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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »‘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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »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
Find out more »5×15 is an evening of weird and wonderful 15-minute stories, where speakers take to the stage to talk about their lives, passions and inspirations. On the 9th October, 5×15 is let loose in Soho, curating an evening of stories from Soho’s club scene at The Other Club. Speakers include Sophie Parkin talking about The Colony Room Club, and Dr. Matthew Green on Soho’s bars in the 1950s, and the 1674 women’s petition against coffee along the way. More information/book tickets
Find out more »Sarah Dunant answers questions at the British Italian Society. Sarah Dunant is the author of the international bestseller The Birth of Venus, which has received major worldwide acclaim and In the Company of the Courtesan. With the publication of Sacred Hearts, she rounds out a Renaissance trilogy bringing voice to the lives of three different women in three different historical contexts. More information/book tickets
Find out more »The long awaited third part of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s famous trilogy that began with A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water was not published during his lifetime but Artemis Cooper and Colin Thubron have now brought it to publication and we are thrilled that they will be here to talk about it. This completes the account of the journey that Patrick Leigh Fermor made on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople as&hellip
Find out more »The Other Club’s agony aunt, LSE sociologist and Honey Money Author Catherine Hakim teaches you The New Rules of dating in the internet age. Come and find out how the web has changed who we sleep with and why. And ask Hakim’s advice on your own Millennial love love. More information/book tickets
Find out more »In a rare visit to the UK and his only public event, Khaled Hosseini, the bestselling and much-loved author of The Kite Runner, will be talking about his new novel And the Mountains Echoed at the Royal Institution. Read all the reviews for And the Mountains Echoed here. Khaled Hosseini’s new novel And the Mountains Echoed is the story of two siblings, Pari and Abdullah. Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth,&hellip
Find out more »An evening of readings from the books written by the six short-listed authors. Hear the work that could win one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. Below are the authors long-listed for the prize: Harvest by Jim Crace The Kills by Richard House The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri TransAtlantic by Colum McCann The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris Five Star Billionaire by Tash&hellip
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