Blog posts tagged "Salman Rushdie"

February 16, 2009 12:11 pm No Comments

There’s been a lot of anniversary stuff about the fatwa issued against the writer Salman Rushdie 20 years ago by Ayatollah Khomeini. It all happened 20 years ago, and I found myself in my day job in and out of Iran, reporting on Mr Khomeini, and at home entertaining Mr Rushdie in the secrecy of [...]

February 1, 2009 6:33 pm No Comments

A great cloud of dust, a whoosh of excitable policemen, and a motorcade comes to a gravel-scattering halt outside my hotel here in Cartagena, in Colombia. The most awaited guest is arrived. Salman Rushdie ain’t pleased. The one condition on which he had come here was: no security, no motorcades. He was fuming as he [...]

January 30, 2009 10:28 am No Comments

It’s hot, humid and yet a sea breeze blows down the narrow streets to flutter the table cloths of the pavement cafes. Cartagena is on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Yellow, pink, white, blue houses compete for a ringside seat in this packed town. It’s a natural enough place to have a book festival. There [...]