Bettie's Books

Read from September 15 to 21, 2012

BOTW

Reader Zubin Varla Producer Duncan Minshull.
Abridged by Katrin Williams.

This is the BOTW choice of R4 in the week where...

A semi-official religious foundation in Iran has increased a reward it had offered for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie to $3.3 million from $2.8 million, a newspaper reported, days after protests coursed through the Muslim world over alleged insults to the Prophet Muhammad. 16/9/2012

The title is composed of the two first names of his favourite authors, and this became his code name.

#1 - Five extracts from the autobiography of Salman Rushdie, abridged by Katrin Williams and read by Zubin Varla. Valentine's Day, 1989, and Rushdie's life is changed forever.

#2 - In his autobiography, Salman Rushdie describes how storytelling was central to his life as a youngster, then it's on to schooldays at Rugby.

#3 - Salman Rushdie describes eventful days at Cambridge before the jump into his first job in advertising.

#4 - In his autobiography, Salman Rushdie describes his life after working in advertising. Then brilliant success beckons in a big way. Who knew he was the one that came up with the 'Naughty But Nice' slogan for cream cakes: http://youtu.be/voPzNTO9uJE

#5 - Salman Rushdie charts the success of his books, Midnight's Children and Shame, before he delivers the manuscript that will change his life. (shroud tailor - what a term!)

ADD A STAR: It is quite novel (hee) to have a memoir written in the third person - interesting.

MINUS A STAR: What does grate though, is his name-dropping in tweenie-esque fashion

MINUS A STAR: Becomes increasingly hard to fathom which period he was talking about, it seems to flash forward and back in time.

ADD A STAR: He is still standing tall for free expression and long may he do so, I personally wish more would fight against corporate jargon and Political Correctness - take that 'robotic' version of Huckleberry Finn for instance.

4* Midnight's Children
3* The Satanic Verses
2* Haroun and the Sea of Srories
3* Shalimar the Clown
3* Joseph Anton