Waugh: Men at Arms (vol. 1 of The Sword of Honour Trilogy).

Ezekiel: A Time to Change (poems).

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

Major famine in Bengal leaves three million people dead. Allied invasion of Italy. Fall of Mussolini.

D-Day: Normandy landings. Japanese troops driven out of Burma. Fall of Berlin and suicide of Hitler. Unconditional surrender of Germany. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. End of World War II. Foundation of the United Nations. Truman US President. Labour Party comes to power in Britain, with Attlee as Prime Minister.

Cabinet Mission: three British ministers led by Lord Pethwick-Lawrence visit India to negotiate terms for Indian independence. They refuse to accept Muslim claims for partition and their proposals are rejected by both Congress and the Muslim League. Riots between Hindus and Muslims; 5,000 lose their lives in Calcutta. USSR extends influence in Eastern Europe. Beginning of Cold War.

In February, British government resolves to hand over power in June 1948 regardless of whether or not a new Indian constitution is in place. Newly appointed viceroy Lord Mountbatten, persuaded that partition is the only way forward, puts pressure on the Congress leaders to agree. Indian Independence Act is hurried through and on 15 August India is partitioned into two Dominions; India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim). Jawaharal Nehru Prime Minister of India.

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Campaign of violence by Communists in India crushed by new government. The last British troops leave India. Jewish state of Israel comes into existence. Soviet blockade of West Berlin. Apartheid introduced in South Africa.

Chinese Revolution. North Atlantic Treaty signed.

Beginning of Korean War. Mother Teresa founds the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.

India declares itself a Republic within the British Commonwealth; first national general election confirms India's status as world's largest democracy; Congress Party is dominant. First Five-Year Plan in India sets in motion huge number of irrigation projects.

Eisenhower elected US President. Accession of Elizabeth II in UK.

DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT 1953 The English Teacher published in the US by Michigan State College Press under the title Grateful to Life and Death. Narayan's new house at Yadavagiri being finally ready for occupation, he uses it as a retreat for writing, continuing to live with his extended family at their home in the Laxmipuram district. Anand: Private Life of an Indian Prince.

Hartley: The Go-Between.

1954 Markandaya: Nectar in the Sieve.

Masters: Bhowani Junction.

K. Amis: Lucky Jim.

1955 Waiting for the Mahatma. Ezekiel: Sixty Poems.

Nabokov: Lolita.

1956 Marriage of Hema with her cousin Chandru. Although their home is 120 miles from Mysore, Narayan visits them frequently over the years and plays an important role in the life of his two grandchildren. Lawley Road and Other Stories and Next Sunday: Sketches and Essays. Leaves for the United States. Pillai: Chemmeen ('Shrimps').

Mishima: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.

Mahfouz: The Cairo Trilogy (to 1957).

1957 Dom Moraes: A Beginning (poems).

Kerouac: On the Road.

Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago.

1958 The Guide (written while travelling in America), the first of Narayan's novels to be published by Viking in the US. Jhabvala: Esmond in India.

Achebe: Things Fall Apart.

Lampedusa: The Leopard.

1959 Chaudhuri: A Passage to England.

Bellow: Henderson the Rain King.

Burroughs: Naked Lunch.

Grass: The Tin Drum.

1960 Narayan wins the Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters) Award for The Guide. Malgonkar: Distant Drum.

Moraes: Poems.

Rao: The Serpent and the Rope.

Updike: Rabbit, Run (vol. 1 of Rabbit tetralogy).

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

Death of Stalin. European Court of Human Rights set up in Strasbourg. Korean War ends.

Indo-Chinese Treaty. Vietnam War begins.

India establishes a policy that bars foreign print media from publishing within the country. India's parliament accepts Hindu divorce. Second Five Year Plan in India aims to increase national income by 25 per cent. Soviets invade Hungary. Suez crisis.

European Economic Community founded.

India begins designing and buying equipment for a plutonium reprocessing plant at Trombay.

Castro seizes power in Cuba.

Union of Kashmir with India. Bombay state split into Gujarat and Maharashtra states.