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12 March 2021

Update: Details of the 2021 Big Book Weekend can be found here.

8 May 2020

, which features the likes of Neil Gaiman, Marian Keyes, Booker-winner Bernardine Evaristo and Robert Webb, is a virtual book festival that unites many British literary events forced to cancel this year. From Glasgow's Aye Write to the Bath, Charleston and Cambridge Festivals, the 8, 9 & 10 May each feature a fantastic line-up of author interviews, performances and debates at . Here, as supporters of the festival, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Arts presents a series of video highlights to give you a taste of the weekend.

• All sessions are free. Watch Friday 8 May - Sunday 10 May and on-demand afterwards.

Much-loved comedian and author Robert Webb discusses giving ourselves a break from the self-imposed lockdown challenge of reading Proust and Joyce's Ulysses. His levity is remarkable, as he also tells Alex Clark about what's been happening in his life over the last few months: a chance discovery late in 2019, during a routine medical, led swiftly to the life-changing experience of open heart surgery.

This is part of an extended conversation for Big Book Weekend, as Webb is joined by acclaimed literary journalist Alex Clark as they discuss his ideas and inspirations.

Robert Webb is best known for his roles in Mitchell & Webb and Peep Show. His bestselling part-memoir, part-manifesto, How Not To Be a Boy, takes a sharp-eyed look at the state of modern masculinity, while his debut novel Come Again is a time-travelling story of love and redemption.

The fascinating talk is presented in full by Cambridge Literary Festival at , 4pm on Friday 8 May.

Bernardine Evaristo talks about character development in Girl, Woman, Other, and what those characters can tell the reader about being human.

Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, the full session - presented by Aye Write and the - sees Evaristo discuss Girl, Woman, Other with Creative Scotland's Mairi Kidd. Her extraordinary novel follows a cast of twelve characters as they each search for what they're missing. Watch on Sunday 10 May at 6pm.

The bestselling author tells the truth about the 'magic formula' for writing a novel: hard work. But on a personal level it is ‘glorious’, and she wouldn't want to do anything else.

For more than 20 years, Marian Keyes has been writing bestselling fiction that centres on the stories of women. Her latest novel, Grown Ups, is a take on the complexities of families, friendships and female identity. This is an extract from a frank and free-ranging interview in which Keyes swaps tips with bestselling author and co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party, Catherine Mayer, on writing, finding and using your voice, and growing into your own skin. at 6pm on Saturday 9 May.

Alexander McCall Smith's short work imagines an uplifting poetic language for flight. Part of a Big Book Weekend session that sees this master story-teller, author of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, provide a gentle escape into a world of hope and humour.

McCall Smith is performing at the , 11am on Friday 8 May, presented by Shoreham Wordfest, when he also reads a special message to readers and festival organisers.

Killing Eve writer Luke Jennings outlines his mission to write a thriller for our times, in this extract from an hour-long conversation for Big Book Weekend.

Killing Eve started life as a series of self-published novellas with an avid audience of devoted fans, before becoming one of the biggest TV hits of the last two years. Crime novelist Sarah Hilary quizzes author Luke Jennings on what drove him to create a female-centred thriller that shook up the genre. The , is presented by Lyme Crime.

Image shows Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri in Killing Eve. Oh is also the Co-Executive Producer of the show.

Kia Abdullah and Abir Mukherjee discuss whether novelists can leave their own bias behind when tackling class, race and politics. How can they write sympathetic characters whose views or actions they don't necessarily agree with? And how do they deal with readers who take offence?

Part of a in which Kia Abdullah, whose legal thriller Take It Back was published in March, discusses these thorny issues with Abir Mukherjee, bestselling Glaswegian author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj-era India. Watch at 1pm on Sunday 10 May.

Broadcaster Cathy Newman talks to novelist and poet Jackie Kay, British graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg and acclaimed actor and director Adjoa Andoh, about Anne, the ‘genius’ of the Brontë family.

This is an extract from a special , presented by the Charleston Festival, to mark the 200th anniversary of Anne Brontë’s birth. Discussion of this feminist pioneer is interspersed with readings from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Adjoa Andoh, and Isabel Greenberg’s artworks inspired by the Brontës. You can watch it at 5pm on Sunday 10 May.

Sir Tim Rice talks about working with Elton on The Lion King. Rice is the lyricist behind some of the biggest stage and screen musicals including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Lion King and Aladdin. His collaborators have included Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alan Menken and Elton John, and he has written lyrics for acts as diverse as Elvis Presley, Placido Domingo and 10cc.

This extract is from an interview with author Daniel Hahn for the Big Book Weekend, in which Rice discusses his life and career, the inspiration for his award-winning musicals and the partnerships that have underpinned his work. Presented by London Library Lit Fest, you can .

• All sessions are free. Watch Friday 8 May - Sunday 10 May and on-demand afterwards.