India’s English-speaking middle class is expanding fast and expected to reach 500 million by 2025. It represents a dream market for publishers and one that is set to become the biggest in the world. So what books are Indians reading? How are the perennial classics such as Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse faring against the emerging Indian authors? And what does it take to become a bestseller in India? Mukti Jain Campion reports from the Jaipur Literature Festival and from Trivandrum in Kerala, India’s most literate state. (1 x 28′)
The programme was full of humour, interest and symbolic import – D J Taylor, The Tablet
First broadcast May 2012 BBC Radio 4
Contributors include: best-selling authors Jeffrey Archer, Chetan Bhagat, William Dalrymple, Jaishree Misra and Tarun Tejpal.
Producer Mukti Jain Campion
Radio Choice: The Sunday Times
Radio 4 Pick of the Week
The secret to writing a bestseller in India
Read DJ Taylor’s Tablet Review
