Adiga, 33 at the time of his win, was uncomfortable with the brouhaha that accompanies the prize: ‘Once you have written a book like The White Tiger,’ he vouchsafed, ‘it’s very hard to escape from the shadow of it. I was frightened The White Tiger would eat me up too.’

Adiga escaped its clutches with three subsequent, highly-praised novels. His prize-winning book, detailing the rise of an unscrupulous Indian village boy from poverty to riches, was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film.