Author Vikram Seth has received an estimated £1.3 million advance, the largest paid for a literary, non-fiction title, for a memoir he is now writing about his great uncle. The advance was paid by Time Warner books after an auction involving 10 publishing houses. The deal for Two Lives was secured by Seth’s literary agent, Giles Gordon of Curtis Brown, after five short-listed publishers bid for the work on the basis of a proposal and a presentation by Seth. They did so without seeing the manuscript, the Daily Telegraph reported today. The deal was secured on the reputation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, a 1,400-page love story set in post-independence India, recently chosen as one of the BBC’s hundred great novels. It has sold a million copies so far. Two Lives tells the story of his great uncle Shanti, an Indian and aunt Henny, a German Jew, who met in pre-war Germany as Hitler came to power, and eventually escaped to England. Seth lived with them during his adolescence. The book would cover the Raj, the Third Reich, the Holocaust and British post-war society. Seth said recently that it would take two years to complete the memoir. Last time Warner’s imprint Little, Brown outbid Orion, publisher of A Suitable Boy and Penguin, the under-bidder, which was rumoured to have offered over £1 million. Richard Beswick, Little, Brown’s publishing director, said it was not so unusual to bid for a work without seeing even a draft manuscript. ‘‘Not for a writer of Vikram’s stature,’’ he said adding ‘‘he brings warmth, vitality and profound, enriching humanity to all his writing.’’
