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Leading authors at Brook Green Festival of Books


There will be a rare chance to meet six of the UK's top authors during the first-ever Brook Green Festival of Books, sponsored by Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

William Fiennes, Hanif Kureishi, Piers Paul Read, Andrew Krivak, Maggie Fergusson and Alain de Botton are headlining at the festival, which takes place from 3rd-7th March. Each author will be speaking on a different evening. There will be opportunities for questions and discussion with the writers. A selection of books by authors featured will be available and they will be happy to sign copies after each event.

The project is the brainchild of Parish Priest Father Terry Tastard, who has organised the week, together with two parishioners who are both working in the literary world.

Fr Terry said: "It struck me that this is an area incredibly rich in writers and people involved in the media. It's a wonderful way of building community as well as raising the profile of our church locally. We are hoping this will become an annual event, although in future it would be run by a local committee.

William Fiennes is the first author featured. He will be speaking on 'A Writers's Nature' - examining what kind of relationship should we have with the world around us? Are we part of nature, or apart from it? Can books help close the gap between people and their environment?

William Fiennes is the bestselling author of The Snow Geese, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the Somerset Maughan Award and the Hawthornden Prize. He was the Sunday Times Writer of the Year in 2003. His new book is being published soon. Fiennes will be speaking at the Austrian Centre, 29 Brook Green.

On Tuesday 4 March, Hanif Kureishi, whose work includes the Buddha of Suburbia will be speaking about his new novel 'Something to Tell You' at Bute House, Luxemburg Gardens.

Piers Paul Read and Andrew Krivak will be discussing 'What Does it Mean to be a Catholic Today; on Wednesday, 5 March at 8pm, in Holy Trinity Parish Centre.

Piers Paul Read's most recent books are Alec Guinness, an authorised biography of the late actor, and a collection of essays, Hell and Other Destinations. He won the Hawthornden prize for his novel Monk Dawson.

Andrew Krivak, an independent scholar and writer, is the author of the spiritual memoir: A Long Retreat: in Search of a Religious Life, as well as a collection of poems and a critical edition of letters by the American modernist William Carlos Williams.

Biographer Maggie Fergusson will be speaking about her book on George Mackay Brown on Thursday, 6 March, at the Austrian Centre, 29 Brook Green.

Brown was one of the finest prose and poetry writers of the second half of the twentieth century and one of the most elusive. He never gave a public reading of his work, and practically never left his native Orkney. Yet, as Maggie Fergusson discovered when she set to work on his biography, Brown's life was vivid, heroic and very surprising. George Mackay Brown: The Life (2006) won the Marsh Biography Award, and the Saltire and the Scottish Arts Council First Book prizes, and was Yorkshire Post Non-Fiction Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for both the Costa and the James Tait Black Biography Awards.

The week concludes on Friday 7 March, with philosopher and writer Alain de Botton, who speak at Holy Trinity Parish Centre, on the meaning of fulfillment in an age when we are told that fulfillment means having more. But more of what? Alain de Botton is the author of seven books, including the best-selling How Proust Can Change Your Life. His book The Architecture of Happiness was published by Penguin in 2007.

Each evening begins at 8pm. Tickets are £2 each. They may be bought on the door or purchased in advance from:

Brook Green Bookshop, 72 Blythe Road, London W14

or from

Holy Trinity Parish Office, 41 Brook Green London W6

For more information see: www.holytrinityw6.org

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