For Intelligent Life magazine
As women’s boxing joins the Olympics, Rahul Bhattacharya profiles the phenomenal Mary Kom—five-times world champion and mother of two—who has had to battle against far more than just her opponents in the ring…
The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2012
Rahul Bhattacharya wins the £10,000 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize with his first novel The Sly Company of People Who Care (Picador) 2012 judges Nick Laird, Michèle Roberts and Kamila Shamsie admired ‘Bhattacharya’s verve and style as he brilliantly evokes the history and inhabitants and landscape of Guyana’. Nick Laird said he had ‘seldom read a book with so […]
Winner, 2012 RSL Ondaatje Prize
The Sly Company of People Who Care has won the 2012 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize for ‘a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.’
“This picaresque story, funny, tough and romantic, swerves around all kinds of inner and outer landscapes and offers unforgettable vignettes of a host of characters. He has invented a beautiful and original language, mixing street poetry and sharply sensual poetry.”
Shortlisted, the 2012 RSL Ondaatje Prize
The Sly Company of People Who Care is shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, which is for a ‘book of the highest literary merit – fiction, non-fiction, poetry – evoking the spirit of a place’. I used to think the prize was named for Michael; but it’s for his brother, Christopher, explorer, writer, bob-sledder and philantropist.
An essay I did for the new edition of Sachin: Genius Unplugged, Westland books, edited by Suresh Menon.
‘A hundred international hundreds, split almost evenly between Tests and one-dayers, tells us something about his all-encompassing range, of watchful first mornings and exhilarating floodlit nights, of victories seized or defeats delayed, of white and blue, of Cape Town and Sharjah . . . It matters because, as with Grace, it hadn’t been considered possible. Indeed, it hadn’t been considered at all.’
The Sly Company of People Who Care is shortlisted. Writers on their books here.
An essay I wrote on India v Australia for Christian Ryan’s gorgeous large-format book, Australia: Story of a Cricket Country, Hardie Grant Books. Contributors include one JM Coetzee.
‘There is something ethereal about cricket at dawn; staying up late is a lesser magic. Indians turn to cricket from England and South Africa after lunch, from the West Indies before dinner. New Zealand is so far ahead that it is still our night. We only rise to cricket from Australia.’
‘The other day, on an idle afternoon, casually intrigued by the old trading links between India and Africa, I thought I would like to go to Kenya.’ A short piece for The Hindu.
Where ‘writers look back on a day that changed their life’. For the Observer.
A few of the many songs that went into the novel, and some which didn’t. For the Booknotes feature of the music and books blog, Largeheartedboy