Literary Calendar
Events for October 1, 2013 through October 8, 2013
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Lincoln Book Festival: Richard Davenport-Hines on sex, class and power in the age of Profumo
Richard Davenport-Hines on An English Affair: sex, class and power in the age of Profumo Undoubtedly the biggest British political scandal of 20th century, Richard sets it firmly in the context of life and attitudes of the late fifties and early sixties, putting flesh on the bones of all the participants! As a journalist and prize-winning author, Richard has written on British attitudes to sex and sexuality, an anthology of vice, and biographies of Proust, W H Auden and Lady Desbrough. His last&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: Diane Atkinson on The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton
Diane Atkinson on The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton Caroline Norton was accused by her husband of ‘a criminal conversation’ (adultery) with the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, precipitating the biggest scandal of the 19th century and a high profile divorce. Cut off by her husband, Caroline fought for women’s rights in male-dominated Victorian society, eventually resulting in women having a separate legal identity. Diane is a lecturer and curator at the Museum of London specialising in women’s history. – www.dianeatkinson.co.uk/ More information/book tickets
Lincoln Book Festival: A. N. Wilson in conversation with Gil Darby
A N Wilson in conversation with Gil Darby A prolific and eclectic author and newspaper columnist, A N Wilson is known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views – from The Elizabethans andThe Victorians to Dante, Hitler, Betjeman, Jesus and more. His latest novel, The Potter’s Hand is a fictionalised biography of Josiah Wedgwood. More information/book tickets
Tom Holland on his new translation of The Histories of Herodotus, Daunt Bookshop, Marylebone
Tom Holland has brought a mass readership to classical history with books like In the Shadow of the Sword and Persian Fire. Now he has produced a magisterial new translation of one of the ancient world’s most fascinating books. Written in the fifth century BC, The Histories tells of the war between the Persian Empire and the Greek city states as well as being full of bizarre stories which account for much of what we know about the world he&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: Charles Sebag Montefiore on The British as Collectors
Charles Sebag Montefiore on The British as Collectors: from the Tudors to the Present (co-authored with James Stourton) Charles Sebag-Montefiore has spent 40 years creating the definitive library on British patronage and collecting. He is a trustee of the National Gallery and was a trustee of the National Art Collections Fund between 2000 and 2011. James Stourton is Chairman ofSotheby’s UK and frequently writes on the history of collecting. More information/book tickets
Lincoln Book Festival: Sarah Gristwood, Richard Buckley and John Ashdown-Hill
Sarah Gristwood author of Blood Sisters: The women behind the Wars of the Roses – best-selling Tudor biographer and commentator on royal affairs talks about the lives and importance of the women in this very real game of thrones.http://www.sarahgristwood.co.uk/ Richard Buckley of University of Leicester Archaeological Services and project manager on the Greyfriars dig, talks about his forthcoming book, co-authored with Mathew Morris, Richard III: the king under the car park (working title). John Ashdown-Hill author of The Last Days of Richard III&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: Julie Summers on Jambusters
Unpaid, unsung, to a large extent uncomplaining, these women quietly and often with humour, made the countryside tick during World War II. “Julie Summers is one of those natural born writers who have a compelling story to tell.” http://www.juliesummers.co.uk More information/book tickets
Lincoln Book Festival: Tracy Borman on The Witches of Belvoir
Lincolnshire-born author has a local launch for her new book about witchcraft in Jacobean England – the witches who feature in the book lived at Belvoir and were tried at Lincoln Castle. Tracy has appeared with Tony Robinson on ‘Walking Through History’ and in a Channel 5 documentary on witchcraft. She has recently been appointed interim Chief Curator of the Royal Palaces alongside Lucy Worsley. – www.tracyborman.co.uk More information/book tickets
Allan Ahlberg at the London Lit Festival, Kings Place
One of Britain’s best-loved children’s authors, Allan Ahlberg tells us about his own oddly enchanted childhood lived out in the Black Country during the 1940s. He remembers a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life insurance policies (‘£6 if the child dies under age 3′) and fearsome bacon slicers. And of his first days at school: ‘Allan could do much better. He is most&hellip
Jung Chang at the London Lit Festival, Kings Place
The author of Wild Swans tells us the extraordinary story of the most important woman in Chinese history: Empress Dowager Cixi who ruled China for 47 years. Selected at 15 as one of the Emperor’s 3000 concubines, she launched a palace coup at his death and transformed the country from a medieval state into a modern society. Jung Chang will be in conversation with Jonathan Fenby, formerly editor of The South China Morning Post, The Observer and Reuters World Service as well as a senior correspondent for The&hellip
