The week ahead in literary London
Wednesday: Alexander McCall Smith celebrates the latest No.1 Ladies Detective Agency book at Daunt Books Marylebone (7pm, £8).
Jewish Book Week continues with Jenny Erpenbeck and Julya Rabinovich and their work on loss and belonging (1pm, £8 / £5), a workshop to find your poetic voice (2.30pm, £20), Johanna Adorjan and Merilyn Moos on the silence after the Holocaust (5.30pm, free), Tom Segev talking about Simon Wiesenthal (7pm, £10) and Clive James and Pascal Bruckner in conversation (8.30pm, £12).
David Harsent reads from his latest collection at England's Lane Books (7.30pm, free).
Iain Sinclair, Nicholas Johnson and Rebecca E Marshall talk about leaving London at The Last Tuesday Society (6pm, £4-£12).
Anthony Horowitz gives the National Literacy Trust fundraising lecture at Slaughter and May (6.30pm, free) to kick off World Book Day.
Mimi Khalvati, Emma Hammond and Dave Bryant are the Forest Poets (£4).
Thursday: It's World Book Day! There are lots of events going on across town - see their website for more details.
Julie Hill talks about consumption and ethics at Foyles (6.30pm, free).
The London Review Bookshop takes a look at democracy in the Middle East now (7pm, £6). Quick off the mark, what?
At Jewish Book Week, Jane Miller, Cari Rosen and Virago founder Ursula Owen talk ageing (1pm, £8 / £5), Shaun Levin runs a workshop on bedtime stories (2.30pm, £20), Niall Ferguson compares banking now and in the past (5pm, free), Kevin Bloom discusses his journalism in South Africa (6.30pm, £5) and Gilbert Achcar and Tom Segev are in dialogue about the Arabs and the Holocaust (8.30pm, £10).
Jonathan Kemp talks about his book London Triptych at Woolfson & Tay (7pm, £5 / £3).
Peter Gill looks at Ethiopia since Live Aid at the Travel Bookshop (7pm, £5).
Peter Mandelson's signing books at Waterstone's Gower Street from 6pm.
John Citizen hosts Tall Lighthouse, with Phil Bowen, Jasmine Cooray, Clair Wilcox and Ashna Sarkar, at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £4).
Friday: At Jewish Book Week, Shaun Whiteside and Sam Garrett translate sections of Anne Frank's diary and compare them (11am, £8) and Roger Moorhouse and Daniel Silver discuss Berlin during the war (1pm, £8 / £5).
Brian Cox is signing copies of his Wonders of the Universe at Waterstone's Gower Street from 1pm.
Kat Francois hosts SLAM poetry at the Poetry Cafe that's Intimates. No meerkats (8pm, £5 / £3).
Ruth O'Callaghan presents Matthew Caley and Adnan Al-Sayegh at the Camden Poetry Series (7pm, £5 / £4).
Head to Trafalgar Square from 5pm to catch the launch of World Book Night with Hanif Kureishi, DBC Pierre, Philip Pullman, Alan Bennett and more writers that we painstakingly typed out on a previous post.
Saturday: World Book Night arrives with 1 million free books in tow. Check out the website for details of events, or go to the Royal Festival Hall for Margaret Atwood, Mark Haddon and The Book Stops Here (8pm, free).
Evolving English day at the British Library mixes films, talks, performance and hip-hop Shakespeare (11am-5pm, free).
Young British poets pay tribute to Allen Ginsberg's Howl at the Poetry Cafe, with readings of his and their own work (6.30pm, free).
David Baddiel talks about his new book (7.30pm, £12) at Jewish Book Week, and Stella Duffy, Benjamin Markovits, Meg Rosoff, Jake Wallis Simons and Clive Sinclair tell stories (9pm, £8).
Mike Barlow, John Lucas and Jane Routh perform Poetry in the Crypt (7pm, £4 / £3).
Sarah Doyle and Allen Ashley perform their solar system poems at Salisbury House Poets in Enfield (7.30pm, £3.50).
Sunday: Jewish Book Week goes out with a bang:
- Jonathan Schneer talks about the Balfour declaration (11am, £8 / £5)
- Jon Boyd, Keith Kahn Harris, Melanie Phillips and Miri Weingarten discuss how Jews can maintain a sense of community (11am, £8 / £5)
- Shira Geffen chats about her film Jellyfish (12.30pm, £8)
- Hannah Pool chairs as Gary Younge and Jeffrey Kaye debate identity (12.30pm, £8)
- Gideon Levy talks to Johann Hari about Gaza (2pm, £8)
- Hillel Halkin uncovers Yehuda Halevi's life (2pm, £8)
- Linda Grant and Joan Bakewell wonder whether we had it so good (3.30pm, £10)
- Boualem Sansel chats about his work (3.30pm, £8)
- Raja Shehadeh talks about life in Ramallah (5pm, £10)
- Gary Shteyngart and David Schneider discuss media and the fall of the American empire, among other things (5pm, £10)
- Peter Mandelson recalls life in government (5pm, £10 / £5)
- Celebrate Vasily Grossman's life and work (6.30pm, £10)
- Yair Lapid talks about his work and vision for Israel (6.30pm, £8)
Woolfson & Tay launches an exhibition on Israel and Palestine with Martyn Stanton Harris, Shira Geffen (legging it from Jewish Book Week), Rabai al-Madhoun, Shaun Levin and Ivor Dembina (4pm, £5 / £3).
Monday: Fans of the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green (and if you're not, you ought to be) should head down there this week - the recession is hitting hard, and they need your support.
AS Byatt, Philip Hensher and Bidisha revisit Iris Murdoch at the Courtauld Institute for the Royal Society of Literature (7pm, there will be some free tickets for non-RSL members on the door).
Have a three-course literary supper in the company of Lady Antonia Fraser at the St Pancras Grand, with Foyles (£48).
Mimi Khalvati and Fiona Sampson perform poetry at King's College (6.30pm, free).
Mark Cocker, Mike Figgis, Martin Gayford, Victoria Hislop and Marcus du Sautoy each get 15 minutes to tell their story in 5x15 (7pm, £12-£15).
Revel in Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene at King's Place, plus a choir recital (7pm, £9.50).
Tuesday: David Lodge looks at the life and work of HG Wells at the Free Word Centre (6.30pm, £8 / £5).
Niall O'Sullivan hosts open mic night Poetry Unplugged at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £4 / £3).
