Sometime back I had read somewhere that Jeffrey Archer would be visiting the country to promote his latest book- A Prisoner of Birth. I had forgotten all about it until I caught him on television yesterday evening. I had read a couple of his books a long time back and I admit I don’t remember much of them. However I plan to reread all his books especially after I heard what he said in the interview on television yesterday.
I was amazed when he told the gathering that he wrote seventeen drafts of his latest book and all of them in long hand! It is incredible commitment to writing well. Needless to say he is a bestselling author. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why his books sell in the millions. He also said that he works in two hour spells starting early in the morning with two hour breaks in between until nine in the night. He is a disciplined and hardworking writer, no doubt about that. Archer also told the gathering of youngsters that one needs talent plus hard work in order to succeed and talent alone is not enough. All that he has said in the television interview makes me feel like taking a different look at Archer. But the disappointment is that while Lucknow is on his itinerary Hyderabad isn't!
Coincidentally, today’s supplement in the Times of India also carried an interview with him where he repeats what he had said on the television interview. From his high praise of Indians and things Indian it is clear that he is out to charm us into buying his books. Even without it his books sell in the thousands in the country anyway. I look forward to more interviews and stories on him in the national magazines like The Week, India Today and the Outlook.
Talking of Outlook reminds me of a disappointing experience I had this week. In the previous issue the magazine informed the readers that ‘exclusive pre-publication extracts’ from Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Sea of Poppies’ would be issued in form of a booklet with this week’s issue. A friend too told me about it so I went to the magazine stand to ask for it. I was informed that no such booklet was being given with the latest issue of Outlook. I read the full page advertisement in last week’s issue again. I read that the booklet of excerpts would be issued only in select towns. It makes me wonder whether Hyderabad is a city or a town. I wonder why Hyderabadis are being denied the chance of reading the extract of Amitav Ghosh's forthcoming novel.
I also wonder if the reading habits of Hyderabad haven’t impressed the guys at Outlook. Or maybe the sales figures of the magazine are so low that they thought it is not worth giving the extracts away in Hyderabad. Hyderabad has more than a dozen large bookstores. People not only buy books here but actually read them too. Amitav Ghosh himself was here a couple of years ago to promote his previous book and had a reading here. He might be disappointed to know that Hyderabadis have been given the short shrift by Outlook.
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