I'm with McGrath et al: knighthoods are very political. Do the British offer knighthoods to the citizens of any other foreign country than Ireland, by the way? They've been making various Irish luminaries - media magnate Tony O'Reilly, do-gooder ex-songsters Bono and Bob Geldof, etc - knights. The only one with the honour to refuse the honour is Seamus Heaney.

So conferring a knighthood on Salman Rushdie, while leaving many superb English, Scottish and Welsh writers un-knighted seems a most political act to me. But I'm a simple soul.

I actually enjoyed The Satanic Verses, which I bought indignantly the day the fatwa was declared; I remember sitting in the mezzanine of Bewley's reading it, glared at by a woman in a hijab.

The writing was fine - kind of Joycean - and it was full of heartwarming stories, unlike his earlier book, Shame, which was just spiteful.

The central section about Mohammed in the desert, inspired by the angel Gabriel and tempted by Satan, was kind of boring - and it's this section that enrages fundamentalist Muslims.

And I think that if we're to think of 'fundamentalist Muslims', we must remember that they are little different from fundamentalist Christians: these are people who do not want others to think differently from them; and depending on the accepted mores of their own particular society, they will shun those who do, or deprive them of work, or kill them.

Anyway, before more discussion of the knighthood and the fatwa, may I suggest that everyone go out and buy The Satanic Verses (or borrow it from the library) and read it. That might give a better basis for discussion.

My own copy seems to have fallen victim to one of my periodic fatwas when my books are banished en masse to the thrift shops, or possibly to some passing borower, alas. I'd like to read it again.