Salman Rushdie has the same literary agent as Martin Amis and Philip Roth. Andrew Wylie must be three times lucky to represent such a triumvirate. Or is he? I don’t know about Roth, but Rusdhie and Amis are two of the most controversial — and stylish– writers around. But Rushdie is better. I would say that, of course. “To Indian people, he’s as large as Faulkner or Hemingway,” says the Observer interview with Rushdie today. It’s a must-read. Rushdie uses the F-word and the Observer prints the full four-letter word. He also disses the Archbishop of Canterbury and praises Margaret Thatcher. He always makes good copy.

Now that Rusdhie’s latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, has appeared to rave reviews, he wants to write a children’s book next for his second son, Milan.  Haroun and the Sea of Stories, written for his first son, Zafar, was certainly fantastic. But when did Rushdie ever write a bad book? I don’t know about The Satanic Verses, though. It is banned both in India and Singapore.