Dr. Alastair Niven LVO, OBE, Hon FRSL, devised and launched the David Cohen Prize in 1993, was a judge for the Booker Prize in 1994, and for the Man Booker Prize in 2014, a jury member for the 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, Chair of judges for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation in 2017, and Chairman for many years of the jury for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
He is the author of several books, including those on D. H. Lawrence, on Raja Rao, and on Mulk Raj Anand. His memoir, In Glad or Sorry Hours, was published in February 2021.
He has been Director General of The Africa Centre, Director of Literature at the Arts Council of Great Britain as well as at the British Council, Principal of Cumberland Lodge, and President of English PEN. In 2021, Dr. Niven was awarded the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, for exceptional contribution to literature.
His next book, tentatively titled “Knowing the Unknown Nirad C. Chaudhuri“, is scheduled to mark Chaudhuri’s 25th death anniversary in 2024.