Tuesday 13th September

Michael Green is an economist and co-author, with Matthew Bishop, of and The Road From Ruin: A New Capitalism For A Big Society. He has worked in aid and development for 20 years and served as a senior official at the Department for International Development.

Lord Michael Levy qualified as a chartered accountant and built up a very successful professional practice before going into commerce and then created one of the most successful independent record labels in the UK - the Magnet Group, which he developed from 1973 until he sold the business to Warner Brothers in 1988. He was the personal envoy to Prime Minister Tony Blair and also his adviser on the Middle East.

Maximum number of people: 15 - Please send one 1,000 word scene in advance to sarah@ljcc.org.uk with 'Fiction Workshop (JR)' as the subject by 28th August.

Telling stories: what is 'voice' and how can it make a difference? Come and be inspired through exercises and discussion to create new work, or edit work in progress. We'll explore aspects of narrative voice, point of view and dialogue and experiment with some 'flash fiction' methods with an emphasis on language, form and character development.

Jane Rusbridge is Associate Lecturer in English at the University of Chichester. Her first novel, The Devil's Music, was nominated for the 2011 International IMPAC Literary Award. Her second, Rook, is published by Bloomsbury in 2012.

Jill Dawson's new book Lucky Bunny (August 2011) has been described as a "a moving, wonderfully evocative story of love, danger and passionate intensity" by fellow writer Jake Arnott.

Her other books include Fred and Edie (shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize) and Watch Me Disappear (long listed for the Orange Prize).

Born in Durham, Jill Dawson grew up in Yorkshire. She has held many Fellowships, including the Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia, where she taught on the MA in Creative Writing course. In 2006 she received an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work. She lives in the Fens with her husband and two sons.

Photo Credit: Timothy Allen

James Burge is a maker of factual television programmes. His many films on science and the arts include episodes of Timewatch, and Horizon for the BBC as well as, for Channel Four, Starkey's Monarchy. His first book, Heloise and Abelard was the story of a passionate and violent love affair in the twelfth century and his most recent one Dante's Invention is about the Italian poet whose great work, the picture of the universe known as the Divine Comedy, was inspired by a childhood sweetheart.

Alex von Tunzelmann's Red Heat was published in April 2011. It is a history of the Cold War in the Caribbean, focused around the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Castros and the Kennedys. Her first book, Indian Summer, was published in 2007, and is currently in development as a feature film by Working Title Productions.

Alex writes about history, travel, books and international politics. She has a weekly column for The Guardian Online about the real story behind historical movies.

Hallie Rubenhold is an historian and broadcaster and an authority on British 18th-century social history and is the author of the acclaimed study of Georgian low-life, The Covent Garden Ladies and Lady Worsley's Whim: An Eighteenth-century Tale of Sex, Scandal and Divorce.

She lives in London with her husband and acts as an historical expert for television, both behind and in front of the camera, including acting as advisor in the Channel 4 series 'City of Vice'. Mistress of My Fate is Hallie Rubenhold's first novel.

Robert Sackville-West's latest book unravels the private life of a public place on a fascinating, masterful, four-hundred-year tour through the memories and memorabilia, political, financial and domestic, of his extraordinary family. He founded Toucan Books in 1985, which creates illustrated non-fiction books for an international market. He now combines this with chairing Knole Estates.

Michael Prodger is the art critic of Standpoint magazine and was formerly literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

POSTPONED

John Goodall is the architectural editor of Country Life. He is responsible for writing and commissioning the celebrated series of architectural features published in the magazine every week.

John has been involved in various television series on history and architecture. He was the series consultant for the BBC1 television series on architecture presented by David Dimbleby, The Way We Built Britain (2007). Previous to his present post, John worked as a researcher and historian at English Heritage (1997-9 and 2003-7), where he was involved in launching the new guidebook series known as the Red Guides and worked on several flagship exhibitions at sites including Battle and Dover.

The English Castle, which recently received a Spear's Large-Format Illustrated Book of the Year Book Award, is John's second book. The first, God's House at Ewelme, was published by Ashgate in 2001. It was the winner of the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize.

Book for 5 individual events priced at £7, across the three days of the Festival, and save £5. Call 020 84511 7900 to take advantage of this offer which cannot be activated online.

Artist and illustrator Louise Boulter graduated from Wimbledon school of art in 2003. Her illustrated work invites the imagination to run free and enjoy liberation. She draws inspiration from the surreal and the marvellous, often portraying highly ambiguous and metaphorical narratives that portray dream like scenes.

Once upon a time it was easy to find books you could enjoy and which felt relevant to your life. Now a new book is published every 30 seconds - the choice is overwhelming. A Bibliotherapy consultation is the perfect way to discover those amazing but often elusive works of literature that can illuminate and even change your life. We are offering taster sessions so you can sample what Bibliotherapy is all about.

POSTPONED

Historian Dr Helen Fry and novelist James Hamilton write historical fiction together under the pseudonym J H Schryer; Goodnight Vienna a love-triangle of British spies set in Vienna in March 1938; and its sequel Moonlight Over Denmark set between England and Denmark in WW2. Helen and James are working on two new novels, one set in the mid-1930s, the other at the end of WW2.

