LONDON'S JEWISH BOOK WEEK, FEBRUARY 20-28, 2016: AMAZING AUTHORS & WONDERFUL FICTION EVENTS

Tracy Chevalier, Esther Freud, Anne Sebba

Do you live in London or its surroundings? Do you plan a trip there in February? If you love literary events, you should! Discover fiction to read,  meet best selling authors and take part in interesting discussions: there's a series of wonderful fiction events that have been scheduled for you in this year’s Jewish Book Week (JBW), which takes place in London  from 20 to 28 February. 

A host of critically acclaimed, bestselling novelists including Tracy Chevalier, Esther Freud, Victoria Glendinning, Judith Kerr, Meg Rosoff and Anne Sebba, will be discussing their books, passions, ideas and personal experiences, over the festival’s nine day programme.

The JQ Wingate Prize is also included in the events organized and the announcement of the shortlist is scheduled on Sunday 21 February at Kings Place, where this year’s judges Hugo Rifkind, authors Samantha Ellis and Tahmima Anam and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg will be in conversation with Jewish Quarterly editor Nicola Christie.  

In addition to events focusing on fiction, JBW, London’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, will feature topical debates, interviews, performance, debut writers, writers-in-translation and fringe events, designed to appeal to all ages, faiths and ethnicities, covering, amongst other areas: art and photography; biography & memoir; religion & society; science & technology; private passions; and war & conflict.

Here are the authors participating in detail:

·         Sunday 21 February, 14:00-15:00.  Location: Kings Place

Prize-winning author Meg Rosoff revealing her first novel for adults, Jonathan Unleashed, a romantic comedy set in Manhattan, in conversation with broadcaster and journalist, Rowan Pelling

·         Sunday 21 February, 15:30-16:30.  Location: Kings Place

Celebrated author and illustrator Judith Kerr who will be talking about her life and books, including her latest illustrated novel, Mr Cleghorn’s Seal, in conversation with writer and broadcaster Nicolette Jones

·         Wednesday 24 February, 13:00-14:00.  Location: JW3

Leading novelists Tracy Chevalier and Esther Freud in conversation with documentary-maker Olivia Lichtenstein in ‘Fertile Imaginations’ – an event that will see the two writers talk about the creative process, their stories and writing historical fiction, as well as their contribution to the forthcoming collection of short stories, Reader, I Married Him

·         Wednesday 24 February, 14:30-15:30.  Location: JW3

Two of our fastest rising literary stars, Polly Samson and Virginia Baily, will discuss their compelling new novels, The Kindness andEarly One Morning, with former magazine editor and author Linda Kelsey

·         Sunday 28 February, 12:30-13:30.  Location: Kings Place

‘Love, Art and Literature’ – celebrated author and critic Francine Prose and the new Chair of the National Gallery Hannah Rothschild – author of The Improbability of Love – discuss their writing and passions with Erica Wagner

·         Sunday 28 February, 14:00-15:00.  Location: Kings Place

Following her acclaimed début One Night Markowitz, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen will discuss her new novel, Waking Lions, with Josh Glancy

·         Sunday 28 February, 15:30-16:30. Location: Kings Place (in association with the Society of Authors)

‘Forgotten Fictions: The Wise Virgins’ - celebrating Persephone Press’s new edition of Leonard Woolf’s forgotten classic, The Wise Virgins, written on the Woolfs’ honeymoon in 1912, the semi-autobiographical novel examining moral, personal and social dilemmas is discussed by Leonard Woolf’s biographer Victoria Glendinning, with Lyndall Gordon and Anne Sebba

·         Sunday 28 February, 15:30-16:30.  Location: Kings Place

‘Nordic Noir’ - two of Northern Europe’s most celebrated crime fiction writers, Harri Nykänen, creator of Jewish detective Ariel Kafka, and Swedish best-seller Kristina Ohlsson, in conversation with fellow thriller-writer, Adam LeBor

·         Sunday 28 February, 17:00-18:00.  Location: Kings Place

‘Shylock is my Name’ - Man Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson’s profound and provocative re-telling of The Merchant of Venice -Shylock is My Name - will be the topic under discussion with the Guardian’s Alex Clark

·         Sunday 28 February, 17:00-18:00. Location: Kings Place (in association with Bloomsbury)

‘Scary Old Sex’ - New York psychoanalyst and Bernard Malamud’s muse, Arlene Heyman introduces her debut collection of short stories, revealing what really goes on in people’s minds, relationships and their beds.  Arlene will be in conversation with Irma Kurtz

Victoria Glendinning, Judith Kerr, Meg Rosoff

Also in the 2016 programme - author Frederic Raphael will discuss his autobiography and latest novel with Joan Bakewell; Ben Markovitswill present his darkly comic novel You Don’t Have To Live Like This with Tim Martin; bestselling author and award-winning journalist Jonathan Freedland will discuss The 3^rd Woman, (the first thriller to be published under his own name) with Mark Lawson; and leading Israeli novelist AB Yehoshua will introduce his novel The Extra, in conversation with Oliver Kamm. Novelist Jeremy Gavron will take part in a non-fiction event, in conversation with writer and sociologist Anne Karpf, to discuss A Woman on the Edge of Time - his moving memoir investigating the events and pressures that led to his mother’s suicide when he was just four.

For further info visit www.jewishbookweek.com