The solitude of Ranikhet has, in a way, “immunised” Roy from the coronavirus pandemic, though it has affected one of her projects. She also thinks the impact of Covid-19 is “profound”, both for writers and the publishing industry.

“I want to keep a safe distance from the epidemic if at all possible, both in my life and in my fiction.

“I think the impact is profound, and in ways we will be trying to understand for years. In terms of the immediate, writers work alone, so you might think enforced isolation is a bonus, but not really. Travel for research has become impossible and one of my projects is suffering because of that. In India, the publishing industry has been badly affected by the prolonged lockdown and book shops have suffered badly,” Roy said. Roy and her partner, Rukun Advani, have often been described as the ‘first couple’ of publishing. Would she like to elaborate on this journey?

“I’ve never heard about that,” she replied rather modestly, adding: “But yes, we do run a two-person independent press and fortunately our skills are complementary so we are responsible for completely different aspects of the business of publishing. We started Permanent Black twenty years ago with one book and our personal savings and now we have over 350 titles by brilliant and erudite authors on our list.”

Solitude and open spaces—could there be a better formula for nurturing creativity?