramanathan, Head of Arts & Culture portfolio, Tata Trusts, Deepika Sorabjee.
The RSL Ondaatje Prize is an ‘annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place’. This year’s judges for the award are Peter Frankopan (Chair), Pascale Petit and Evie Wyld. The Royal Society of Literature, 200 years ‘young’ in 2020 and “is Britain’s charity for the advancement of literature. In addition to the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the RSL runs the
RSL Christopher Bland Prize for best debut from a writer over 50, the Encore Award for best second novel of the year, the V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize, RSL Literature Matters Awards and the RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for NonFiction, as well as regular events, young people’s outreach and research into literature in the UK today.”
The shortlist includes Jay Bernard’s Surge, Tishani Doshi’s Small Days and Nights, Robert Macfarlane’s Underland, Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise, Elif Shafak, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, Jumoke Verissimo’s A Small Silence.
Peter Frankopan described Tishani’s work as ‘An astonishing novel that is beautifully written but underpinned by a quiet simmering anger about injustice and unrealistic expectations of a family – and of life in contemporary India.’
Tishani Doshi was born in the city formerly known as Madras. She has published six books of poetry and fiction and has won numerous
awards including: an Eric Gregory Award for Poetry, All-India Poetry Competition, and the 2006 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
Her debut novel, The Pleasure Seekers was longlisted for the Orange Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She is
Visiting Professor of Practice, Literature and Creative Writing at New York University, Abu Dhabi.
The shortlist for Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize is out now. The prize is ‘an annual cultural event whose purpose is to reconcile international and Indian writers and artists, to bridge cultural differences, promote peace and education.’ The aim is to ‘reward authors whose efforts to promote compassion, tolerance, mutual understanding, have successfully bridged various divides such as class, caste, ethnicity, gender, age, education.’
“The result”, according to the official website, “is a range between internationally renowned and emerging authors, whose flair, virtuosity and imagination” was mesmerising.
The shortlist includes “Varun Thomas Mathew’s dystopian debut, set in a society whose seemingly perfect congruity is kept in check by memory and identity altering technology, Amitav Ghosh’s take on myth and folklore superimposed on the repercussions of globalisation, distressing retelling of the Nirbhaya tragedy by Raj Kamal Jha, Nirmala Govindarajan’s allegory of the modern-day slavery, to the account of a murder during tribal unrest in Shillong by Bijoya Sawian – the relevance is on point. In Sachin Kundalkar’s haunting fiction, translated from the Marathi by Jerry Pinto, longing and betrayal of siblings seduced by the same man are resonant like chords of a musical instrument. The language in Ranjit Hoskote’s masterpiece of lyrical and semantic associations, is nothing less than an object of wonder. Sudeep Sen is selected for his series of innovative pieces, that are exploring in part desire and illness, Rochelle Potkar for her elegant haibun tackling subtly the intimacy of everyday womanhood. Surprisingly mature poetry of Sonnet Mondal is savory, pensive and aesthetically compelling.”
The winner of the Tagore Prize will be announced at the award ceremony. It is expected to take place in New Delhi in October.
The shortlist
Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh, literary fiction
Taboo by Nirmala Govindarajan, literary fiction
Jonahwhale by Ranjit Hoskote, poetry
The City and the Sea by Raj Kamal Jha, literary fiction
Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar translated from Marathi into English by Jerry Pinto, literary fiction
The Black Dwarves of the Good Little Bay by Varun Thomas Mathew, literary fiction
Karmic Chanting by Sonnet Mondal, poetry
Paper Asylum by Rochelle Potkar, haibun
Shadow Men by Bijoya Sawian, literary fiction
EroText by Sudeep Sen, literary fiction, experimental fiction
Serial novels make you think of literature class and a brief history of modern publishing. However, the form itself made a comeback with the blog. It seems now that longform and listicles can co-exist, and there is room for everyone to do as they please with their words.
Serialised novels are popular among Indian language writers and their readers, and some Indian English authors as well. One of the newest novels in the category is Jugal Mody’s These People Are Mad. He is publishing the book on medium.com, and has so far published 23 chapters with the second half of the book in the wings. These People Are Mad is about a group of 20-something men and women on New Year’s Eve 2012, who want to hit up a few parties and engage in gang behaviour.
Jugal has already published Toke, about stoners saving the world from zombies. It was published in 2012 by HarperCollins India. He is an independent web, design and narrative consultant.
