Sudden Death

Dead on Time visits a day in the life for Harry White,Britain’s charismatic prime minister,as he juggles a busy schedule stuffed with a lunch invitation with the media lord Matt Drummond,while simultaneously battling a parliamentary rebellion and,oh dear,an urgent call from the White House about a crisis in the Middle East as well. But it is his final item on the schedule that sets the scene for murder: the Old Firm football game between the traditional rivals Rangers and Celtic.

Known for his economic theories and his deep interest in Hindi cinema,Desai has been keen on writing a political thriller for a while now. He wrote the first draft 10 years ago but lost it.

It wasn’t before 2005 that he decided to revisit that story and write it from scratch. “I have an excellent memory and was able to reproduce more or less of what had been written. I showed author Ruth Rendell the drafts and she was very helpful,” says Desai. Crime writer Rendell asked him to write more and develop the plot further.

“‘Show more interest in your characters,Meghnad,’ she’d say. ‘Tell me what they wear,what they eat.’ I took her advice. After all,I was writing about British politics,I didn’t want to make it too stark,” says Desai.

Football plays a crucial role in the way the murder takes place and Desai says he couldn’t have written a political thriller without referring to the sport.

“Football is a large part of British politics and there have been episodes where politics and sports have got embroiled,” says Desai,who admits that he had to be careful so as not to insinuate anything against friends and acquaintances such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,and has quite enjoyed inventing new lives and new histories. Could he have written the same book in an Indian political setting?

“Indian politicians are mostly libidinous and if I write about that,they’ll get somebody to beat me up,” laughs Desai. But that should provide much scope for sex.

You can imagine Desai shaking his head as he gives the recipe for the deadly concoction that makes for a good thriller: “You need a murder along with all that sex.”

Desai’s next book is a novel based on what might have happened after the final battle in the Mahabharata.

“How an entire civilisation is reduced to widows,children and old men can be thought of as the first Holocaust of a civilisation. Those who were left behind and how they coped with such a crisis can be the seed of many stories,” says Desai.

But for now,what would really make his day is the sight of his book being picked up at the airport.