Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:
 All our dream-worlds may come true.
 Fairy lands are fearsome too.
 As I wander far from view
 Read, and bring me home to you.

Driven into hiding by Khomeini’s infamous fatwa, a lonely Salman Rushdie wrote ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ – an anti-censorship allegory set in a fantastic quasi-Arabian-Nights world in danger of being destroyed by the evil ‘cult-master’ Khattam-Shud, the enemy of all speech itself.

But part of Rushdie’s intention in writing ‘Haroun’ was to explain the situation to his then nine-year old son, Zafar, whose name is spelt out in the lines of the above dedication. Clever, and touching, like the book itself: highly recommended.

Cheers, Nakul.

PS. Possible theme for the Minstrels – poems by writers better known for their prose… [nice idea - will carry on with it - martin]