Mathures Paul

Photograph: Rajib De Mathures Paul meets a 71-year-old author of books for children, teenagers and young adults who has even tried his hand at ‘sexy stories’ told with humour Ever wanted to meet Enid Blyton, Richmal Crompton or Frank Richards? Well, dreams sometimes have this uncanny knack of coming true and someone equally talented lives just around the corner, so to speak, in Kolkata. Vernon Thomas likes to travel in schoolbags. This 71-year-old author of 118 titles for children, teenagers and young adults, not to forget the 250 adult stories he’s published in leading journals in India, England, South Africa, Scotland and Italy, is, in popular parlance, “still good to go”. If you’re wondering why you never heard of him all these years, you’re forgiven. For like he says, “I took up writing in 1967. Between 1968 and 1980, around 100 stories were published in the Teenager, a magazine edited by Father Mark Fonseca. He is my guru, my mentor and when he left the magazine he introduced me ...

The daughter of an embittered, hard-drinking Anglo-Indian engine driver from a little railway colony finally finds love in war-torn England. But it’s 60 years before she breaks her silence on how she helped unmask a German spy, and the aftershock takes an investigative Australian journalist all the way to the Vatican. Kolkata-born novelist and photographer David McMahon speaks about his forthcoming book to Mathures Paul Growing up doesn’t always have to be a straight line, but a series of advances and retreats, something novelist and photographer David McMahon learnt early. At 3 Dumayne Avenue lies some of his most cherished memories. Giving up his secure job in Calcutta, McMahon moved to Australia many years back. Last year Penguin decided to publish his first novel, Vegemite Vindaloo, which was on the bestseller lists, and in October this year he e-mailed the manuscript of his second novel ~ Muskoka Maharani ~ to Penguin, one day ahead of deadline! He speaks to Unplugged. “Every nove...