Salman Rushdie has revealed that he left London, his home since childhood, because he thought it was bitchy and uninspiring.

In an interview in today's New York Times, Rushdie, who faced an Islamic death threat over his book The Satanic Verses, talks with relish of his new life in Manhattan. He moved to New York earlier this year and has been given celebrity status.

He said that London's literary circles were 'backbiting and incestuous'. He said : 'I think it speaks for itself that, for somebody who lived in England for as long as I did, relatively little of my work has dealt with it.'

But he praised New York's 'famous electricity' and said the city held more promise. 'There's so much stuff just asking me to write it down here,' he said. 'You know, all the furniture on the street. What places are called. Everything has a different name. Toothpaste isn't called the same thing, coffee isn't called the same thing.'

Rushdie, 53, moved to the New York home of his girlfriend, Padma Lakshmi, a model and now TV host. He left his third wife, Elizabeth, and his two sons, aged four and 21, in the UK.

Reaction in Britain was sceptical. Critics say his ego has been deflated by the poor sales of his latest book, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which has received better reviews in the US than in the UK. He was also disappointed that it failed to make last year's Booker Prize shortlist.

A literary commentator told The Observer: ' The novel did not sell well and a lot of people were saying Rushdie had got a bit too big in the ego and would not allow any changes to be made to his draft.'

Rushdie spent nine years in 30 safe houses after an Iranian fatwa in 1989 claimed The Satanic Verses was blasphemous. Some New York socialites refuse to eat in the same restaurant with Rushdie because they think he is a security risk.