The Latest Breaking News from Patrick French

Patrick French: the biographer of VS Naipaul was a generous collaborator with twinkling wit

The writer and historian, who has died aged 56, was not only widely respected for his writing on India but a kind and optimistic man, says fellow academic Maya Jasanoff

The Guardian - UK · Mar 23, 2023

Vineet Gill’s book on Nirmal Verma is a reader’s tribute to reading

In what seems like a modern indictment of the race for instant literary labelling, Nirmal Verma’s writings defied the trappings of casual reading. There are many ways leading to his wide-ranging body of work but none of them is an easy route. To a large extent, that means that any…

Newslaundry · Mar 18, 2023

In Patrick French, the world has lost an important chronicler of lives

It was in the second half of 1997 that I first came across Patrick French’s work. I was a bit late; French was already two books old by then. Oddly, I learned of his work through an interview with him published in the Sunday supplement of an English daily. It…

Newslaundry · Mar 17, 2023