Rushdie writing on years in hiding

The British author has also just published a children’s book called Luka and the Fire of Life, which he wrote for his younger son Milan, and has almost completed the screenplay for a movie version of acclaimed 1981 novel Midnight’s Children.

The 63-year-old said of the memoir that there was an “information vacuum” to fill, and that he finally felt it was time to confront a difficult period in his life. “I’m beginning to write this memoir,” Rushdie said in an interview. “I’ve written about... 100 pages of book and I reckon very roughly that feels like a quarter of the story. I’m aiming, in my mind, for the end of next year (to finish it).

“So far I feel that I’m right — I’m not getting churned up and upset, I’m just writing it and I’m feeling quite pleased to be writing it.”

He said he hoped to finish the memoir by the end of 2011, although timing would depend on whether the movie of Midnight’s Children, to be directed by Indian-born filmmaker Deepa Mehta, was made next year.

The Satanic Verses (1988) was Rushdie’s fourth novel.