Salman Rushdie wanted to be an actor

He told The Sunday Telegraph: "My only other fantasy was to be an actor. At Cambridge, I took part in a lot of student theatre and only contributed a little to university magazines. I played quite a wide range of parts, in Brecht's 'Scenes from the Third Reich', Ionesco's 'Rhinoceros', and Ben Jonson's 'The Alchemist'."

The 'Satanic Verses' author - who lost his sight in one eye amid an unprovoked attack whilst on-stage in New York last year and has now charted his recovery in new memoir 'Knife' - then dragged up to play a part in a play in the late 1960s and quickly learned that the acting world wasn't for him.

He said: "After I left university in 1968 I dived into the then-flourishing fringe theatre scene in London, mostly at the Oval House in Kennington, where I took part in the anti-war show originated in New York by the Cafe La Mama, 'Viet Rock', and in another contemporary play, 'Rainy Day Women', by Dusty Hughes, in which I played an agony aunt, wearing a blonde wig, a long black dress, and a Zapata moustache.

"Fortunately these experiences showed me that it would be unwise to pursue a thespian career, and I retreated to my literary attic.

"Oh, and the purpose of life is to put it to good use. We only get one shot at it, so don't waste it."