Author: M J Akbar
Publisher: Roli Books
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 358
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174363173
Description
Byline anthologizes MJ Akbar’s finest writings over the last decade, bringing together essays that reflect the author’s versatility and range. The book is divided into five seamless sections, each with its own identity, woven together by M J Akbar’s delectably informal prose.
Travel is the first section in which the author shares his passion for history and the occasional fable, the obscure details, the glorious and the ludicrous. This is followed by Politics and History in which the reader is provided a view of some events and people in the recent past with all the quirks and whimsy that characterize the great as well as the mundane. The reader then moves on to Sidelines (those delightfully off-centre pieces). M J Akbar says in an essay in this section: The train of thought has moved. But that is the way with trains. They must travel. Memories is the most personal and autobiographical part of the entire selection, mixing regret, nostalgia and deeply felt sorrow for the friends and times gone forever.
Byline ends with a short section entitled On a Personal Note in which James Bond must live to die another day, The Telegraph has to learn to live beyond the age of 20 and Dev Anand remains young forever.
Contents
TRAVEL
Turkish Delights
An Arab Arc
Wild West, Mild West
Light Africa
Neighbours: Mostly Friendly
Europe: Plus ca Change
Britain: English Spoken Here
War, Peace and Something in Between
POLITICS AND HISTORY
SIDELINES
MEMORIES
ON A PERSONAL NOTE