With an interest in history and reading that spans most of his life, Republica sat down with him to discuss his take on the two.[break]
You studied history and are known as a historical and travel writer. How important are these topics today?
There are two issues here: First, studying history – why bother? One answer is the kind of skill set – it’s one of the best possible training for you to master your thought, organize your material, and produce coherent arguments. I think it works very well as a university subject. If someone was coming to me asking me what they should do in college, I could recommend history – if they’re interested! Never do it if you’re not interested.
I think in a vocational sense, it teaches you a whole bunch of skills that you can use in a variety of jobs – writing, media, film, law, politics – anything that goes with process information.
Why should anyone bother with history is a separate question. As Edmund Burke famously said, “Those who do not know history are destined to repeat it,” and that’s what I’m writing about at the moment.
So you’ve been interested in history for a long time?
I think history is one of those things you’re either interested in or you’re not. All my life, from when I was very young, I was interested in it. I used to be into pre-history, now my interest has moved more and more to the contemporary, (laughs) as far as the 18th century! I think it’s one of those things like art or cooking – either you like it or don’t.
Compared to books in other genres, how well do historical books fare?
I write history books, nonfiction, and I write the kind of nonfiction which can be read by anyone. It’s a narrative history which is telling a story about what happened in history – The Last Mughals, for example, is about the greatest, biggest anti-colonial uprising in the 19th century history. In England, it’s what’s called the Great Mutiny, and in India, it’s known as the First War of Independence. It depends on which direction you’re looking at it from.
I mean, I get letters from readers age 16 and up – no one under 16! I think when you’re under 16, it’s important just to be reading anything, whether it’s Harry Potter or anything else. I certainly encourage my kids to read as much as they can, rather than sitting on Facebook.
So what did you read when you were younger?
I didn’t really start reading history books until I was in my late teens. But when I was very young, what I loved were science fiction and fantasy books. And then I progressed from that to more serious fiction.
The key thing is to get the habit. There’s so much in competition for time now – between the Internet, between computer games, and movies. But if you can just pick up the habit, it’ll enrich your life.
Do you have any favorites?
I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter books! I haven’t actually read a single one, but I’ve got three kids and we have the Steven Fry audio books in the car and we’d drive up and down Europe and Scotland and India listening to these things, which is a very good second way of accessing books.
I’m a great believer in talking tapes. And even for difficult reads, for example, for a family holiday, we went to Greece and we got The Odyssey on a talking book, and The Odyssey isn’t something you’d read on a beach. But oddly enough, when you’ve got a reading disc in the car, it’s a very good way of passing long hours even with kids who are even less likely to pick up The Odyssey than I am!
Audio books aren’t as popular on this side of the world, but you’ve been in and out of South Asia for a few decades, have you noticed any change in trends?
Well, the whole arrival of the Internet is a massive change. All there was for kids to do, other than reading when I arrived, was to watch the crappy Doordarshan TV with black and white displays of folk dancing! But now there are 700 channels, there’s the Internet with anything you can download. When I arrived [in India], I remember thinking the middle class kids were unusually well-read because they were reading more compared to western kids because there were fewer distractions.
Now I think that space is narrowing.But I think books will survive. Reading is one of the great pleasures of life. Having a good book is a good solace.
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