No one knows the extraordinary genius of V.S. Naipaul better than his authorised biographer, Patrick French – except perhaps Diana Athill, the editor who first discovered and published him. Here they speak of his remarkable journey from rural Trinidad to a knighthood and the Nobel prize – and his equally remarkable instinct for controversy.

Fans of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin know that Louis de Bernieres’ novels are both raw and funny, wry and heartbreakingly sad. In his latest, A Partisan’s Daughter, a bored, lonely, forty-something Londoner invites a hooker into his car. Roza, a recent Yugoslav arrival in the city, may be young and pretty, but she is not what he thinks: as the daughter of one of Tito’s partisans, her existence has been marked with danger, misadventure and romance, and she is now determined to make a new life, whatever it takes. A modern-day Scheherazade, she saves herself with her stories. True or not, they compel the listener to sit up, take note…and fall in love.

Fascinated by pyramids and obelisks? Intrigued by Isis-worship as an alternative to Christianity? You are in good company. James Stevens Curl, author of the most authoritative book on the Egyptian influence on art and architecture in Europe, talks about the thirst for novelties from the Nile which gripped so many of the greatest European rulers, from Mark Anthony to Napoleon.

Sponsored by Purcell Miller Tritton

Hensher, a Granta Best of Young British novelist, has already shown himself to be a critic and writer of note. His 2002 outing, The Mulberry Empire, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize. His new novel is his most ambitious yet. Set in Sheffield, between 1974 and the fading of Thatcher's government in 1996, The Northern Clemency is an epic portrait of an entire era, a novel concerned with the lives of ordinary people and history on the move.

Join Justin to find out where he gets the ideas for his fantastical adventure stories – whether he's devising the quest for Atlantis, organising a battle against steam-driven dinosaurs, or working as author and Creative Consultant on the BBC's series of Doctor Who books. Discover the truth behind The Chaos Code and get a sneak preview of his sequel to The Death Collector as Justin returns to the mysteries and dangers of Victorian London for The Parliament of Blood.

We know him as the man in the white suit: the BBC war correspondent who stepped back from foreign assignments to take on corruption and cynicism at home, in his role as an independent MP. These days, a sadder, wiser Bell calls for a new kind of politics. ‘This is the political pendulum that matters,’ he says, ‘swinging not between right and left but between the politicians who can be trusted and those who cannot.’

Sponsored by Cox & Kings

Douglas Hurd brings all his experience as a politician to bear on this insightful and measured portrait of one of the most controversial figures in Conservative party politics, hailed by some as the father of the modern Conservative party but damned by others as the man who both betrayed it and drove it into the political wilderness for most of the 1850s and 1860s. Admirably fair in his judgments, Hurd assesses the record of this hugely influential figure.

Sponsored by Blackwell

Hop along to this charming interactive puppet show that brings The Tale of Peter Rabbit to life. Help Peter escape from Mr McGregor's garden, and join in the celebrations for Jemima Puddle Duck’s centenary this year. Giveaways to include Jemima stickers, bunny ears and bookmarks!

Nigel Newton co-founded the publishing house Bloomsbury 22 years ago. With an enticing list of authors ranging from Margaret Atwood and William Boyd to Joanna Trollope and John Banville, Bloomsbury has long been one of the most exciting independent publishers around. As the publisher of JK Rowling, author of the seven Harry Potter books, it has changed the way the world thinks about children’s literature. Hear chief executive Nigel Newton and managing director Richard Charkin talk about publishing and the impact of the Harry Potter Phenomenon.

Sponsored by The Arts Club, London

Long before Alexander McQueen and John Galliano made British haute couture a force to be reckoned with, royal couturier Norman Hartnell put London on the fashion map. Michael Pick talks about the extraordinary Hartnell archive – complete with drawings, photographs and long-hidden personal scrapbooks, rich in associations with a vanished era.

What is the appeal of a career in terrorism? The great historian Michael Burleigh, who has interviewed both terrorists and intelligence officers worldwide, asks the question and supplies many answers in this fascinating history of political violence. (Did you know Al-Qaeda offers its operatives pensions? And health care? And holidays?) In conversation with Dominic Lawson, former editor of the Sunday Telegraph, he sheds unusual new light on the War on Terror.

