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Author Name: Iain Sinclair

Event Name: Faster Than Sound: An English Journey Re-Imagined

Date/Time: January 30, 2010, 17.00

Venue: Snape Maltings, Concert Hall, Snape

City and Postcode: Suffolk, IP17 1SP

Description: 'I am here, in a time of stress, to look at the face of England...’ J. B. Priestley, English Journey, 1934 Inspired by Priestley’s timeless classic, Iain Sinclair and Alan Moore – writers, film-maker, graphic novelist, psycho-geographers – undertake their own journeys across our England. Their first steps together, the opening chapter, is a journey to Aldeburgh. They are joined by song collector and writer Shirley Collins, one of England’s greatest cultural treasures; composer Susan Stenger, creator of the 96-day-long ‘Soundtrack For An Exhibition’; F. M. Einheit, German avant-garde found-object percussionist; and visual artist Graham Dolphin, who specializes in text and image assemblages. It is a project like no other – a mapping of place in the here and now; electronic graffiti, folk music and unique writing styles intertwining; voices set in a haunted filmic soundscape. The ancient – the half-remembered, the recent past, the present.

Price: £10.00

Author Name: Edward de Bono

Event Name: Edward de Bono public lecture at LSE: Think - Before it's too late

Date/Time: February 1, 2010, 18.30

Venue: The London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, Houghton Street

City and Postcode: London, WC2A 2AE

Description: London School of Economics Department of Management public lecture. Edward de Bono is a renowned writer and philosopher. He invented the concept of lateral thinking and is the author of many books, including Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking. Lecture will be followed by author book signing.

Price: This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Mia Farlane

Event Name: Polari

Date/Time: February 10, 2010, 18.30

Venue: St Paul's Pavillion, Royal Festival Hall

City and Postcode: London, SE1 8XX

Description: Paul Burston's 'peerless gay literary salon' returns to St Paul's Pavillion above the Royal Festival Hall with Mia Farlane and Celine Hispiche. Author Mia Farlane reads from her debut novel Footnotes to Sex, described by Sarah Waters as 'a wonderfully impressive first novel: subtle, smart and very funny'. Bookselling provided.

Price: This event is free but requires a ticket

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Meg Rosoff

Event Name: Meg Rosoff at Bishop's Stortford College 3.45 and 7.30 (2 sessions)

Date/Time: February 11, 2010, 15.45 and 19.30

Venue: Bishop's Stortford College, Maze Green Road

City and Postcode: CM23 5NW

Description: Meg Rosoff - Author of award-winning How I Live. Now, talks to College pupils about her fourth novel The Bride’s Farewell and to all comers about Keeping Teenagers Reading!

Price: Tickets available from 5th January. To book: 01279 838607, bookings@bishopsstortfordcollege.org

Author Name: Alex Scarrow

Event Name: Faster Than Sound: An English Journey Re-Imagined

Date/Time: February 11, 2010, 17.00

Venue: London School of Economics, Houghton Street

City and Postcode: London, WC2A 2AE

Description: Alex Scarrow and Rebecca Clee (Spinebreakers) discuss the future of teen fiction at LSE Festival.

Price: Available on LSE website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Anna Minton

Event Name: Anna Minton in conversation with Michael Rosen

Date/Time: February 11, 2010, 19.30

Venue: Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate

City and Postcode: London, EC2M 4QH

Description: Britons are increasingly aware of living in a society plagued by fear and unhappiness. Could our towns and cities be the cause? GROUND CONTROL is an in-depth and passionate exploration of the state of Britain today, revealing how the market place has taken control from the local electorate. Now, untested urban planning has transformed not only our cities, but the very nature of public space, of citizenship and of trust.

Price: Tickets £5 conc £3

Event contact information: 020 7392 9200

Author Name: Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett

Event Name: Richard Wilkinson at Wanstead Library

Date/Time: February 12, 2010, 19.00

Venue: Wanstead Library, Spratt Hall Road

City and Postcode: London, E11 2RQ

Description: Richard Wilkinson, co-author of The Spirit Level will be talking about the book at Wanstead Library

Price: Tickets £5 from Wanstead Library or Newham Bookshop

Author Name: Brian Dillon

Event Name: Richard Wilkinson at Wanstead Library

Date/Time: February 13, 2010, 14.30

Venue: LSE, Houghton Street

City and Postcode: London, WC2A 2AE

Description: Consciousness of our own mortality is at the heart of the human experience, and has long fascinated writers and artists, inspiring quite an obsession with the body and its well-being. This panel will examine the relationship between creativity, illness and the imagination.

