Kate Summerscale

Anna Politkovskaya An outstandingly courageous critic of the current Russian regime, journalist and author Anna Politkovskaya has been the recipient of numerous international honours. Sadly she was found shot dead in a lift at her apartment block in Moscow on 7 October 2006… Colm Toibin (2012 event) A writer absolutely at the height of his powers, Colm Tóibín is known for his stunning novels such as Brooklyn and… Andrea Levy Andrea Levy's Small Island has won the Orange, Whitbread and Commonwealth prizes. The author speaks in this 2005 event with intelligence and wit about the book and her career… Edna O'Brien (2016 Event) Philip Roth called it Edna O’Brien’s masterpiece; for John Banville it’s savage, tender and true; Claire Messud described it as arduous and beautiful. The Little Red Chairs is the work of a truly great Irish writer at the height of her powers. A decade… Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Bidisha (2015 Event) Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is one of Britain’s most important commentators on multiculturalism: in Exotic England she describes ‘a curious nation’ that has developed thanks to its long history of immigration. Bidisha is a writer and human… Dag Solstad (2018 Event) One of Norway’s most celebrated contemporary writers joins us with his latest novel, T Singer. Set in the small Norwegian town of Notodden, Dag Solstad's story is a heartbreaking account of love and loneliness, which lays bare the existential… Zakes Mda (2014 event) Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Zakes Mda is regarded as one of the most important novelists to have emerged on South Africa’s literary scene since the end of apartheid. The author of more than 20 novels and plays, Mda is now resident in the… Bernard MacLaverty Rachel Kushner (2018 Event) Rachel Kushner’s much-anticipated follow-up novel to the dazzlingly successful The Flamethrowers is The Mars Room, a fearless and brutally honest portrayal of Romy, a woman starting a double life sentence in a US correctional facility, leaving her young… Roger Robinson: ‘Ordinary Poems Won’t Change the World (2020 Event) Firmly rooted in the dub poetry tradition of his Trinidadian heritage, Robinson’s plain-speaking, fizzy, often joyous verse journeys through our contemporary preoccupations with a seasoned insight few could replicate. From the ongoing injustices of…