Abir Mukherjee: ‘Frederick Forsyth and Jeffrey Archer were my gateway drugs into reading for pleasure’

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Abir Mukherjee: ‘Frederick Forsyth and Jeffrey Archer were my gateway drugs into reading for pleasure’

The crime writer on embracing atheism after reading Christopher Hitchens, the allure of Jhumpa Lahiri, and falling under George Orwell’s spellMy earliest reading memoryAn Enid Blyton – the Famous Five or the Sadistic Seven or whatever. I must have been about six. We were on holiday in Kolkata from Scotland for what felt like eternity. All I remember was the gang solving the crime du jour and returning home for tea with toast and crumpets and jam…