This year's festival continues that wonderful tradition of Book Club Morning Tea events. Generously sponsored by Three Monkeys cafe, the Book Club Morning Teas are an example of the wonderful intimacy of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. Get the stories behind the story as two of the Festival's featured writers, charismatic East Timorese freedom fighter, Naldo Rei, and the humorous Imran Ahmad sit down alongside avid Festival readers and discuss their books.
Naldo Rei's book Resistance: A Childhood Fighting for East Timor, is a story of courage and bravery. He was just six months old when Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975. The first three years of his life was spent in the jungle, where his family had fled for safety. After his father was murdered for his work in the resistance movement, nine-year-old Naldo joined the clandestine resistance and began his own extraordinary journey fighting for East Timor's freedom. Throughout his teenage years, Naldo was imprisoned and tortured regularly for his covert opposition to the brutal Indonesian regime. Eventually, in too much danger to remain in his homeland, he escaped to Indonesia and then Australia for several years. Now living in an independent Timor Leste, Naldo Rei is proof that no amount of danger and loss can crush the human spirit.

Imran Ahmad's memoir, Unimagined: A Muslim boy meets the West, is a forthright, wry, entirely enjoyable memoir from a Pakistani-British businessman who grew up amid English Christians and questioned his adherence to Islam. Imran's book has been called "an entertaining, moving and thoroughly thought-provoking tale of our times".

Pic left shows Imran Ahmad with Salman Rushdie.

Coupled with a delicious Morning Tea from the Three Monkeys kitchen, these events will be quick to sell out, so get your tickets quickly!