Stories of new writers and the publishing world are often romanticised. It could be the tale of the author living in poverty or obscurity before being discovered to critical acclaim, or the first-time novelist who is so obsessed with his story he writes a best-seller within months, or the eager green agent who stumbles upon a young writer whose gift only he sees and who he helps to take the world by storm.
So it is that Indian writer Pankaj Mishra sighs down the telephone line from New Delhi when asked about the success of his first novel, which he is said to have written in nine weeks, and his discovery of Arundhati Roy's novel The God of Small Things when he was a 27-year-old editor for an international publisher
Reading Roy's manuscript on a long train journey, Mishra was said to be so overwhelmed that when the train made an unscheduled stop in the middle of the night he dashed into the station to call Roy to tell her she was a genius.
'Like a lot of romantic stories it departs from the facts,' says Mishra. 'I did call her inconveniently late at night from a train station, but I'd finished my journey. Actually, I did have the urge to break my journey and call her, but most train stations in India at that time weren't equipped with long distance phones,' he says.
Despite the success of The God of Small Things, which won the 1997 Booker Prize, Mishra knew publishing wasn't for him. 'It's not just having long lunches and things like that. A lot of it is sitting in an office,' he says.
He quit the full-time job, became a consultant for Picador until last year, and devoted himself fully to his first love, writing. It's his reputation as an author; journalist and critic that led to his invitation to take part in this year's literary festival.