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Marga Ley ontmoet @Jeffrey_Archer en meen hy's 'n "aangenaam-arrogante heer": http://t.co/OOAPEPko
Marga Ley ontmoet @Jeffrey_Archer en meen hy's 'n "aangenaam-arrogante heer": http://t.co/OOAPEPko
Ben - Editor
Alert! Has anybody seen this man?
Yes, that's Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul - and the going rumour is that he's in South Africa right now, doing research on a new book. On religion? Possibly on religion. We've heard that he's doing a book on religion. But that's pure speculation, reproduced here to give this post the semblance of substance.
Said book requires him to be in Johannesburg, among other southern African locales, and so even at this very moment his head might be bending over a text in the Johannesburg Library, for instance - or his footsteps might be echoing through the Hector Pieterson Memorial or the Apartheid Museum, or his hair might be flapping in the wind on the Gold Reef City Tower of Terror.
OK, perhaps not the last. But we have it on good authority from no fewer than three sources that the great author is most definitely in town, though it's all hush-hush.
When VS Naipaul - who has a bit of a history with this continent - visits Africa, it's big news, and BOOK SA is keen to bring you more on his trip. We're thus shamelessly going to place a bounty on his head: anyone who can shed additional light on "Naipaul in South Africa 2009" should write to naipaul@book.co.za with your tip; and anyone who can supply BOOK SA with a bona fide photograph of the author in Johannesburg that we can publish will receive a handsome sum (by SA Lit standards). Perhaps you should familiarise yourself with his many cunning guises - click here for a gallery of recent pics.
Can VS Naipaul be crowdsourced? Let's find out. Welcome, Sir Vidia, to our beloved country!
Book details
Photo courtesy Amitava Kumar
Ben TrovatoWhen I track him down, I shall ask him to sign my copy of Paul Theroux's Sir Vidia's Shadow.
Ben - EditorFrom the picture above, it's clear that he gets his style from you, Ben, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Come to think of it, get two signed: then you can hawk a copy on ebay.
KathrynHmm!
1. Who publishes him?
2. Will he be attending the Writer's Lunch at the Radium tomorrow?
3. If so, I will donate the bounty to the bill, or to the table - depending on the form of bounty.
4. What happens if, at lunch at the Radium, someone at the Writer's Table (or lo! someone from the bar counter!) mistakes him and runs to kiss him and says, "I LOVED Midnight's Children. You totally deserve the Booker of Booker Bookers"?
5. And he gets upset and leaves and we only get a shot of the back of his head? Do we still get the bounty?
6. Will Ronald Suresh Roberts be there as well. I have heard he is a likable young man, and he should know a lot about being Trinidadian. He can also teach us some on how to be an African. I'm looking forward to that.
7. Maybe the likable Mr Roberts will invite Mbeki. That will also be fun.
8. And if Mbeki is keen, I am sure Nadine will pop in for a tipple to see her favourite biographer and fellow Nobel man, as well.
9. I better inform Heat Magazine. They won't want to miss this.
Louis GreenbergHa ha ha - I also saw the Rushdie thing going on, but, I, er, was too busy to mention it.
Ben - EditorDunno, friends. Compare Rushdie -
with Naipaul -
Half-brothers at best!
Louis GreenbergWell, I had lunch with Nadine Gordimer and you don't hear me boasting about it. She was very nice, and we chatted about books etc. My bookselling career also scored me a handshake with Nelson Mandela; a variety of autographed books from local and overseas writers; a signature from Lucinda ?, esrtwhile Isidingo actor who we fell in fan-love with at DBB's launch; a meeting (but no handshake) with Desmond Tutu; lunch with Zapiro and that young aussie guy who writes successful thrillers, and a variety of publishing bigwigs.
I can't say it made me a better writer or a more loveable human. I'm not much into fan-worship, particularly of writers, who are just insecure folks like me trying to get off real work. As I said when I first started blogging here, I'd rather take White Noise to a desert island than Don DeLillo. So that's the last name-dropping you'll hear from me.
My Book SA career has scored me lunches, drinks, work and friendships from a variety of hot n happening writer-and-reader-folk, which have been more meaningful.
Rustum KozainThe old mongoose...
Isn't Mr. Coovadia (I feel I have to be formal in Sir Vidia's presence) finishing his monograph on Naipaul? The two of them are probably sipping espressos in Gardens, although the weather does not look conducive to such literary activity.
Ben - EditorThe first person I called on this was the aforesaid Mr Coovadia - but he had no idea his man was in town.
SophyAh, Very Saucy Naipaul. I reckon this is an elaborate ruse to get us away from our laptops, out into the fresh air, and doing something akin to exercise. That is taking photographs. If Coovadia doesn't know, no-one does. Ben, who's your source?
HelenMeant to apologise to Louis for my shameless name-dropping. Don't mind me, Louis, I collect writers the way my folks collect birds, binocs in one hand, Roberts in the other. Think of it as biblio-twitching, a (mostly) harmless hobby started by accident when I landed up serving the drinks at a PEN dinner in London 20 years ago.
And I also want to know Ben's source, but I reckon Mr Williams-Oswest is a clam of note (Never Reveal Sources).
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