It was such a delight to attend and speak at the Jaipur Literature Festival, JLF, in January 2017. It is a joyous tumult of people, ideas, and music. I learnt so much at the sessions, and I laughed so much at the parties. For those who don’t know JLF, it is a free literature festival in the pink city of Jaipur, attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

I wasn’t sure that my material on an ‘Angrezi raja aur rani’ (English king and queen) – on Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn: The Lovers Who Changed History – would be that popular, but was bowled over by the response it received – just look at the size of that crowd! – and am grateful to Swapan Dasgupta for his masterly chairing.

I was also honoured to join some of our best biographers – the likes of A.N. Wilson, Andrew Roberts, Lucinda Hawksley, Roy Foster and David Cannadine – in a panel chaired by Anita Anand to discuss the challenges facing the writers of biographies.

Have a watch. If you don’t speak Hindi, I switch back to English very soon. If you do, I can only apologise.