Booked Out in India: A Whirlwind October Tour

This October, I had the absolute joy of embarking on a whirlwind and unforgettable book tour across India. An experience that still feels a little like magic. The journey swept me from the lower ranges of the Himalayas, where the air feels sharp and ancient, all the way down to the geometric modernity of Chandigarh in Punjab, and finally into the vibrant, exhilarating capital, Delhi. By the end of it, I was well and truly booked out, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

In Delhi, I stepped into some of the city’s oldest and most iconic bookshops. Places with creaking wooden shelves, bibliophiles drifting between aisles, and that unmistakable scent of paper and ink that makes you feel as though you have stepped back in time. To my amazement, I found my book proudly displayed in front windows, often right beside the incomparable Arundhati Roy. More than once, I stopped in my tracks, overwhelmed by the surreal joy of seeing my work shoulder-to-shoulder with a literary hero.

Over the course of the tour, I signed well over 200 books, where each signature for me was a small moment of connection with its future reader. There is an energy and a hunger for Indian readers to explore the urgency and humanity of climate issues through an Indian lens. The welcome I received was beyond anything I expected; I was made to feel like a literary queen!

I owe immense gratitude to my UK publisher, LID Publishing, and my Indian publisher, Jaico Publishing House, for orchestrating this incredible adventure. Their belief in the book is what carried it through mountains, cities, and countless conversations.

And here’s the biggest revelation I took away from every bookseller, every manager, every book counter I visited in Delhi and Chandigarh: India is ready…not just ready, but eager for more books on the climate crisis that go beyond textbooks. Booksellers told me again and again that while climate literature exists, much of it is academic or technical. There are very few accessible narratives, personal explorations, or compelling stories about climate change set in or written for India. They are excited to champion my book because it fills a much-needed gap.

This tour wasn’t just a milestone. It felt like the beginning of a larger, deeper conversation, one I’m honoured to help spark.