Vikram Seth is an Indian novelist and poet. His creative avtivity includes 4 novels, a lot of poems, a children's book and a libretto for the English National Opera. Seth has a lot of awards. Also he knows over 5 languages: Welsh, German, French, English, Mandarin, Urdu and Hindi, plays the Indian flute and the cello
Background
Vikram Seth was born on the 20th of June in 1952. He was born in a Punjabi family in Calcutta. His family lived in many cities including the Bata Shoe Company town of Batanagar, Danapur near Patna, and in London. His younger brother, Shantum, leads Buddhist meditational tours. His younger sister, Aradhana, is a film-maker married to an Austrian diplomat. Seth spent part of his youth in London but returned to his homeland in 1957. Having lived in London for many years, Seth now maintains residences near Salisbury, England, where he is a participant in local literary and cultural events, having bought and renovated the house of the Anglican poet George Herbert in 1996, and in Delhi, where he lives with his parents and keeps his extensive library and papers.
Education
Vikram Seth received primary education at Welham Boys' School and then moved to The Doon School. After commencing secondary education at The Doon School in India, Seth returned to England to Tonbridge School. While at Doon, Seth was the Editor-in-chief of The Doon School Weekly.
Seth moved to England to study English at Oxford but soon changed his course to Philosophy, Politics and Economics studying at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he developed an interest in poetry and learned Chinese. After leaving Oxford, Seth moved to California to work on a graduate degree in economics at Stanford University. While at Stanford, he also studied Mandarin language. He then went on to study creative writing at Stanford and classical Chinese poetry at Nanjing University in China. He did his field work in China: he translated Hindi and Chinese poetry into English.