Price: All events in the Literary Festival programme are free and open to all, but a ticket is required. You can request one ticket per person. Tickets will be available to request from 2pm on Monday 25 January 2010. Members of the public will be able to request a ticket using the online ticket request form, which will be live on this weblisting. LSE staff and students will be able to collect a ticket from the SU Reception, located on the ground floor of the East Building.

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Author Name: Jason Bradbury

Event Name: Jason Bradbury at Waterstone's Likeside Shopping Centre

Date/Time: February 20, 2010, 13.00

Venue: Waterstone's Lakeside, 69 Thurrock, Lakeside Shopping Centre

City and Postcode: West Thurrock, RM20 2ZG

Description: Jason Bradbury brings his Robot Roadshow to Waterstone's in Lakeside Shopping Centre for a talk and signing.

Price: Free

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Joshua Ferris

Event Name: UEA Literary Festival

Date/Time: February 23, 2010, 19.00

Venue: University of East Anglia, Norwich

City and Postcode: East Anglia, NR4 7TJ

Description: Joshua Ferris will be reading from and discussing his new novel The Unnamed, at the University of East Anglia's Spring Literary Festival.

Price: Individual tickets £6 (no concessions)

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett

Event Name: The Spirit Level

Date/Time: February 25, 2010, 19.00

Venue: London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place

City and Postcode: London, WC1A 2JL

Description: In the Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better For Everyone, epidemiologists Wilkinson and Pickett draw on 30 years of research to present the case that social and eocnomic inequality leads to worse health, higher crime rates, more violence, stress and obesity in all sectors of society, not only the poorest. Since its first publication last year, it's sparked a huge amount of interest. To mark the publication of the book in paperback, Wilkinson and Pickett will discuess their arguments and the response to them.

Price: £4 or £6 for non subscribers

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Diarmaid MacCulloch

Event Name: Diarmaid MacCulloch at the Bath Literature Festival

Date/Time: February 27, 2010

Venue: Bath Masonic Hall, 12 Old Orchard Street

City and Postcode: Bath, BA1 1JU

Description: Christianity has had an incalculable impact on human history. Diarmaid MacCulloch (A History of Christianity) describes not only the main ideas and personalities of Christian history, its organisation and spirituality, but how it has fundamentally changed politics, sex, and human society. You may have seen the recent television series. Now Diarmaid will be in conversation with BBC Radio 3’s Christopher Cook.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Andrew Roberts

Event Name: Andrew Roberts: The Storm of War

Date/Time: February 27, 2010

Venue: Guidhall, High Street

City and Postcode: Bath, BA1 5AW

Description: One of our leading British historians Andrew Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-making process and a different strategy, the Axis powers could have won The Second World War. Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler after the war correct, or were they merely scape-goating their former Führer once they could criticise him with impunity?

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Niall Ferguson

Event Name: The Ascent (and Descent) of Money

Date/Time: February 28, 2010

Venue: Galleon, Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way

City and Postcode: London, WC1H 0DG

Description: We are delighted to welcome Niall Ferguson, one of those rare historians who is equally brilliant investigating the past, and analyzing the present. The author of the superb Ascent of Money and The House of Rothschild probes with his customary clarity and acuity the relationships between Jews and finance, and anti-Semitism and financial crises, topics especially pertinent now. Niall Ferguson is Professor of History at Harvard University. A best-selling author, he also writes regularly for newspapers and magazines all over the world. He has written and presented three highly successful television documentary series, most recently, The Ascent of Money.

Price: £6-£12

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Will Self

Event Name: Jewish Book Week: Will Self with Adam Thirlwell

Date/Time: February 28, 2010, 14.00

Venue: ORT House, 126 Albert St

City and Postcode: London, NW1 7NE

Description: A Beginner's Guide to Jews on the Edge - On half-Jews, non-jewish-Jews, self-hating Jews, anti-semitic Jews, et al…Two of the most formidably minded polemicists on the literary scene discuss the many possible manifestations of Judaism and whether any of these semitic permutations actually matters.

