biography

How did the idea for the book originate, especially considering its connection to Jashn-e-Talat, the concert you organized? An early picture of singer Talat Mahmood The idea for the book originated from a personal experience. Growing up, I knew Talat Mahmood as my grand uncle and had interactions with him as a family member. It wasn’t until much later in my journalism career, around 15 years in, that the concept took shape. Despite having friends in Bollywood reporting, and legends like Lata didi, I never…

In October 1954 a clerk working at the British embassy in Moscow, John Vassall, was invited to a party. Vassall got into a taxi with a “dark-haired stranger” and found himself in the Hotel Berlin. There, he had dinner with a group of Russian men in a private dining room. Soon, he was naked and lying on a divan. Two men raped him. Another took photographs. At 3.30am they brought him home in a taxi.The episode – organised by the KGB’s second chief directorate – was a classic honeytrap. A few months later Vassall had a…

How does it feel to win this prize? What kind of reception were you hoping for while writing the book? Author Akshaya Mukul (Courtesy the publisher) When your work gets recognized by such a prestigious prize, it is an occasion to celebrate. I had expected people who read Hindi literature to take an interest in my book but I am pleasantly surprised to see a positive response from readers of diverse backgrounds. I suppose this is because my book is not only a biography of Agyeya as a writer but also a history of…

Real life is, of course, never as tidy or satisfying as fiction. The good guys don’t necessarily finish first, the villains don’t always get their just deserts, and the gutsy little character who no one thought would achieve anything doesn’t end up the winner merely because we want him to. Volodymyr Zelenskiy would make a tremendous hero in an undemanding Hollywood movie along the lines of Independence Day: Mr Ordinary Saves the Nation. If Russia’s ugly, wholly unnecessary war against Ukraine were something out of a…

When someone you love takes their own life, guilt is unavoidable; when they hold you responsible, guilt is off the scale. The sister of Canadian novelist Martha Baillie, Christina, killed herself at 61. On the wall, in blue marker, she’d written three reasons for wanting to die: “Because of schizophrenia / Because of The Juniper Tree / Because of losing the house”. The schizophrenia went a long way back; she’d first attempted suicide in her 20s. By “The Juniper Tree” she meant a Brothers Grimm fairytale in which a child…

Imagine a story of sex, drugs and secrets inside Downing Street. A story about a political wife accused of meddling, and a resignation honours list mired in scandal. And no, it’s not the one you’re thinking of. This is the irresistible tale of Marcia Williams, political secretary and “office wife” to the Labour prime minister Harold Wilson, and if it were the plot of a thriller it would seem too wild to be true.In an era when a woman’s role in Downing Street was limited largely to typing and filing, Williams had to fight…

On the evening of 13 January 1966, the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry held its annual dinner at a hotel on Park Avenue. On the menu were string beans, roast beef and baby potatoes. The entertainment was less conventional – a local artist named Andy Warhol had been invited to say a few words, but instead put on a multimedia performance with the band he was managing. The Velvet Underground and Nico cranked up the volume and played Heroin (“Because when the smack begins to flow, I really don’t care any more”) and…

Perfect for Swifties young and old, the 24-page picture book offers a colorful timeline of the singer's storied career If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. Starting the Swifties young! A new kids book about Taylor Swift has returned to the bestsellers charts on Amazon, once again proving the singer’s reach knows no time — or age — limit. Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography is…

To our shame, few of us outside China know much about the country’s classical poetry. It doesn’t help that the way the names of leading poets are transliterated has changed so often. Many writers included in Ezra Pound’s groundbreaking collection Cathay, published in 1915, are unrecognisable by name today. Only a generation or so ago we called one of China’s greatest poets Li Po; nowadays we know him as Li Bai. And Li Bai’s friend and contemporary, the magnificent Du Fu, was until recently called Tu Fu in the west;…

It is hard to know where to start with My Name Is Barbra, the much reported on 1,000‑page memoir that took Barbra Streisand 10 years to complete. Most celebrity memoirs rely on a certain amount of pre-existing goodwill to shunt readers through the more banal parts. With Streisand, this principle is stretched to such a degree that by the end of the book, one is left in a state of wonder – at the accomplishments of an American icon, yes, but also at the sheer volume of detail passed on. While visualising the star in her…