The city of Jaipur’s emergence as an English-language literary hub probably couldn’t have been predicted, but its literary festival has been going for ten years now, and judging by the size of the crowds, it’s not going to go away. Launched by the estimable British historian William Dalrymple, it attracts a high-powered class of international writers and thrilled, culture-hungry audiences.

On my way to this year’s festival, my driver, a taciturn man called Jackie, decided, for no discernable reason, to take me to a hotel an hour outside the city. Later that evening he took me to two different restaurants, neither of which contained the people I had arranged to meet, and I began to suspect that Jackie might not have been playing with a full deck. But the festival was great.

• Tags: Chat Tomuk, Issue 6, Jaipur Literary Festival