Price: £10

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Tristram Stuart

Event Name: Tristram Stuart: Waste

Date/Time: March 1, 2010

Venue: Guidhall, High Street

City and Postcode: Bath, BA1 5AW

Description: Farmers, manufacturers, supermarkets and consumers in North America and Europe throw away up to half of the food they produce- enough to feed all the world’s hungry more than three times over. The situation is insane. Tristram Stuart (Waste: Uncovering The Global Food Scandal) knows more than almost anybody else about this. Come and hear him talk about the problems and then put forward some creative suggestions for a better way of feeding the world.

Price: See website

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Author Name: Jonathan Safran Foer

Event Name: Jewish Book Week: Jonathan Safran Foer

Date/Time: March 1, 2010, 19.00

Venue: Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way

City and Postcode: London, WC1 0DG

Description: Jonathan Safran Foer was inspired by his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, to repudiate indifference and hypocrisy. This led him to seek the truth about the way animals are farmed, the damage this causes both the environment and our health. Could vegetarianism be the new kashrut? No need to eat meat to be incisive, funny and brilliant. Jonathan will be in conversation with etgar Keret, who stopped eating meat aged five after his father told him that hunters killed Bambi's mother in order to eat her.

Price: £10

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Christopher Andrew

Event Name: Christopher Andrew and Jimmy Burns

Date/Time: March 2, 2010

Venue: Guidhall, High Street

City and Postcode: Bath, BA1 5AW

Description: How much do we really know about our Intelligence Services and can we trust them? Christopher Andrew was granted access to MI5 archives and the resulting book The Defence of the Realm reveals more of than ever before about the role the British Security Service has played in twentieth century history. In Papa Spy Jimmy Burns tells the story of his father’s work for the secret services in 1940’s Spain and his betrayal by Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt. They talk with novelist Jenni Mills. Qui custodiet ipsos custodes?

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Tristram Hunt

Event Name: The Frock Coated Communis

Date/Time: March 2, 2010

Venue: Guildhall, Bath High Street

City and Postcode: Bath, BA1 5AW

Description: Communism has been one of the most influential global political ideologies of modern times – but how did it begin? Tristram Hunt, author of the The Frock-Coated Communist: The revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, looks at the creation of the Communist Manifesto – the ideas behind it and what it still means today. This is your chance to come and see the most exciting young historian working in Britain talk about one of the dominant ideologies of the twentieth century.

Price: £6.50/£5.50

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Alain de Botton

Event Name: Aye Write!

Date/Time: March 5, 2010, 18.00

Venue: Mitchell Library, North Street

City and Postcode: Glasgow, G3 7DN

Description: One of our leading philosophers and writers turns his attention to work in The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. We spend most of our waking lives at work, and yet we rarely ask ourselves how we got there or what it might mean for us. De Botton heads out into the under-charted worlds of the office, the factory, the fishing fleet and the logistics centre. Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? What is its meaning, and why do we daily exhaust not only ourselves but also the planet? Lucid, witty and inventive as ever.

Price: £7/£6 concessions

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: John Gray

Event Name: John Gray: The Global Crisis - the Next Steps

Date/Time: March 6, 2010

Venue: Bath Central, United Reformed Church, Grove Street

City and Postcode: Bath, BA2 6PJ

Description: Everyone knows that we are living through a global financial crisis, but not everyone knows what, if anything, can be done about it. A first move might be to come and hear John Gray (who Andrew Marr once described as ‘the closest thing we have to a window-smashing French intellectual’) come and talk about ‘The Global Crisis – the next Steps.

Price: See website

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Author Name: Steven Pinker

Event Name: Arguments for the Existence of God

Date/Time: March 6, 2010, 19.30

Venue: Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way

City and Postcode: London, WC1H 0DG

Description: Arguments for the Existence of God Hailed as ‘America’s brainiest couple’ by Salon magazine, the philosopher/novelist Rebecca Goldstein and Steven Pinker, his generation's most influential cognitive theorist, discuss Goldstein’s latest novel.

Price: £15

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Christopher Andrew

Event Name: Aye Write! Ben Macintyre and Christopher Andrew

Date/Time: March 7, 2010

Venue: Mitchell Library, North Street

City and Postcode: Glasgow, G3 7DN

Description: Ben Macintyre is the author of Agent Zigzag, among many other stories of espionage and deception. His new book, Operation Mincemeat, tells the story of the most successful wartime deception ever attempted, and certainly the strangest, involving a secret agent who was different, in one crucial respect, from any spy before or since: he was dead. He discusses espionage with Christopher Andrew, author of The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, published recently to mark the centenary of the founding of British Security Service, MI5. Andrew’s book reveals the precise role of the Service in twentieth-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909 to root out ‘the spies of the Kaiser’ up to its present role in countering Islamic terrorism.

