Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Rushdie, Ishiguro and Mantel to star at Cheltenham



Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, Howard Jacobson and Martin Amis are among the authors appearing at this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival.
The festival, sponsored by the Times and the Sunday Times, will be guest directed by crime writer Sophie Hannah; writer and academic, Amit Chaudhuri; human rights lawyer and director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti; and actor and comedian Omid Djallili.

Former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen will lead the festival’s Book It! programme for children.
Rushdie will give his first public interview since  receiving the 2014 PEN/Pinter prize from English PEN, while Ishiguro will be at the festival to accept the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.
Amis will make a trip from New York to talk about his novel The Zone of Interest and to celebrate the life and works of writer Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was his stepmother.

Caitlin Moran and Andrew Marr will both introduce their first novels at the festival, while other authors appearing include Ian McEwan, David Nicholls, Rose Tremain, Edward St Aubyn, Colm Toibin, and David Mitchell.
Mark Haddon will talk about the influence of his book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Vintage), as the theatrical adaptation opens on Broadway.
The Sunday Times will launch a regular Must Read platform focussing on new writers it particularly admires, including Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing, and Costa winner Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall.

Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory will bring to life some of the greatest love poetry of all time in the first of a new Allie Esiri Poetry Corner series, while Roger Bannister will appear in conversation with Matthew Syed, in the year he celebrates the 60th anniversary of breaking the four-minute mile.
The festival will celebrate crime fiction when guest director Sophie Hannah launches her new Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, while Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Ruth Rendell will all talk about their new work.

Laurie Lee will be celebrated in a number of talks to mark his centenary, Amit Chaudhuri will lead a series of events exploring India and Pakistan, and Spain and its writers will also be discussed, including a lunch with Moro’s Sam Clark celebrating the food of Spain.
The Book It! programme will include children’s authors Judith Kerr, Liz Pichon, Malorie Blackman and Eoin Colfer, while Henry Winkler will be doing a family event based around his best-selling series Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever.
The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival takes place from 3rd October to 12th October.

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