“Too much of a muchness is too much for me,” finished the three poets with a flourish, performing translations into Bangla and English from Gearóid Mac Lochlainn’s original poem in Irish and the audience of over 120 people packed into the Baithak of Diggi Palace broke into a spontaneous applause. Every January since 2006 the tranquil Diggi Palace in Jaipur comes alive with the warble of many voices, the warp and weft of many narratives weave spells around its sprawling lawns and its ornate Durbar  Hall and conversations seep quietly into its every corner.

British Council India has been associated with the festival in some form or other since the festival’s inception and this year we were one of the associate sponsors. Several UK authors received our support for this year’s festival and after the festival travelled to other cities. In partnership with Teamwork Films, the producers of Jaipur Literature Festival, we offered several bursaries to literature students across India who are also members of our library network.

There were three British Council sessions at the Jaipur Lit Fest this year, apart from our support that enabled several UK authors to attend Asia’s premier literature festival. The opening day of the Jaipur Lit Fest on 21 January featured Found in Translation where eight authors, four each from UK and India, sharing almost a dozen languages between them – Udaya Narayana Singh (Maithili, Hindi and Bengali), Meg Bateman (Gaelic), Sampurna Chattarji (English and Bengali), Mererid Hopwood (Welsh), Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih (Khasi and English) Gearóid Mac Lochlainn (Irish), Sivasankari (Tamil) and Matthew Hollis (English). This presentation of literary translation and cross-cultural exchange was the outcome of week-long translation retreat funded by the British Council and Wales Arts International at Neemrana Fort, supported by Siyahi, a literary consultancy.

Six young publishers from the UK captivated the audience at Jaipur Literature Festival on 24 January as they talked about the innovative ways in which they are working to bring writing to new audiences. James Bridle, Peter Collingridge, Lucy Luck, Davy Nougarede, Jessica Pardue and Nii Parke are young creative entrepreneurs from the UK who have been selected as finalists for an award in publishing led by the British Council. Each one of these young people has identified a successful niche within the publishing industry in which they can develop new ways of printing books, of signing up new writers, or of getting books to readers.

Following this presentation, Rod Pryde, Director British Council India hosted lunch on the lawn for festival delegates. Rod announced that India will be Market Focus country at The ondon Book Fair in April 2009 and told guests to look out for a programme including forty Indian writers, who the British Council will bring to London for the Book Fair. The writers will represent the diversity of Indian writing in terms of language, and including both new and established writers.

This year’s festival opened with a bang with author Vikram Seth in conversation with journalist and novelist Sonia Faleiro, basking in the mellow sunshine of Jaipur in January, with glass of red wine in hand. When asked about the difficult years of writing his epic A Suitable Boy, Vikram said his dressing gown, a hot water bottle and whisky kept him going! Vikram’s mother Leila Seth, the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court in India, was a huge draw at this year’s festival with her touching autobiography, On Balance. Vikas Swarup, our man in Pretoria and author of Q+A, now republished as Slumdog Millionaire, was endearingly honest about the fate that awaits an author when it is made into a mega movie, Hollywood style. “There is nothing diplomatic about my books,” Swarup responded to a journalist who asked the predictable ‘poverty porn’ question.

For more information about India Market Focus at The London Book Fair visit www.londonbookfair.co.uk.