McLennan with Motilal director Rajeev Jain in London. Telegraph picture

London, March 14: English language books published in India may soon flood the UK market in what some many see as a literary equivalent of coals to Newcastle.

This is because Waterstone?s Booksellers, the UK?s biggest bookshop chain with 197 branches, has just signed a deal with Motilal Banarsidass, one of India?s largest publishing houses, to bring English language books from India within easy reach of the British reader.

This was revealed to The Telegraph by Raymond McLennan, the managing director of Motilal (UK), who will be the key link man between the publishing house in India and Waterstone?s.

McLennan said: ?Waterstone?s is going to create India-centric corners in its stores which no other bookshop chain has done with books imported directly from India.?

The deal with Waterstone?s is one indication of the growing recognition abroad of Indian publishing, said to be the third largest in the world (after America and England) for English language books.

This year at the London Book Fair, which began yesterday at Olympia, there is a visible Indian presence, not only because there are more delegates from India but also because more Indians seem to be working as editors, agents and publicists for British and American publishing houses.

Another achievement for India is that it will be ?the focus country? next year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the most important annual jamboree for anyone and everyone to do with the book business across the world. This was also revealed by McLennan who said that getting the honour of being the ?focus country? would allow Indian publishing to project itself to the world.

According to McLennan, Motilal?s tie-up with Waterstone?s is a breakthrough for both sides.

Waterstone?s claims that the chain, which was set up in 1982, has now ?grown to become the UK?s leading specialist bookseller?. Its six-storey flagship branch on Piccadilly in London is the biggest bookshop in Europe, with specialist floors concentrating on fiction, academic genres and children?s books.

The advantage for India is that four years ago, Waterstone?s formed a strategic alliance with amazon.co.uk.

The deal with India was confirmed by a Waterstone?s spokeswoman, who said: ?This is an emerging new business for us.?

Some stores would introduce ?clustering? of titles from India, while others, in cities such as Leicester and Birmingham which have significant Asian populations, would draw attention to new titles from India or offer to get them quickly through Motilal.

?Motilal is our designated distributor in India,? the spokeswoman said. ?Motilal would get us some very good Penguin India titles, which are not available through Penguin UK.?

Motilal has also done a deal with Gardners Books, who are one of the largest British bulk buyers of books sourced from across the world. It sells 330,000 books a year and stocks 4 million at any one time so that trade with India can only grow.

As to what kind of Indian book might be of interest to British readers, Alan Street, a senior buyer with Gardners, did not seem too fussed about Shobhaa De and the lady?s views on the state of Indian marriage.

?It?s mind, body and spirit which are the strong sellers,? he summed up.

These are the subjects in which metropolitan Indians have the least interest. In contrast, innocent westerners still believe India is the land of ancient wisdom and yoga, where materialism is kept at bay by a love for the deeper things in life.

Rajeev Jain, director of Motilal, who has come over from Delhi for the London Book Fair, fetched down a copy of Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: Outlines of Indian Philosophy by M. Hiriyanna. ?This is one of our best sellers to foreigners,? he said.

He made a further revealing point, odd for a nation where Hindi is supposed to be the national language. His company, he said, had given up dealing in Hindi books and now dealt exclusively with English publications.

?I don?t know about others but we found Hindi books don?t sell,? said Jain.