Toke Artwork courtesy Svabhu Kohli
In 2015, Jugal also wrote Alia Bhatt’s official mobile game, a narrative adventure set in the Hindi film industry titled Alia Bhatt: Star Life. Jugal was also a consulting editor with the online feminist magazine The Ladies Finger and has worked with Tehelka and Filmfare in the past.
He spoke to Silverscreen exclusively about this latest project:
You’ve been writing for a while now, and even published a book and did mainstream publishing things, so, why did you choose this avenue for your second book?
My agent (Mita Kapur of Siyahi) and I had been butting heads over These People Are Mad for a while. Long story short, she rejected it. I haven’t had the time to revisit it since I fixed a draft in 2014. Recently, I finished a draft of another novel, which is being pitched to publishers as we speak. That gave me some time. The book has been my favourite child for a while now and the characters have haunted me like ghosts. All that combined with this romantic notion I have always had about serialised fiction (since seeing Gujarati serial fiction in Chitralekha as a child) led to me taking the decision of serialising These People Are Mad. Also, since TV comedies have had a huge influence on the writing of the book, it felt apt to release the novel serially as well.
A lot of the introductory chapters speak of these six friends and their dynamic with each other, it was a little reminiscent of Shaitaan with the friends and how they get together with their dares, etc. Have you been inspired by your own gang?
The characters in the novel are a bit too over-the-top “mad” so, no but at the same time, I’m sure some details about people I know as well as myself have seeped into the novel. When I set out to write this, I was sure of two things I wanted to do with the novel. One was to write a party novel (like a party movie) and the second was to write characters that would live up to Jay’s (of Jay and Silent Bob fame) description of characters from John Hughes movies: “All the honeys are top-shelf but all the dudes are whiny pussies.” In fact, that was supposed to be the opening quote in the print version that I had imagined.
The book is set eight years ago. Any reason for it to be that far back in time? Eight years isn’t much, but, in the digital era it seems so far away!
I started writing the book in 2013. For me, it wasn’t about the past but it was about the present that we were living in then. I am often writing for the here and now like it’s going to go away and will never be remembered like how I want it to be remembered. You’re right though, as I am revisiting this book, it does feel like a time capsule from another era.
The book seems very self-aware, like if you’ve watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, you’ll see how the actors are in on the proceedings, seems the same with your book too. Any reason for this?
I love Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! I am crazy jealous of Rachel Bloom’s talents. Honestly, I don’t have a reason for why the characters are so self-aware. For me, they needed to be that much self-aware to be able to participate in the comedic bits that they come up with just like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s characters needed to be self-aware to break into musical numbers.
When I grow up, I want to be Anuja Chauhan. And because she had Shah Rukh Khan in The Zoya Factor, I had to have Shah Rukh Khan in a novel too. Plus, if I had to have a superstar cameo, who else are my characters going to take their love problem to?
How much has American television influenced your writing of this book and the character arcs?
Lots, but, both American and British comedy TV. Firstly, the entire trope of “gang violence” is heavily inspired by Cougar Town where finger guns are a recurring bit and from Spaced where they play with “telepathy guns” in an episode. Secondly, having a group of 20-something guys and girls was such a sitcom staple once. I did try and keep the character arcs grounded in our Indian urban reality but as to the success of that grounding, only you or a reader can tell me.
In a book that features so many people, why did you think it was important to give all of them and their situations context and a backstory?
This is a very slow book. You get to see how each character interacts with the other, how they influence each other’s decisions, the way only close friends can. Plus, there are various comedic bits, some of which are recurring gags and some referencing their past together. I didn’t want the reader to miss out on any of these gags or reasons. At the same time, that was also me trying to document and sometimes parody how a group of friends evolves, how they develop their own language, culture, rituals, rules, etc. By the time the novel ends, I want the reader to be living with the gang in their heads.
We’re done with party 1 and the next event is on the way, have you stuck to prescribed lengths and word counts for general publishing, or have you decided to experiment with the format – x word count, y chapter count, etc?
This “stream” of chapters is not how I had originally imagined the book. The “brief history” chapters were intended as flashbacks that would appear like “boxes” do in a non-fiction book or a textbook. The same with the footnotes, which were to appear at the bottom of each page not at the end of each chapter like they do right now. I wanted the print version of the book to look like a fake textbook. Now, everything is divided into “data packets”. Currently, all chapters are of different lengths. The longest has been a 10-minute read and the shortest has been a 3-minute read. I’m not thinking too much about it and just having fun with it really.
