Proms 2023 LitFest

Finkelstein, former executive editor of The Times, writes about his family’s survival against the forces of Hitler and Stalin. His maternal grandfather, widely acknowledged to have been the first person to recognise the danger Hitler posed, began to catalogue Nazi crimes. Before relocating his family to London, they were deported to Bergen-Belsen. Meanwhile, after Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland in 1939, Daniel’s father’s family was rounded up by the communists and sent to a Siberian gulag. This is a story of history’s impact on Finkelstein’s family and how they survived through ingenuity, bravery, and coincidences.

Finkelstein is in conversation with Claire Berliner, who is a writer, editor and Head of Programmes at The London Library.

In his book, Philps shows how Stalin created his own reality by silencing foreign reporters during WWII and forcing them to reproduce Kremlin propaganda. In the gilded cage of the Metropol Hotel, foreign war correspondents enjoyed lavish supplies of caviar and young women to employ as translators -  and to share their beds. Some of these women were brave dissenters whispering the reality of Soviet life to reporters and were punished.  This story lifts the lid on Stalin's operation to control what the western allies' reporters knew of his regime's policies.

Philps is in conversation with Michael Binyon OBE, an award winning journalist. He was The Times Moscow correspondent in the 1970’s and also covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and numerous conflicts in the Middle East. He retired in 2009, but still writes editorials regularly for The Times.

With Harry and Meghan's departure from royal life and a cloud hanging over Prince Andrew, the intricate relationship between modern courtiers and royal principals has been exposed to global scrutiny. The question of who is entrusted to guide the royals has never been more vital and the task those courtiers face has never been more challenging. Low reveals complex characters, shifting values and evolving ideas about the future of the institution. This is the story of how the monarchy really works at a pivotal moment in its history.

Valentine  is in conversation with Simon Lewis OBE ,Director of Communication during Gordon Brown’s time as Prime Minister . Simon was also Communications Secretary to the late Queen in the 1990’s.

As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. As Marsh navigates the transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and describes his frustration with illness and old age. He wonders about the mysteries of the brain, the beauty of the natural world  and his love for his family. And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what really matters in the end.

Marsh is in conversation with BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym who has been reporting on politics, economics and NHS finances for more than two decades. Pym was the recipient of the 2020 British Journalism Review Charles Wheeler award in recognition of his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This book is a candid, unsparing and darkly funny memoir of Webb’s far from ordinary childhood; with his mother’s undiagnosed psychological problems, his step-father’s untreated ones and his spartan Quaker boarding school, life was challenging. Drawing on themes of mental health, masculinity, grief and childhood guilt, Webb’s coming of age story portrays both personal and national dysfunction set against the grey backdrop of Britain in the 1970’s. A time of strikes, inflation and IRA bombings . A time when societal attitudes were very different to how they are now.

Webb is in conversation with Dame Jenni Murray, journalist, author and broadcaster, best known for presenting BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour from 1987 to 2020.

We do not control what we eat. Every mouthful is informed by the subtle tweaking and nudging of a complex global food system. It sustains us but it is also killing us and the environment, risking our food security. In this book, Dimbleby, founder of the Leon restaurant chain, government adviser and author of the radical National Food Strategy, takes us behind the scenes, revealing what shapes the modern diet, why the global food system is leading us into disaster and what can be done about it.

Dimbleby is in conversation with Sheila Dillon, a British food journalist known to listeners of BBC Radio 4 as presenter of The Food Programme, on which she has appeared for more than 20 years.

Hayward's biography of the England football team, based on interviews with past and present players and coaches, including Alan Shearer and Gareth Southgate, gives a vivid portrait of the team's story from its 1872 inception to its preparation for the 2022 World Cup, reliving highlights such as the 1966 World Cup victory and the low points  - including when the players were obliged to give the Nazi salute in 1938. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand England football and why it means so much to so many.

Hayward is in conversation with Daniel Gallan, an award-winning freelance journalist whose work regularly features in The Guardian and the BBC as well as the Telegraph, CNN, ESPN and other leading global publications, Daniel also lectures in Sports Journalism at St Mary's University.

Polly Toynbee's prosperous ancestors, committed left-wing rabble-rousers railing against injustice, could never claim to be working class, settling instead for the affluent life of academia and journalism. So where does that leave their ideals of class equality? Through a colourful, entertaining examination of her own family, containing everyone from Jessica Mitford to Bertrand Russell and featuring ancestral home Castle Howard as a backdrop, the journalist, author, and broadcaster explores the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.

Toynbee is in conversation with Georgina Godwin, Books Editor for Monocle 24 , host of the flagship literary show Meet the Writers and current affairs programme The Globalist. She chairs events worldwide and hosts a number of commercial podcasts. She is on the boards of the charities  English PEN and Developing Artists.