JLF returns to London for second edition

The second edition in UK of the Jaipur Literature Festival will be held in London from 16-17 May.
JLF @ Southbank will feature as part of Alchemy, the Southbank Centre’s celebration of South Asian culture held from 15-25 May.
This year’s line-up includes Anita Anand, Ashwin Sanghi, Lance Price, Lily Wangchuk, Meghnad Desai, Navtej Sarna, Nils Nordberg, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sam Miller, Suhel Seth, Tahmima Anam, Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee and Vasundhara Raje.A weekend pass or day tickets will be available for visitors to take part in an eclectic range of talks.
The Jaipur Literature Festival started in 2006 with only 18 authors and a handful of spectators. It has since grown to become the world’s largest free literary festival attracting nearly 250,000 visitors annually.
Namita Gokhale, author and co-Director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “As the spreading Banyan tree of our festival finds root and sustenance at the Southbank Centre for the second year, Jaipur by the Thames will take you on a unique journey of the mind and spirit.”
Previous participants include Amartya Sen, Salman Rushdie, Oprah Winfrey, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Tash Aw, V.S. Naipaul, Taiye Selasi, Reza Aslan, Orhan Pamuk, Jung Chang, Jonathan Franzen and JM Coetzee.
The event is often seen as an agenda-setter on key issues from the global economic crisis to the rise of Indian language publishing. Taking this cue, the Southbank edition of JLF retains this spirit.
Jaipur Literature Festival directors Namita Gokhale, William Dalrymple and producer Sanjoy K. Roy have curated a weekend of talks, music and readings.
William Dalrymple, author and co-Director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “In eight years the Jaipur Literature Festival has grown from 14 lost tourists to a quarter of a million people and it’s now the biggest free festival of literature in the world. We can’t wait to bring back its energy and colour to the Southbank Centre: our Jaipur-on-Thames."
Sanjoy Roy, MD of Teamwork Arts and Producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “We are delighted to return to the Southbank with a programme that showcases so many different issues that impact our lives across the world.”