Salman Rushdie Knighted
 

I'm delighted to see that Salman Rushdie has been knighted (he's now "Sir Salman Rushdie") in the Queen's "Birthday Honours List" announced today. Rushdie is probably the most significant "Anglo-Indian" author writing today, and all his books are wonderful - if you've never read any, I do urge you to do so!

(All the fuss about "The Satanic Verses" came, I'm certain, predominantly from people who'd never actually read it, as is usually the case in these situations.)

I actually don't like Rushdie much. His portrayals of the sub-continent are a trifle histrionic. But I should say that disliking Anglo-Indian authors is something of a tradition in India :-)

The reason I was so surprised by this is that being knighted for being an author is an incredibly rare thing. In fact I can think of only one other author it's happened to - Arthur Conan Doyle, although I'm sure there must be a few other examples. People with titles quite often write books (eg Baronness Orczy, Sir Henry Rider Haggard), but to be given a title for being an author is just amazingly rare. I'm very pleased for Mr Rushdie - he's had to put up with a lot of bad stuff.

No doubt, I don't say he shouldn't have his knighthood. He certainly deserves it on the grounds of personal courage alone, I just don't like his writing.

Fair enough :).

Ah, some people diagree with you HarryT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle1951462.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1955955.ece

I know - it's caused a big fuss in Pakistan. They've summoned the British Ambassador to express their disapproval, etc.