Beirut39

Elizabeth Pisani describes how politics, ideology—and ten billion dollars a year—have bulldozed through scientific evidence and common sense and needlessly failed to fight the AIDS pandemic that has infected 70 million people worldwide. Chaired by Rachel Holmes.

The radical analyst Naomi Klein meticulously exposes the US policy of ‘Disaster Capitalism’ that overwhelms societies reeling from natural (tsunami) and military (Iraq) catastrophe. In conversation with Rosie Boycott.

Paul Blezard meets the authors of two of the whitest-knuckle reads of the year. Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 tracks a serial killer at the height of Stalin’s Terror. Philip Kerr’s latest mystery A Quiet Flame sends Bernie Gunther to Peron’s Argentina.

The delightful and brilliant Julia Donaldson conjures her magical children’s worlds with songs, stories and an inflatable whale.

Hay Fever Family Event

The legendary film director discusses his career and collaborations with Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

The larky comedian rhapsodises his lifelong passion for bird-watching in his Love Story With Feathers.

Nick Broomfield, director of the cockle-pickers film Ghosts, interviews Hsiao-Hung Pai about her searing book The True Story Behind Britain’s Hidden Army of Labour.

The Bishop of New Hampshire, whose homosexuality threatens the schism of the Anglican Church discusses The State of the Communion. Chaired by Stephen Bates, author of God’s Own Country: Power and Religion in the USA.

Extraordinary and harrowing reportage from undercover in Chechnya by the Norwegian author of The Bookseller of Kabul.

The dazzling New Zealand writer launches her compelling Novel About My Wife. The Pulitzer Prize-winning short story writer Lahiri launches her new collection Unaccustomed Earth. Chaired by Ariane Koek of the Arvon Foundation.