Byline

Byline gathers the best of M.J. Akbar's writing from the past decade, in essays that show the range of his interests. The book is arranged in five sections, each with its own character, and Akbar's relaxed, informal prose runs through all of them.

The first section, Travel, shows his love of history and the occasional fable, with room for the obscure detail, the glorious and the ludicrous. Politics and History follows, offering a look at recent events and people, with the quirks and whims of both the great and the ordinary. Sidelines collects the pieces that wander pleasantly off the main road, and Memories is the most personal part of the book, mixing regret, nostalgia and sorrow for friends and times that are gone.

The collection closes with a short section, On a Personal Note, in which James Bond lives to die another day, The Telegraph must learn to live beyond the age of twenty and Dev Anand stays young forever.