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My name is Madhu. I am an Indian by virtue of birth and upbringing, and I live in Sweden (Stockholm) at the moment. I have grown up with books. My grandfather loved buying books and encouraged anyone between semi-interested to interested, to...

You say it's centred around prejudice and chauvinism, but what is your throughline? Is it about an individual breaking through the prejudicial and chauvinist barriers? Or about a man who defies the zeitgeist and makes a difference? These are...

Just a thought, but did you see Life on Mars? That was set in the 70's, and was interesting for the amount of smoking and all the sexism. But I can't remember a lot of overt racism or chauvinism being at the forefront, and i don't think they...

I think, it needs to be authentic to the time. You could always put a disclaimer in the front: The views expressed in this book are of the time it is set and are not held or promoted by the author.

Characters more or less present themselves to me. I don't know their origins. I think if I did, if I seemed to myself to fabricate them, I could not induce suspension of disbelief in myself in the way writing fiction requires. Marilynne Robinson

Publishing Industry News Atlantic pre‑empts Dutch bestseller on fascism Atlantic Books pre‑empted rights to Dutch writer Rosan Smits’s *This Is Fascism: A Wake‑Up Call*, a bestseller that argues fascism is not just a historical phenomenon. The...

Hi @RVMadhuri. It’s lovely to meet you.

Like most Ali Smith novels, these are strange whilst reading as completely normal. The fantastical elements are introduced so matter-of-factly that you wouldn't consider the writing to be fantasy or horror. Dystopian, yes, but only in as much as...

ProWritingAid is running a competition for the first 5k of an unpublished novel. Rather big prizes: 50K USD for the winner and (as far as I can make out) 5K for five runner ups. I think there's a fee if you don't subscribe to their service. I had...

Publishing Industry News Atlantic pre‑empts Dutch bestseller on fascism Atlantic Books pre‑empted rights to Dutch writer Rosan Smits’s *This Is Fascism: A Wake‑Up Call*, a bestseller that argues fascism is not just a historical phenomenon. The...

Welcome aboard @RVMadhuri :) A lovely story in your introduction. Can't wait to read your writing xx r

My name is Madhu. I am an Indian by virtue of birth and upbringing, and I live in Sweden (Stockholm) at the moment. I have grown up with books. My grandfather loved buying books and encouraged anyone between semi-interested to interested, to...

Characters more or less present themselves to me. I don't know their origins. I think if I did, if I seemed to myself to fabricate them, I could not induce suspension of disbelief in myself in the way writing fiction requires. Marilynne Robinson

I have just finished Karla's Choice, a Smiley novel written by John le Carre's son. It is as near perfection as is possible on the page. Harkaway captures the mood, style and voice of his father, John le Carre almost without mis-step, and it's...

I agree with you on the superiority of her Wolf Hall novels, but feel you are a bit harsh about her other work. I generally like the short stories, though most are OK rather than astonishingly good.