One of the pleasures of my job is meeting authors and hearing about their books – and as most booksellers and authors do enjoy a drink, we often meet in most convivial surroundings. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Sydney author David Dyer, whose first novel, The Midnight Watch, will be published by Penguin Random House in March next year. It’s an historical story based on the sinking of the Titanic and centres on why the British freighter, the SS Californian, adrift a few kilometres north of the Titanic, did nothing when the Titantic sent off its distress rockets. Dyer has been fascinated by the Titanic since he was a child and is well qualified to write the book having served as a ship’s officer and worked for the law firm that represented the Titanic’s owners. The book has excited publishers around the world and has been picked by publishers in the US and UK as well as Australia.

If you are not doing anything in late January, you could do a lot worse than hop off to the world’s most exciting literary festival, The Jaipur Literature Festival. I went last year on a tour organised by Marieke Brugman and had a fascinating time. As usual, this year’s guests are an eclectic mix including many from the sub-continent (who I’ve found most interesting) but also guests from Europe and the United States, including Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty, Margaret Atwood and Colm Tóibín. Marieke is organising another tour for 2016, and as well as the Festival tour itself, Marieke is organising talks with renowned Indian writers Amit Chaudhuri, Tishani Doshi and Ashok Ferrey. Broadcaster Caroline Baum will moderate the sessions at the heritage hotel, Castle Kanota, which was one of the locations for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel film. The dates are 18–26 January and details can be found here.

If you want some intellectual excitement earlier than January, you can get it from The Wheeler Centre which is presenting its first ‘Interrobang – A Festival of Questions’ on 27 and 28 November. It’s a pretty exciting idea: each session is a question, hence the Interrobang, which if you didn’t know, is a printing term for excited question – a merging of the exclamation and question marks. Authors and thinkers from Australia and overseas will consider questions such as: Are Cockroaches Attracted to Human Tears?; Truth is Stanger Than Fiction, Can Fiction be Stranger than Truth?; and, Why are People Nicer to You on Your Birthday? Philosopher Raimond Gaita has got the answer to the last one, apparently! Participants include a whole range of interesting people from scientists to comedians, and Geraldine Brooks, Cory Doctorow and New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris are flying in to lend a hand. It should be a lot of fun, but stimulating too of course! Details and bookings here.

Mark Rubbo