Elif Shafak at the London Lit Festival, Kings Place
Come and spend an hour in the company of the most internationally recognised Turkish woman writer writing in both Turkish and English. She may talk about her country’s rich heritage of multiple cultures and legends as well as as honour killings, a particular past tense which only exists in Turkish and trying to balance the devotion to family with the compulsion to write. More information/book tickets
Sathnam Sanghera and Lottie Moggach, Kings Place
Two of today’s most exciting promising young writers discuss life, lies, love and literature. Sathnam Sanghera’s first novel, Marriage Material, is an epic family tale centring on a corner shop. It has been picked by Waterstones as a fiction debut of the year. All reviews here. Eleven publishers fought over the rights to Lottie Moggach’s first novel Kiss Me First, a chilling and ingeniously plotted tale of stolen identity. All reviews here. Sathnam Sanghera is a British journalist and author of The Boy With&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: Con Coughlin on Churchill’s First War
Con Coughlin on Churchill’s First War: young Winston and the fight against the Taliban A dramatic piece of military history which affords us a rare insight into both the ‘Great Game’ and the 21st-century conflict that has raged longer than World War II and taken more lives than the Falklands. Con Coughlin is executive foreign editor of the Daily Telegraph and an expert on the Middle East and international security issues. More information/book tickets
Lincoln Book Festival: William Dalrymple on Return of a King
Bestselling and prize-winning historian and travel author, Dalrymple has enthralled readers since his writing debut. In his latest book the First Afghan War is told through the lives of unforgettable characters on all sides, using time contemporary Afghan accounts of the conflict for the first time. ‘A must-read for anyone wanting to understand the complexities of modern day Afghanistan’ (Sunday Express) ‘Like (his) heartbreaking, extraordinary White Mughals, this book is as taut and richly embroidered as a great novel … a masterpiece of nuanced writing&hellip
Jeremy Paxman at the London Lit Festival, Kings Place
Using a wealth of first-hand source material, the renowned broadcaster Jeremy Paxman gives us an image of what life was actually like for the British during the First World War. From politicians, newspapermen, campaigners and Generals to Tommies, nurses, factory-workers and children, he captures the whole mood and morale of the nation and explains how life and identity in Britain were utterly transformed not always for the worse. Jeremy Paxman is an award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of seven works of&hellip
Penelope Lively at the London Lit Festival
‘This is not quite a memoir. Rather, it is the view from old age. And a view of old age itself, this place at which we arrive with a certain surprise – ambushed, or so it can seem. One of the few advantages of age is that you can report on it with a certain authority; you are a native now, and know what goes on here.’ Dame Penelope Lively reflects on old age, her life and times, memory, reading and&hellip
Jonathan Coe at the London Lit Festival, Kings Place
Jonathan Coe returns to the comic mode of What a Carve Up! and The Rotters’ Club with this fresh and invigorating portrait of Britain (and Europe) after the war, struggling to find its identity, torn between tantalizing visions of the future and the certainties of the past, all mirrored in the life of a single, rather bemused, civil servant. Read all the reviews for Expo 58. This talk will be chaired by Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor at The Independent. Book tickets/more information
Ian Buruma in conversation with Jonathan Derbyshire, Prospect
Ian Buruma speaks to Jonathan Derbyshire, managing editor of Prospect to mark the launch of Buruma’s new book Year Zero: A History of 1945. Glass of wine included. More information/book tickets
Scott Jurek at the Bloomsbury Institute
Scott Jurek, ultrarunner extraordinaire and bestselling author of Eat and Run, will be here in the UK for a special event at the Bloomsbury Institute. Scott Jurek has been a dominant force in the gruelling and growing sport of ultrarunning for more than a decade. In 1999, as a complete unknown, he took the lead in the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile race over the Gold Rush trails of America’s Sierra Nevada. He went on to win that race an&hellip
Alexander McCall Smith, Daunt Bookshop, Marylebone
It is now 15 years since the first publication of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Years and 15 years since we fell in love with Precious Ramotswe and her creator, Alexander McCall Smith. Alexander will also be celebrating the publication of a new book in the series, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon, and to bring us up to date with the trials and adventures of his much-loved fictional creations from Botswana, Edinburgh and London. He might also be persuaded to give&hellip