Born in Calcutta in 1952, Vikram Seth studied at Oxford, Stanford University and in China. He is a noted travel writer. From Heaven Lake, an account of his walk through Sinkiang and Tibet, received the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 1983. The Humble Administrator's Garden, first published in 1985, won a commonwealth Poetry Prize and his best-selling verse novel, The Golden Gate, was widely acclaimed when it appeared in 1986. His subsequent novel, A Suitable Boy, was a worldwide bestseller.