Q and A - Vikas Swarup

A couple of years ago I got hooked on one a Radio 4's serialisation of a novel. For two weeks my life revolved around making sure that I would always be within earshot of a radio at 7.45 pm each weekday evening. The book was Vikas Swarup's 'Q&A' and it won a 'Best Drama' award for the BBC at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2008, and perhaps more importantly for me, it went instantly onto my Amazon 'wish list' where it stayed a long time whilst I waited for a reasonable price. Then a couple of months back, I started to read reviews of the new film 'Slumdog Millionaire' and immediately thought that this sounded like a knock-off of 'Q&A'. Different names, ...  Read the complete review

"I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show." These are the first two sentences of the Prologue of Q&A, brilliant, aren't they? Who wouldn't want to go on reading?! 18-year-old Ram Muhammad Thomas has answered all 12 questions in an Indian TV show correctly and won 1 billion rupees, the problem is only that the TV show is new and the producers haven't got the money yet, they hoped to earn it through advertising in half a year and then be able to 'afford' a winner. So they accuse him of cheating and call the police, the police inspector in charge promises them to beat a confession out of the young man. When he doesn't confess, he's hung up and ...  Read the complete review

With its wonderful performance at the Oscars I'm sure Slumdog Millionaire is known to most readers by now. I haven't yet seen it as I wanted to read the book, recommended to me by a friend some time ago. The copy I have has the film tie-in cover but the picture above is of the original cover and title (much more fitting, I think - but mine was half price!). When Ram Mohammed Thomas wins one billion rupees on a TV quiz show he is arrested and thrown into jail. A poor man from the slums of India cannot possible have had the education to know the answers to all the questions he was asked. A new TV show with an advertised prize of one billion cannot possibly ...  Read the complete review