LITERARY WRITERS OCCASIONALLY WRITE ON THEIR PASSION FOR SPORT. THE TRAFFIC IS SELDOM IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. THIS BOOK IS A SMALL ATTEMPT TO REDRESS THAT—A SPORTSWRITER WRITING ON A PASSION FOR LITERATURE.

What do Ved Mehta, Gabriel García Márquez and Agatha Christie have in common—apart from being among the most celebrated writers in the world, that is? Their ability to hook the discerning reader and never let go. What have some of these great writers said of their own work? What, for that matter, makes a writer, or a book, ‘great’ and canonical while others that sold millions of copies in their own lifetimes fade into oblivion? How much of a reader’s appreciation of a novel or an essay stems from their own early reading practices and friendships? And why, oh why, do they not give the Nobel to the writers who most deserve it?

These are some of the thoughts that centre this eclectic collection of reflections about writers and writing. They seek out the pleasures and the techniques, the spaces and the memories, the little moments and the life-changing sentences that encompass and enrich a reader’s life.