Rausing has been accused of taking injecting her human rights interests into the journal and turning it into ‘activist non-fiction’ instead of a collage of fiction, personal history, reportage and documented photography it once stood for.

It has also been argued that Granta’s sheen has dulled in the last few years. In the time of blogs and an explosion of other also very fine literary manuals (such as the London Review of Books, and Slightly Foxed), Granta seems to be struggling to maintain its status as a literary kingmaker.

I seriously doubt its readers, a respectable size of 50,000, will be much affected. Bill Buford, Jack’s anteceding editor has appropriately called them “the world’s smartest and most literary strangers”. There are many, like the Scottish whisky guru Charles Maclean, who have read “every issue of Granta ever published”.

And really, Granta is still worth racing the husband to the door for.

namrata.sharma@expressindia.com