Biographer and historian, Helen has written widely on the German refugees who fought for Britain in WW2 as well as Anglo-Jewish history. James has worked in design, sales and marketing and has a lifelong interest in history, philosophy and writing.

Annalena McAfee's debut novel, The Spoiler, has been described by Alastair Campbell as a 'clever, often funny and always compelling romp through the murky world of newspapers'. Annalena worked in newspapers for more than three decades, became Arts and Literary editor of the Financial Times and founded the Guardian Review, which she edited for six years.

Viv Groskop, arts critic and freelance journalist, appears regularly on BBC Radio 4 and on Sky News. She is the books editor for Red magazine and reviews for several leading national newspapers, including the Independent on Sunday and the Daily Express.

Kamin Mohammadi was born in Iran in 1969 and exiled to the UK in 1979. She is an experienced journalist, travel writer and broadcaster who has written for the British and international press including The Times, the Financial Times, Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire and the Guardian as well as co-authoring The Lonely Planet Guide to Iran. She has recently been nominated for a National Magazine Award by the American Society of Magazine Editors. She is currently living between London and Italy.

The Cypress Tree is a moving and passionate memoir - a love letter both to Kamin's extraordinary family and to Iran itself.

'The Cypress Tree is vivid testimony to Kamin Mohammadi's ebullient, irrepressible family whose courage to endure carries them through revolution, exile and return to triumphant survival... A memoir to inspire.' Aminatta Forna, author of The Memory of Love.

Samir El-Youssef is the author of A Treaty of Love, The Illusion of Return and the widely translated Gaza Blues, co-authored with Israeli Etgar Keret.

Born in Rashidia, a Palestinian refugee camp in south of Lebanon, he's lived in London since 1990. He read philosophy in the University of London earning BA and MA degrees.

A writer with various literary and political interests he's contributed for many publications including The Guardian, The New Statesman, the Arabic Al-Hayat and the Jewish Chronicle. In 2005 he won the Swedish PEN Tucholsky Award for promoting the cause of peace and freedom of speech in the Middle East.

Book for 5 individual events priced at £7, across the three days of the Festival, and save £5. Call 020 8511 7900 to take advantage of this offer which cannot be activated online.

Photo Credit: Bernardo Conti

Adam Taylor regularly writes and broadcasts topical poems as resident poet for The World Today on the BBC World Service. He has also performed widely including at the Edinburgh Fringe, Jewish Book Week, Ledbury and other poetry festivals, and in comedy clubs and schools. His poems feature in national newspapers and poetry journals. Adam's poetry book is called God's Face In Your Gazpacho.

"offbeat satirical poetry ... pithily crisp observation", Sunday Times
"irreverent yet striking poems", The Times
"excellent humorous poetry with sharp satirical bite", Poetry Review

For more see www.adamtaylorpoetry.com.

Once upon a time it was easy to find books you could enjoy and which felt relevant to your life. Now a new book is published every 30 seconds - the choice is overwhelming. A Bibliotherapy consultation is the perfect way to discover those amazing but often elusive works of literature that can illuminate and even change your life. We are offering taster sessions so you can sample what Bibliotherapy is all about.

Pam White is a book publicist. She also offers consultancy advice to budding writers to help them find a publisher, an area in which she has had considerable success.

Barbara Levy is a literary agent, whose list includes a wide range of authors, from bestselling thriller writers such as Chris Ryan to celebrity chefs. She also represents the literary estate of Siegfried Sassoon.

POSTPONED

Mavis Cheek began her working life at Editions Alecto, the contemporary art publishers. She then attended Hillcroft College for Women from where she graduated in Arts. She began her writing career with journalism and travel writing, then short stories, and eventually, in 1988, her novel Pause between Acts was published by Bodley Head, which won the She/John Menzies First Novel Prize.

She is the author of fourteen novels including Mrs Fytton's Country Life, Janice Gentle Gets Sexy and, Truth to Tell.

'Marvellously entertaining... Cheek's writing is infused with terrific comic energy' Mail on Sunday

'Streets ahead of the usual run of romantic comedy' Daily Mail

'No one does social satire better than Mavis Cheek' Sainsbury's Magazine

Photo Credit: Daniel Webb

Stephanie Calman is a writer and broadcaster whose many TV and radio appearances include the Today Programme and Have I Got News for You. She is the author of six books including the Top Ten bestseller Confessions of a Bad Mother, and founder of the website www.badmothersclub.com.

Stephanie grew up in Bloomsbury, one of London's least literary districts, above a greengrocer's shop. She did not go to university and never came top, or anywhere near top, at school. She became a writer because she is nosy, and a humorous writer because every time she tried to tell a tragic story people laughed. Her favourite authors include Florence King, David Sedaris and Olivia Manning. The character in literature she most identifies with is Jane Austen's Emma.

She is still married to author Peter Grimsdale, with whom she has two children. Her interests include cooking, going to the cinema and lying down.

Claire Calman is the author of four novels: Love is a Four Letter Word, Lessons for a Sunday Father, I Like it Like That, and Cross My Heart and Hope to Die, all published by Black Swan. She has also written and performed her comic verse live and on radio and has written numerous short stories for anthologies and magazines.

