Power of Ten: Literary heavyweights head to JLF, which takes off on Thursday

“We have gathered talent from across the globe — from Jamaica and North Korea to Tasmania and Zimbabwe — to present writers of genius as diverse as war correspondent Dexter Filkins, economist Ha Joon Chang and Italian aesthete, Sanskritist and polymath Roberto Calasso. We import some of the world’s most admired playwrights, poets and novelists, including David Hare, poets Anne Waldman and Ruth Padel, and Man Booker Prize winners Paul Beatty, Alan Hollinghurst and Richard Flanagan, as well as arguably the world’s greatest living archaeologist, Barry Cunliffe. We will explore a vast range of subjects from the history of scent to the rise of the Trilobites; biography of Jack the Ripper to Queen Victoria via Napoleon and Anne Boleyn; tales of the spice trade to the eruption of Krakatoa; we look at Jamaican rap and medieval mystic poetry and the art of screenwriting; we probe the reason for the fall of Rome, the dilemmas facing Edward Snowden, KGB assassination techniques and the secrets of the Panama Papers; the agonies of Syria and the pleasures of Ottoman Istanbul as well as enjoying the decadent swagger of the Rolling Stones 1970 World Tour,” says writer and festival director, William Dalrymple.

This year’s music stage also offers a wide range of acts such as British folktronica artiste Beth Orton, who will perform with her husband Sam Amidon; Bombay Bassment, who became India’s first-ever hip-hop outfit to perform last year at the Glastonbury festival; Malian-French singer Inna Modja, who mixes American pop sounds with African rhythms; blues outfit Soulmate, the Raghu Dixit Project, and Kabir Cafe are the other highlights of the concert series at Hotel Clarks Amer.

The venue, Diggi Palace, will also play host to the facsimile of the Magna Carta — Dr Claire Breay will conduct a session on the history of the great charter. The hotel grounds will also be a site for installations and photo booths by artists Subodh Gupta, Jagmohan Mathodia and photographer Rohit Chawla.

The 10th Jaipur Literature Festival is from January 19-23 at the Diggi Palace, Jaipur. For details, visit: jaipurliteraturefestival.org