Supported by Ian and Carol Sellars

Vanora Bennett was editorial writer for The Times, Moscow correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and was awarded the George Orwell Prize for her political writing. She has also now become a bestselling novelist, whose first novel, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, was favourably compared to Girl with a Pearl Earring, and who has been offered a six-figure advance for her next two novels by a New York publisher. In this fascinating discussion, she talks to her friend, the award-winning writer Godfrey Howard, about how she has coped with the transition from the facts of journalism to the imagination of fiction.

Sponsored by The Arts Club, London

Films, music, books and games are available online in vast profusion. A major problem with the internet, though, is that the authors and producers concerned are not paid for most uses of their works, as the internet content business is largely in the hands of illegal operators – the pirates. Thomas Dillon of the Motion Picture Association and Billy Watson of the UK Film Council discuss what the UK and international film industries are doing to protect against online film theft and to develop the internet as a channel for legal distribution.

Materialise at this very special Doctor Who Quiz or miss out on the chance to win some fantastic prizes! Quizmaster Nicholas Briggs, the voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, will ensure a fantastic afternoon of fun and adventure. It’s a rare opportunity to meet a truly evil special guest – a real, live Dalek. Watch out, though – if your quiz answers aren’t up to standard you will be…exterminated! Come dressed up as your favourite Doctor Who character – spot prizes will be awarded.

£9.00 if you book at the same time for both this and Writing Dr Who, event no: 127.

Geoffrey Hill is widely recognised as one of the most important English poets of the last fifty years. His twelfth collection of poetry, A Treatise of Civil Power, appeared to great acclaim in 2007, and his Collected Critical Writings are published in 2008. As a reader, Hill is unforgettable: musical, intense, and moving. This event is an opportunity to hear one of English literature's central voices.

Sponsored by Tower Poetry

As well as being practical, food writing can provide some telling insights into society and culture. But is this a genre that is generally misunderstood? Can we identify points in history when food writing had a profound impact? Does the cult of the celebrity chef undermine the quality of food writing? Examining the social significance of the genre is Sophie Grigson, cook, author, broadcaster and chair of the Jane Grigson Trust; Jill Norman, food writer, publishing editor and board member of the Jane Grigson Trust; and Paul Levy, author, journalist and chair of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Chaired by Donald Sloan, Head of the Department of Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Management at Oxford Brookes University and Chair of Oxford Gastronomica.

Sponsored by Oxford Gastronomica

The library of the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle, Watlington, offers an astonishing glimpse into the search for knowledge which enlightened the eighteenth century. Its contents – including rare and magnificent books on mathematics and physical science from the 1490s to 1730 – are all in the process of being dispersed, largely by auction. Paul Quarrie, who has lectured and published on the Library for ten years, talks about its creator, the great mathematician William Jones (1687-1749), the aristocrats who employed him as family tutor and the treasures they accumulated.

All novelists have to write about relationships, but some are better at it than others. This talk brings together three of our best young exponents of this difficult art – Charlotte Mendelson, Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Daughters of Jerusalem and When We Were Bad; Rachel Hore, author of the bestselling The Memory House and The Dream Garden; and Nell Leyshon, author of Devotion – to talk about the pains, pleasures, tricks and traps of writing about this tricky but hugely rewarding subject

How is diplomacy really conducted in the 21st Century? All in the open and in the full glare of the world's press? Or behind closed doors, where deals can be thrashed out discreetly, mission statements can be treated with a certain scepticism and diplomats can be more than mere messengers for their governments? Former foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, discusses the changing nature of international relations with Sherard Cowper-Coles, British ambassador to Afghanistan, plus a representative of the US State Department.

Supported by Ian and Carol Sellars

Four writers at the start of their fiction-writing careers discuss their own and each others' work and the challenges of writing fiction. Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger is one of the Sunday Times' ‘best of the new crop’ for 2008, a gripping page turner that offers an angry, unadorned portrait of India as seen from the bottom of the heap. Duncan Campbell's The Paradise Trail is a witty, poignant and, at times, tragic novel set in the flea-pit Lux Hotel in Calcutta in 1971 where three happy-go-lucky travellers suddenly find the real world knocking at the door. Sadie Jones's The Outcast is a devastating portrait of 1950s English suburban hypocrisy, both menacing and beautiful, where one boy triggers the implosion of both his family and community. Catherine O'Flynn's What Was Lost, winner of the Costa First Novel award and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Prize, is a literary mystery and satire on consumerism set in a large out-of-town shopping centre. All have written powerful debut novels – come and meet them, and get to know four literary stars of the future. Chaired by David Freeman

Sponsored by The Arts Club, London

Giveaways to include bookmarks and a mini Spot board book for everyone!

