Jaipur literature festival: Simply the very best

One of the consequences of being an author is that one gets rather a lot of invitations . Some of these are eminently resistible, but then there are More Pictures those invitations that cannot be turned down. So when a summons to Jaipur was received, it had to be obeyed on two grounds. Firstly, it was Jaipur; and secondly, it came from no less a person than William Dalrymple. One does not turn down Mr Dalrymple. So I readily and happily accepted, and now that the festival has come and gone I am immensely glad that I was there. The Jaipur Literature Festival, now only in its fifth year, is simply one of the very best literary festivals in the world.
And there is quite stiff competition. This year I shall be attending literary festivals in Dubai, Hong Kong, Canada, Britain and Sweden. That sounds a lot, but it is only scratching the surface; in recent years, literary festivals have proliferated to the extent that just about every city of any significance feels that it must have one. As a result, one could, if so minded, easily spend an entire year going from literary festival to literary festival without a break; nobody in his or her right mind would do that, of course.
Literary festivals come in different flavours. At one end of the spectrum are the large trade-fair-type , of which the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany is the senior member of the family. The Kolkata Book Fair, which I was fortunate enough to attend last year, is in this category. These are fairs where publishers show their wares, both to other publishers and to the general public. The emphasis in these is not so much on talks by authors as on showing and selling books. Kolkata is in a class of its own in terms of public attendance: over two million people cross its threshold each year.
Then there are the festivals that consist of talks and readings by authors; the Jaipur Festival is one of these, and there are a lot of them. Some are residential, with most of the public attending the festival staying at one or two festival hotels. The Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka is of this type. It is a paradise for the book-lover , with the holding of a series of intimate lunches at which visitors can have a meal and conversation with one of their favourite authors. Sheer numbers make that difficult in Jaipur, but the principle of eating together at the same tables is observed. This is a very important feature of Jaipur: authors and readers mix freely and anybody can go up to an author and start a conversation about books. That is a great delight, and I cannot recall just how many engaging conversations I had in the course of the four days of Jaipur.
This admirable democratic principle is further enshrined in the Jaipur tradition of making entry to the festival and all its events free of charge. This is very attractive, as it means that nobody need ration themselves on grounds of cost. If you want to spend the entire day at talks, then you can do so at Jaipur even if you have no money. There were plenty of students and schoolchildren at this festival, some of who might well not have been able to be there had there been a charge.
And the programme, although free, was of the very highest quality. It is unusual, except in the largest most glitzy literary festivals , to find a cast of authors quite as starstudded as was the case in Jaipur. How is this pulled off? The answer, I think, is partly connected with the city itself: who can resist a visit to the world-famous pink city? But it is more than that. The way to get authors to come is to have the right directors making the appeal. Jaipur has two distinguished directors, the inspirational Namita Gokhale and that writer of genius, William Dalrymple. Both have good contacts and must have been in a position to twist quite a few otherwise busy and particular arms. The result: the top slice of the world's literary figures said yes, we're coming. Wole Soyinka, Vikram Chandra and Louis de Bernières were amongst those who accepted the invitation. And next year's provisional acceptances looks immensely distinguished too.
So Jaipur - and India - have succeeded in creating something very special. The problem now will be that of managing success. The festival has grown, but I think it should not be allowed to grow too big. If it does, then the charm and the specialness of this great literary occasion could be compromised. A literary festival is like a delicate plant: nurture it and tend it, but keep its growth under control. As it is, it's perfection itself.
The writer is the best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, The Sunday Philosophy Club & 44 Scotland Street series