The 24th edition of An Author’s Afternoon on August 29, 2015, hosted David Davidar at Taj Bengal, Kolkata, was presented by Shree Cement. Davidar was engaged in a conversation with publisher Mandira Sen and shared his ups and downs in the literary world.

Davidar was born in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. He is an Indian writer, publisher, author, CEO, novelist and journalist. His three novels are, The House of Blue Mangoes (2002), which was published in sixteen countries and was a New York Times Notable Book; The Solitude of Emperors (2007), which was shortlisted for a regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; and Ithaca (2011), which is about a thrilling account of international publishing.

.He said briefly about how he got into publishing from journalism. While doing a course on publishing at the Harvest University, he came into contact with Peter Mayer, global chairman of Penguin Books, who offered him to go back to India where they had plans to set up a company. That is how his publisher career started with his only colleague Khushwant Singh at Delhi.

“Penguin India was Khushwant Singh, me, a peon and my secretary. Today it is the largest book publishing company. It was a joint venture with ABP,” said David Davidar.