Bibliofile

Will's Smithery

Book promotions are a Faustian bargain not all authors are comfortable with. William Dalrymple, who admits that nearly a year of his writing life will go into promoting The Last Mughal, has no problems with unending book tours: "I enjoy it, get to travel and meet people, a pleasant change after all those years cooped up in the archives." But for all those writers who can't wait to set off on the glamtrail, here's his advice: "You can promote a book till the cows come home, but you can't pull it off unless the book is good enough."

All Lit Up
With an acute shortage of A-List writers, the Kitab litfest has decided to go in for some Bolllywoodisation: Mahesh Bhatt, Javed Akhtar and Shabana will figure in the three-day literary sessions from Feb 23-25. The star of the show though will remain arch-feminist Germaine Greer.