She lives in north London with her husband, son, and the tallest stacks
of unfiled paperwork in the northern hemisphere.

A well known broadcaster and critic, Fiona MacCarthy established herself as one of the leading writers of biography in Britain with her widely acclaimed book Eric Gill, published in 1989. Her biography of Byron was described by A. N. Wilson as 'a flawless triumph' and William Morris, described by A.S. Byatt as 'large, delicious and intelligent, full of shining detail' won the Wolfson History Prize and the Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Award. She has also written Last Curtsey, the story of the final year that debutantes were presented at Buckingham Palace.

Photo Credit: Robin Farquhar-Thomson

Alex McBride is a criminal barrister. He is the author of the 'Common Law' column in Prospect magazine and has contributed to the New Statesman and various BBC programmes, including From Our Own Correspondent. His latest book Defending the Guilty was published in paperback in April.

Noel 'Razor' Smith was born in London in 1960. He has fifty-eight criminal convictions and has spent the greater portion of his adult life in prison. Whilst in prison he taught himself to read and write, gained an Honours Diploma from the London School of Journalism and an A-Level in Law. He has received a number of Koestler awards for his writing and has contributed articles to many newspapers and journals. He has just been released after serving eleven years of a life sentence for armed robbery, under Michael Howard's two-strikes-and-out rule.

An ex-publisher, past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association, and lifelong Londoner, N J Cooper writes for a variety of newspapers and journals and contributes to many radio programmes such as Woman's Hour and Saturday Review. In 2002 she was shortlisted for the Dagger in the Library, an award that 'goes to the author whose work has given most pleasure to readers'.

'Today, Gordon's words were simple and heartfelt. He promised, as his school motto said, "to do his utmost". I knew that the same would go for me too. We turned to the door, greeting the policeman on duty. It was time for us to play our part in contributing to what happened next in government, with a new life behind the black door.'

In this personal memoir about life at 10 Downing Street, Sarah Brown shares the secrets of living behind the most famous front door in the world. Sarah gave up a successful career in business to serve the country and champion countless charities at home and abroad. A passionate campaigner for women and children, she mobilised hundreds of thousands of people through her early adoption of Twitter where her legion of followers engaged with her on everything from repression in Burma to diversity in British fashion.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to travel with special branch, pack for a photo call with supermodels or pause a speech in front of hundreds when the autocue fails, it's all here - from the challenges of balancing trips to school plays with trips to the White House to what it feels like to support the man you love as he takes the tough decisions to stave off global financial meltdown...

Intimate, reflective, surprising and funny, Behind the Black Door takes us backstage to reveal what it's like to be an ordinary woman, wife and mother in extraordinary circumstances.

Sarah Brown is President of the charity PiggyBankKids and Patron of a number of charities including Wellbeing of Women, Women's Aid and Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres. She is also the Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, and Co-Chair of the High Level Leadership Group on Maternal and Infant Mortality convened by the Global Leaders Network. She and Gordon have two boys John and Fraser and she tweets at www.twitter.com/sarahbrownuk.

A distinguished elder statesman of the news, Peter Sissons began his reporting career on ITN's groundbreaking News at Ten in 1967. He was badly wounded in 1968, covering the Biafran War.

Denied a promising career as a foreign correspondent, he made his full-time debut as newscaster/ interviewer on the News at One in 1978. In 1982 he became the first anchor of ITN's Channel Four News and during his tenure, the programme won three consecutive BAFTAs, and Sissons won the highest award of the Royal Television Society.

In 1989 Sissons made the news when he was poached by the BBC to present the Corporation's flagship news bulletins and, following the legendary Robin Day, chair Question Time.

Simon Lewis was appointed as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman and Director of Communications at No. 10 Downing Street in June 2009. Following the General Election in May 2010 he was appointed Strategic Communications Advisor at UKTI. From 2004 to 2009 he was Global Director of Corporate Affairs at Vodafone Group. In October 2011 he was appointed CEO of the association of financial markets in Europe which represents the European investment banking industry.

Esther Freud trained as an actress before writing her first novel Hideous Kinky (1991), which was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993 she was chosen by Granta as one of the Best of Young British Novelists. She has since written six more novels: Peerless Flats, Gaglow, The Wild, The Sea House, Love Falls and most recently Lucky Break.

Photo Credit: Jillian Edelstein

Alan Hollinghurst's enthralling new novel, The Stranger's Child, the follow up to The Line of Beauty, exposes our secret longings to the shocks and surprises of time. Former Mann Booker prize winner, Alan is also the author of The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star and The Spell.

Claire Armitstead is books editor for Guardian News and Media, which is a new role covering the Guardian, the Observer and guardian.co.uk. For 12 years previously she was literary editor for the Guardian, having been Arts Editor for four years until 1999. She has worked as a theatre critic and arts feature writer for the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Hampstead & Highgate Express and the South Wales Argus. She presents a weekly books podcast for the Guardian and makes regular appearances on BBC radio. She also chairs literary events across the country and lectures to creative writing and media students.

Photo Credit: Robert Taylor