Sujata Sen, Director (East India), British Council, said: “Besides providing funds for several events to be organised during the fair, the Scotland government, along with the National Library of Scotland and National Museums are showing a lot of interest in the Kolkata connection.”

She added that several Scottish groups and individuals came together to form the Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust, which along with several other bodies, is overseeing the restoration work of the Scottish cemetery.

Interaction between Scots and their Kolkata counterparts is also on the cards. To begin with, Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith is scheduled to deliver the opening speech at the book fair. A group of 40 poets from the state will be taking a ride in the heritage tram Bonolata to the northern parts of the city with their Scottish counterparts. The programme will culminate in an evening of discussion and poetry.

Towards the end of the fair, the 250th birth anniversary of Scottish littérateur Robert Burns will be commemorated at the fair, with the Scottish government and the British Council hosting a supper.

Ruth Kirkpatrick from the Scottish Storytelling Centre will also hold a storytelling session with the patuas of Bengal.

“These interactions might just help form a poetry library in the city on the lines of the Scottish Poetry Library, which has an amazing collection,” said Sen.

“Nobel laureate Sir James Alexander Mirrlees, Scottish economist and an authority on the current global economic crisis, will be delivering a lecture about the condition of markets and loans,” Sen added.

Writer Mani Shankar Mukherjee, whose English translation of Jana Aronyo will be unveiled at the London Book Fair this year, will also examine Kolkata’s prospects as a City of Literature, a recognition conferred by the UNESCO.

American writers at the Kolkata book fair
The Kolkata book fair this year will sport the colours of new America, thanks to African-American storyteller Arthur Flowers, who along with Irish-American writer and activist Michael MacDonald will participate in a series of events at the book fair. Arthur Flowers will be part of a poetry session to be organised in the main auditorium on January 31. Both writers will also participate in a seminar at the American Center titled “The Divided Mind of Black America: Race, Literature and Politics in the Post-Civil Rights Era”.

The multi-faceted Flowers is the author of three books — De Mojo Blues, Good Loving Blues and Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band. He currently teaches at Syracuse University.

He is also a Blues singer, co-founder of the New Renaissance Writers Guild and founder of a literary workshop in Memphis.