Considering how much Indian content and storytelling is evolving thanks to the emergence of OTT platforms, do you think you will pitch These People Are Mad as a web series? Do you think that would be an organic outcome for this book?
I had shared it with a couple of studios (who had asked for it). They rejected it, one saying it was too cerebral and the other saying it was a dated concept. I was flummoxed by that feedback considering this is a party novel where all people are doing is getting smashed. If someone likes it and picks it up, I’ll be more than happy to cash that check. (God knows writers need money too.)
You can read the chapters of These People Are Mad here
Like every bookish kid, I spent a good deal of my free time reading novels by Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse. The two worlds rarely met – Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple were single-minded, hard-nosed detectives digging up skeletons in family closets, while Bertie Wooster only occasionally paused to read a mystery novel between visits to the Drones Club and dinner with his Aunt Agatha. Never did the possibility of the two meeting – a crossover episode, if you will – strike me.
Ah, but the crossover certainly does exist. The Lord Peter Wimsey series, by Dorothy L Sayers, is what you get if Bertie Wooster acquired the deductive abilities of Hercule Poirot. The younger son of a titled British aristocrat, Lord Peter nevertheless has plenty of money, a collection of rare books and Bunter, a faithful valet who takes photographs of crime scenes when he isn’t making coffee or laying out his master’s suits.
In the first book in the series, Whose Body?, published in 1923, he discovers the true identity of the man found dead in a London architect’s bathtub with a little help from Bunter and a bottle of fine port. Not long after, he clears his brother’s name after he is accused of murder in Clouds of Witness and saves mystery writer Harriet Vane from the gallows in Strong Poison, before solving his very last mystery in Busman’s Honeymoon.
The mysteries themselves have enough action to keep you glued to the edge of your seat. Lord Peter does not have Sherlock Holmes’ DIY chemistry set or Miss Marple’s careful analysis of human nature. Instead, he relies on flashes of insight, aided in no small measure by his compendious knowledge of literature (see Strong Poison, for instance), his considerable financial resources and social capital (Clouds of Witness) to solve the most confounding mysteries, with enough time to spare for lunch at the Bellona Club.
Now, this does mean that the Sayers’ mysteries aren’t quite as neatly tied up as some of the more famous detectives. But as one commentator notes, Sayers makes up for this with a deep awareness of class and gender divisions in interwar England. As with her Montague Egg series, the mysteries often turn on social class and what is expected of those occupying them.
In the very first book, Lord Peter remarks that he pays Bunter “200 pounds a year to keep his opinions to himself.” This would be unremarkable if Lord Peter did not also spend nearly four times the amount on an old book in the same paragraph. For his part, Bunter is revealed to be a veteran who served under Lord Peter in World War I and nurses him through periodic episodes of shell shock.
Written three years later, Clouds of Witness presents a well thought out commentary on the “honour” and decorum that the landed gentry was expected to maintain. A good part of Gaudy Night turns on how women were perceived in the inter-war years; those, like Harriet Vane, who choose to have sex outside of marriage, and those who forgo even the option of marrying to keep their jobs in a university. Sayers’ novels were as much a commentary on upper-class society as they were cosy detective stories.
Lord Peter Wimsey is the sort of detective you don’t see too much of in today’s fiction. He comes from a time when you didn’t need a great deal of scientific or forensic knowledge to solve mysteries, just occasional strokes of genius and a few lucky accidents of birth. It’s not a world I wish still existed – but it makes for some great storytelling all the same.
Harper Collins recently announced the release of its latest book, My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. The novel talks about sexual abuse, but, covers a lot of grey areas since the book is told in flashback about a 32-year-old woman who is forced to revisit her first sexual relationship.
The book has garnered a lot of positive feedback from big names in the industry including Stephen King. The author is originally from East Maine and is a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Kansas. The book marks the author’s debut.
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The protagonist of the novel, Vanessa Wye, is 15 years old when she has a sexual relationship with her English teacher Jacob Strane. At that age, she thinks that this is a romantic dalliance and that their relationship was a loving one. In 2017, when the story about Harvey Weinstein broke and created a storm on the internet about sexual harassment faced by women everywhere, Vanessa is forced to re-look at her past.
Another student accuses Jacob of sexual misconduct and this horrifies Vanessa who always believed that theirs was a love story. She has to now re-imagine her entire past not as a young teenager, but, as a victim of rape.
