When it comes to the written word, William Dalrymple barely needs any introduction. Author of books such as In Xanadu (1989), City of Djinns (1994), The Age of Kali (1998), White Mughals (2002) and Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (2009), the 51-year-old Dalrymple is a historian, travel writer, photographer, broadcaster and critic.

That said one of his enduring legacies would definitely be founding the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival with Namita Gokhale in 2006. From only a handful of attendees in its first year to being rightly called “the greatest literary show on earth”, the JLF has taken giant strides in its decade-long journey by blazing a trail for numerous others.

The JLF will mark its 10th anniversary from 19 to 23 January next year at the majestic Diggi Palace in the Pink City. Centred on the theme “The Freedom to Dream: India at 70”, the festival will be attended by Eka Kurniawan, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Linda Colley and NoViolet Bulawayo among many others.

Co-director Dalrymple talked about how the JLF came into being, the Salman Rushdie episode in 2012, bringing writers like Orhan Pamuk and JM Coetzee to the festival, the speakers he is looking forward to, and his future projects. Excerpts from an interview:

Q How did the idea of the Jaipur Literature Festival come about?

It grew out of an existing festival — the Jaipur Virasat Festival, founded by John Singh of Anokhi. I had just come back from my world tour for White Mughals.

I was aware that wherever you went in the world, you would meet Indian authors who were doing fabulously such as Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie, among several others. However, you would not see them in India — they would just turn up for a book launch. There was no existing culture for book events 15 years ago.

So we started doing literary events for Virasat around 2004 and then the festival split. The music half went to the Rajasthan International Folk Festival in Jodhpur and we became the Jaipur Literature Festival exactly 10 years ago. From 16 people to a third of a million, JLF has really grown. I think India now has about 200 literary festivals, so there has been a big progress.

Q What made you organise the festival in the Pink City?

Jaipur has a very rich literature tradition, dating back to the medieval times. Even before the foundation of Jaipur city, there was a glorious literary tradition associated with the Rajputs of Amer. Jaipur has always been a centre of art, literature, music and of oral tradition.

None of that was actually the reason why we went to Jaipur. We thought of it as a wonderful place to host a festival, being within hopping distance from both Mumbai and Delhi. It is beautiful — a place that attracts alacrity for people who would like to visit for a weekend. It is a place we knew would attract authors if we pulled them in from all corners of the world — and that is indeed what has happened. Also, the weather, in general, is perfect.

Q When you look back now at this decade-long journey, which are the moments that especially warm your heart?

When you get one of the world’s greatest writers to attend the festival, you feel very proud. We have had very great ones — my personal favourites are Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk, JM Coetzee — those to me are the most exciting moments. And we also have the crowds turning up at the festival. Now of course everybody knows about Jaipur Literature Festival and huge numbers turn up — last time, it was a third of a million.

But when we started off, we had about 10 or 20 people, who had bookshops, putting up posters on JLF and we were all encouraging our friends to attend. It is exciting to watch how JLF has grown over the years.

Q Was the Salman Rushdie episode in 2012, the festival’s lowest point? Can he ever be invited back?

It was a very upsetting moment and Salman remains a great friend and one of the world’s greatest writers. And it would be a wonderful thing if he agrees to come for one of our festivals — if not in Jaipur, then in Boulder, Colorado or London. He remains one of the writers I most admire and one of the authors I am personally most fond of. He’s also a very brave and wonderful man.

Q Who are the speakers you are looking forward to listening to at the JLF 2017?

We have particularly gone strong on historians this year and we have some of the world’s greatest historians attending JLF 2017 — Linda Colley, who is one of my greatest heroes, David Cannedine, David Armitage, Barry Cunliffe, the archaeologist, and some amazing novelists like Mark Haddon and a host of amazing authors. It is one of our strongest line-ups ever. Q An edition of the JLF was organised in London this year. Are more such plans in store? Along the same lines, how about taking the JLF to other cities in India?

We have had three events in London and we are looking forward to yet another event in London this summer. We also have the outreach in Boulder but Jaipur is the heart of all activities.

There are many art and literary festivals in India. I certainly would be interested in taking it to other places in the world — we have had offers from Venice and Melbourne, but in India, Jaipur is the focus of our activity.

Q What has been the biggest takeaway for you personally from the JLF?

It has to be seeing these kids so energised by the festival each time. It’s totally free — so our demographic is young — the average age must be around the early or mid-20s. These kids get to see and hear the greatest writers and speakers in the world for free — Booker Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Sahitya Academy winners, Crossword winners, Samuel Johnson winners. And my favourite part is seeing the kids who have come all the way from Assam or Tamil Nadu to hear their favourite authors and they are sleeping at the railway station — that’s what gives me most pride.

Q Intriguingly, your latest is a book of photographs called The Writer’s Eye. What are you working on next?

It was an exhibition, which travelled from Goa to Delhi and then we had an edition in London.

The written word remains my focus and my main passion in life. A new book called Koh-i-noor came out earlier this month — it has been published by Juggernaut and co-written by the wonderful Anita Anand. I am producing another major project — the history of the East India Company, which captures the takeover of India in a book called The Annex.