Salman Rushdie rants against his detractors

Next month sees the 20th anniversary of the publication of Salman Rushdie's (pictured) controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, but he doesn't seem much in the mood to mark the event himself, or indeed to show gratitude for the vast amount of money shelled out by the British taxpayer to protect him after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him.

"I know everyone gets hooked on anniversaries," he said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph. "I'm sure there will be stuff in the papers and I've heard that the BBC is making some stupid documentary just to remind us all over again. All I'm hoping is that I can say to people, 'Look, you've had 20 years of talking about this stuff, please can I have the rest of my life?'

"It's been a decade now since I had any police protection, since all those things that I'm supposed to be guilty of. That the country spent so much money protecting me and so forth. Well, the country hasn't spent any money on me in the last 10 years, during which I've faithfully paid my taxes. So it's possible that I have paid it back. In a way it's been a good investment – keep me alive and my taxes will pay for it.

"Actually," he added, "what underlies it is this idea that the terrible things that happened after the publication of The Satanic Verses were all my fault. And that if I happened to have somehow by accident failed to get killed, what I should do is just feel sorry for the rest of my life. The idea that I should enjoy myself is not acceptable. Clearly I have a different point of view."