The award-winning arts documentary strand, Arena, has been granted a rare opportunity to document the life and work of Nobel prize-winning author, V.S. Naipaul. This is the first time that Sir Vidia has agreed to a comprehensive documentary about his life and work. This advance screening of The Strange Luck of V.S. Naipaul is an intimate portrait of Naipaul, both in public and in private.
Event lasts one and a half – two hours

Bragg’s highly acclaimed trilogy of novels, closely based on his own life, followed young Joe Richardson from working-class Cumbria to university. Now, in the fourth book in the series, Joe embarks on a passionate love affair that is both transforming and, ultimately, tragic. In a revealing interview, ahead of publication, with Peter Kemp of the Sunday Times, Bragg talks publicly for the first time about the real-life tragedy that inspired his new novel.

In association with OUDCE / Kellogg College / Literature Courses

The Chinese writer Sun Shuyun lived and worked for eighteen months in a remote Tibetan village, known for its anti-Chinese stance. With a camera team – half Tibetan, half Chinese – she filmed and recorded daily life among the villagers. She talks about the insights she gained into a web of complicated and changing relationships: this is social and political history at its most intimate and human.

Sponsored by Cox & Kings

The temptation to escape into the past – for both novelists and novel readers – can be irresistible. Helen Dunmore, a former winner of the Orange Prize, has set her latest book, Counting the Stars, in ancient Rome, where the poet Catullus is wracked with tortured love for his mistress, Clodia. Dunmore discusses the overlap between history and story-telling with Katie Hickman, who has followed up her best-selling history of courtesans with The Aviary Gate, a novel set in 16th century Constantinople, a city of harem-slaves, eunuchs and traders.

Sponsored by Blackwell

British politicians may regularly cite the United States as our closest and most important ally, but, as Kathleen Burk shows in this engrossing history, the relationship with America has not always been a happy one. Taking the story from early colonial days to Iraq, Burk, an ex-patriot American now happily settled in Britain, explores with great aplomb the ups and downs of this remarkably fractious marriage.

Sponsored by Blackwell

Supported by Ian and Carol Sellars

Parents have long been bombarded with conflicting advice on how to bring up their babies: from Locke, Rousseau and Truby King to Spock, Penelope Leach and beyond. Today, for instance, enthusiasts for the "family bed" are at war with Gina Ford's call for a return to the strict routines of pre-Spock days. Who is right and who is wrong? Christina Hardyment analyses the anxieties of our own age and gives parents the confidence they need to choose what best suits their babies.

Winner of the Orange Prize (for When I Lived in Modern Times), Linda Grant is one of our most accomplished and intelligent writers. She talks about the inspiration behind her new novel, set in 1950s London, which charts the effect on the reclusive, bookish daughter of refugee parents, of the arrival of her sartorially resplendent uncle and his glamorous, leopard-skin-clad girlfriend.

Published to huge critical acclaim in France in 2006, Laurent Mauvignier’s second novel, In the Crowd, tells with extraordinary passion the story of four groups of characters as they journey in May 1985 from France, Italy and England to the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus in Brussels. Here Mauvignier talks about the Heysel Stadium tragedy that forms the centre of his novel, and about the challenges of turning such a devastating event into fiction.

Sponsored by Cox & Kings

Writing about nature has ceased to be a quiet celebration of the gentler side of life; now the best nature writers are simultaneously reconnecting to our culture's natural roots and looking forward as the world comes to terms with a degraded environment. Two of the finest nature writers working in English today, Richard Mabey (author of Nature Cure) and Robert Macfarlane (author of Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places) talk with respected writer and journalist Ed Douglas about their work and their relationship with the natural world.

In association with the Kendal Mountain Book Festival, one of the leading festivals in the world focussing on writing based on or around the mountains, landscape and nature.