Excerpt from Bloomberg:

. . . Rushdie has since left Britain to live in New York with his fourth wife, Padma Lakshmi, host of a TV reality show, ``Top Chef.''

Honor or Epitaph?

All of which makes his honoring by a country he forsook perplexing, even to admirers. Other oddities aside, he is the first of his literary generation to be honored -- ahead of Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes who are producing work of high quality well into their middle years. Was it not so much an honor as an epitaph?

The arts and media committee that advises the honors panel is chaired by the investment banker Jacob Rothschild and peopled by the impeccably great and good -- Jenny Abramsky, head of BBC Radio; former editor of the Independent, Andreas Whittam Smith; novelist Ben Okri; theater critic John Gross and two senior civil servants.

My understanding is that the committee was looking to honor a writer. When Rushdie's name came up, no-one could object for fear of endorsing censorship. Rushdie was contacted and pronounced himself ``thrilled and humbled.'' There was no intention to offend, no extensive consultations.

It seems the world and its rowdy sensitivities never got onto the Whitehall agenda. Sir Salman will arise because nobody looked out of the window.

(Norman Lebrecht is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)