Belfast Book Festival 2016 | Page 62

Carlo Gébler Dangerous Women A Poem for a Song With Ian Sansom Elizabeth Buchan, Clare Mulley & Isabelle Grey Antrim Community Choir, The Henry Girls & Ruth Carr Crescent Arts Centre Sunday 19 June – 12.30-1.30pm Tickets: £7 (Inc. Light Lunch) £5 (Event only) Crescent Arts Centre Sunday 19 June – 2.30pm Tickets: £6/£4 Crescent Arts Centre Sunday 19 June – 4.30pm Tickets: £7/£5 Crescent Arts Centre Sunday 19 June – 4.30pm Tickets: £6/£4 Join us for this fascinating insight into the career of one of our great writers, Carlo Gébler. He is the author of The Eleventh Summer, The Cure, How to Murder a Man, A Good Day for A Dog and The Dead Eight (shortlisted for the Kerry Irish Fiction Prize), the short story collections W.9. & Other Lives and The Wing Orderly’s Tales, and several works of non-fiction including the memoirs Father & I, Confessions of a Catastrophist and The Projectionist, the Story of Ernest Gébler and the narrative history, The Siege of Derry. He has also written plays for both radio and the stage, including Dance of Death, 10 Rounds (short listed for the Ewart-Biggs Prize), Charles & Mary a play for BBC Radio 3 about the lives of the siblings who wrote the classic children’s introduction to Shakespeare, Tales from Shakespeare and Belfast by Moonlight. Elizabeth Buchan’s heroine in I Can’t Begin to Tell You is British-born Kay Eberstern. When the Nazis occupy her adopted country of Denmark, Kay faces a life-changing dilemma and finds herself operating in a covert world of intelligence, resistance and sacrifice. Weaving together the voices of people hidden behind secret identities who risked their lives to protect others that they would never know, the novel dramatizes a clandestine war from a new and intensely moving perspective. A journey into a world of lyrical texts, songs and poems that capture the heartbeat of what it is to be human. Best-selling author Julie Peakman reveals everything you every need to know (and plenty you don’t) in a talk about the wide range of sexual activity over the last 2,000 years. Her recent book The Pleasure’s All Mine shows how homosexuality was usual in ancient Greece, but punishable by death in the medieval world; how ‘Child Love’ was acceptable in the Victorian period but paedophilia is now a crime; and how both bestiality and necrophilia have been decried throughout the ages. Carlo Gébler was born in Dublin and raised in London. He now lives outside Enniskillen. 62 Clare Mulley is the award-winning author of two biographies. The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb, won the Daily Mail Biographers’ Club Prize. The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville led to her being presented with Poland’s national ‘Bene Merito’ honorary distinction in 2014. The event will be chaired by novelist and TV screenwriter Isabelle Grey. A former non-fiction author, magazine editor and journalist she has contributed to longrunning TV crime dramas from Midsomer Murders. With a selection of wonderful poetry and arrangements of new and old music, ‘Poem For A Song’ brings a delightful new twist to the performance of poetry. Antrim Community Choir: Although only 3 years old, this accomplished and dynamic choir have performed extensively around Northern Ireland and are renowned for innovative and unexpected performances. Ruth Carr a poet, editor and creative writing tutor. She produced the first anthology of women writers to come out of the North, The Female Line, and has worked with many community writing groups to produce anthologies of their work. She has two poetry collections. The Henry Girls are 3 sisters whose music is infused with the rich cultural heritage of their native Donegal combined with a transatlantic flavour. They are renowned for their captivating live performances. The Pleasure’s All Mine With Julie Peakman Carefully researched as well as a fascinating read, and featuring a wide array of illustrations, The Pleasure’s All Mine reaches conclusions that are surprising, and sometimes shocking. This is an essential volume for anyone interested in the art, history and culture of sex. Julie is also author of Peg Plunkett. Memoirs of an Eighteenth-Century Whore (2015), Mighty Lewd Books (a history of pornography, 2012) and Lascivious Bodies (a history of sex in the eighteenth century, 2008). belfastbookfestival.com 63