Price: £7/£6 concessions

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Penelope Lively

Event Name: Penelope Lively at Words by the Water Festival

Date/Time: March 7, 2010, 14.30

Venue: Keswick Lakeside, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria, CA12 5DJ

Description: Penelope Lively: Reading, Writing, and Letters Home After forty years in books, Penelope Lively considers the unexpected aspects of a writing life, -learning, living and leaving home, with surprises along the way.

Price: £8 visit the box office at Theatre by the Lake open 9.30am-8.00pm daily. Book online or by phone

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Steven Pinker

Event Name: Does God Exist?

Date/Time: March 7, 2010

Venue: Main House, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria

Description: The tension that exists between science and religion is, says philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, one that cannot be understood through rational argument alone. Accordingly, in her latest work of fiction, she explores the conflict from the perspectives of individual people caught in the raptures and torments of religious experience. She discusses fiction, philosophy and God with acclaimed cognitive pscychologist Steven Pinker.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Anna Minton

Event Name: Property Development and its Negative Impact

Date/Time: March 7, 2010, 17.15

Venue: Studio, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria

Description: A flawed urban-planning strategy has intensified social divisions and turned our cities into unfriendly, suspicious places, argues Anna Minton in her book, ‘Ground Control’. She explains why the regeneration of the boom years has had a negative impact on the lives of those who inhabit our cities and offers up some surprising solutions.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett

Event Name: The Spirit Level

Date/Time: March 7, 2010, 18.00

Venue: The Mitchell Library, North Street

City and Postcode: Glasgow, G3 7DN

Description: Large income inequalities have often been regarded as divisive and corrosive. Wilkinson and Pickett’s groundbreaking work - The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better - demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for the well-off as well as the poor as almost every modern social and environmental problem – ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations – is more likely to occur. Shifting from self-interested 'consumerism' to a friendlier and more collaborative society, and finding a solution to the social and environmental problems which beset us, is key to improving the real quality of life for everyone.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Tristram Stuart

Event Name: Way With Words

Date/Time: March 9, 2010, 19.30

Venue: Main House, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria

Description: For the past ten years Tristram Stuart has reclaimed most of his food from the bins of supermarkets as a protest against gratuitous waste. Western countries waste more food than they consume, and tackling this problem is one of the simplest ways of reducing pressure on the environment. Prepare to be shocked by the jaw-dropping information on our profligate habits.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Jane Robinson

Event Name: Jane Robinson at Words by the Water Literature Festival

Date/Time: March 10, 2010, 17.30

Venue: Kewwick Lakeside, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria, CA12 5DJ

Description: Jane Robinson, Helen Rappaport and Adrian Tinniswood: Historical Writing: How to Keep It Up To Date. Three writers take the facts of history and transform them into compelling stories. How do they choose their topics and how do they treat them to make their readers history enthusiasts?

Price: £8 visit the box office at Theatre by the Lake open 9.30am-8.00pm daily. Book online or by phone.

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett

Event Name: Jane Robinson at Words by the Water Literature Festival

Date/Time: March 10, 2010, 18.00

Venue: The Mitchell Library, North Street

City and Postcode: Glasgow, G3 7DN

Description: Large income inequalities have often been regarded as divisive and corrosive. Wilkinson and Pickett’s groundbreaking work - The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better - demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for the well-off as well as the poor as almost every modern social and environmental problem – ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations – is more likely to occur. Shifting from self-interested 'consumerism' to a friendlier and more collaborative society, and finding a solution to the social and environmental problems which beset us, is key to improving the real quality of life for everyone.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Lynn Barber

Event Name: Theatre by the Lake

Date/Time: March 11, 2010, 19.00

Venue: Main House, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria

Description: Lynn Barber talks about her memoir: ‘An Education’ followed by a film Screening.

Price: Tickets £10

Event URL: » Click here for more information

Author Name: Oliver Bullough

Event Name: Struggle and Survival in the Caucasus

Date/Time: March 12, 2010, 10.15

Venue: Studio, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

City and Postcode: Cumbria

Description: Oliver Bullough takes us through Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Turkey, Israel, and across the Northern Caucasus. He tells the stories of struggle and the survival of people who have been forgotten for 200 years. Some of the events have never been covered before.

Price: See website

Event URL: » Click here for more information