Novels, memoirs, cookbooks, and the inside story of Trump's bid for re-election are up for discussion as the annual Proms at St Jude's arts festival gets under way with a weekend of lit talks.
Running from June 25-July 3 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, the 30th anniversary season takes in children's events, heritage walks and top class music from the likes of The Darius Brubeck Quartet and Fantasia Orchestra.
But first there's the literary festival at Henrietta Barnett School featuring former BBC Washington correspondent Jon Sopel discussing his biting and funny diary of Donald Trump's 2020 US Presidential campaign trail in the teeth of a global pandemic. He is in conversation with former No 10 director of communications Simon Lewis on June 25.
Later that day, novelist and biographer Victoria Glendinning is in conversation with ex newsreader Julia Somerville about her book on the bitter battles and passions of the family behind the John Lewis brand. Then Francis Spufford discusses his acclaimed novel Light Perpetual which imagines the alternative futures of five London children killed in a rocket attack during the blitz.
SAGE committee member and Head of Health research at Wellcome Trust Jeremy Farrar is joined by FT Science columnist Anjana Ahuja and BBC Health correspondent Hugh Pym to discuss the inside story of the Covid pandemic and test the government's claim that it always "followed the science".
And acclaimed novelist Colm Toibin makes a virtual appearance as winner of the David Cohen Prize for Literature 2021 for his body of 10 novels which includes Brooklyn and his latest The Magician. The Irish writer has also published his first poetry volume Vinegar Hill and is in conversation with biographer Hermione Lee for the online-only event.
On June 26 the discussion kicks off with north west London novelist Charlotte Mendelson and her new book The Exhibitionist, which is about an outrageously egotistical male artist preparing for his comeback exhibition amid toxic marital and family dynamics. Hampstead Garden Suburb local Claudia Roden shares the influence of the Mediterranean on her lifelong passion for cooking in her new book Med - A Cookbook with BBC Food Programme presenter Dan Saladino.
Journalist and political commentator Steve Richards speculates on The Prime Ministers We Never Had in his new book, so if you are pining for a lost David Miliband or Jeremy Corbyn premiership this is your event.
And Booker Prizewinner Howard Jacobson rounds off the weekend with his bittersweet memoir Mother's Boy: A Writer's Beginnings, which takes readers from his Manchester childhood, to studying at Cambridge and landing in Australia as a maverick young professor, airing issues of belonging, Jewish identity and the writer's gift of being simultaneously an insider and outsider.
Book lovers can buy a £25 online pass to all lit fest events or book individually https://www.promsatstjudes.org.uk/2022-litfest
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here