Off to the BBC at the crack of dawn tomorrow
WRITING THIS ON Tuesday night. The BBC have asked me to come into the TV studio tomorrow at the crack of dawn Asian time (which is about midnight UK time) to talk on BBC World TV about the winner of the Man Booker Prize—which is due to be announced in a few hours.
They’ve asked me because of my association with setting up the Man Asian Literary Prize—and because Asians are playing a big role in the writing business these days. Mo Yan just won the Nobel Prize, and two Asians of my acquaintance, Tan Twan Eng and Jeet Thayil are shortlisted for the Booker.
The shortlisted books are below.
Meanwhile, a batch of my own books arrived from the printer at my office. After such a long wait, I couldn’t bring myself to open the box, funny that, isn’t it? I finished a couple of articles and then went and had lunch before opening it and taking out a copy.
Then had a quick flick to make sure the chapters/ pages were in the right order. Then a sigh of relief. And then a warm glow settles in—must be similar to a mother after a baby is delivered and it has the right number of heads etc.
If you get a chance, check me out on TV – I’ll be on Newsday, BBC World TV, at about 7.15 am Hong Kong / Singapore time, which is about 12.15 am London time.
