A Festival event with a difference in the company of one of the best known names in dance. Not only will Arlene read from one of her books aimed at encouraging children to dance but she will introduce groups of young dancers and give constructive comments on their performance which can range from samba to musical theatre to street dance to tango, Bollywood or modern ballroom. Dancing has been at the centre of her life from her days as director and choreographer of Hot Gossip in the 1970s through to six years as a judge on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing. With a worldwide reputation she has collaborated on music videos with Aretha Franklin, Robbie Williams, Elton John and Diana Ross and worked on international stage shows such as Saturday Night Fever, Starlight Express, Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, and The Wizard of Oz.

Alana Dancing Star: Twilight Tango – Faber Kids.

Have you written that first page of your book? ? The journey of a story starts with a single page so bring it along. Writer Richard Beard, director of the NAW, will give a 15-minute masterclass on the first pages (fiction or non-fiction) chosen at random once every hour. These are a public editorial close-reading, as instructive to onlookers as to the author of the page itself. Richard is the author of four critically acclaimed novels and one work of non-fiction, Muddied Oafs.

Nothing will cause a more impassioned argument than the English language and its use or misuse. We all have a bugbear over certain words, phrases or grammar...or even punctuation. The arrival of text messaging with its own very particular form of English has ensured the debate will go on....and on. Listen to a man who has studied the whole complex world of words and who is prepared for an enthusiastic and committed series of questions from the floor concerning just what we think is right and proper.

The Language Wars – John Murray

A clutch of literary prizes and nominations mark out the career of an author born in Liverpool, part-educated in Canada and now living in London. In her latest novel the 60s generation comes under scrutiny through the life of Stephen Newman and his fortunate friends. Grant charts their unrelenting success until the arrival of the new century make them realise that while they were part of a golden generation, they had been living in a fool's paradise. A tremendously amusing take on a world all too familiar to many of us.

We Had It So Good - Virago
Sponsored by HW Fisher

Living proof that there is life after television talent shows, Pam can trace her steps to stardom to Opportunity Knocks in 1975 which launched her unique and unstoppable career through poems, books, records, quiz shows, royal performances and now an autobiography. To work seamlessly from Just a Minute to QI shows her unfaltering appeal. Her very distinct voice and take on life mean she is as popular now as ever. Her riveting autobiography tells how a girl from the Women's Royal Air Force became a national treasure, selling three million books along the way.

The Necessary Aptitude - Ebury
Sponsored by Simmons & Sons

Two of Henley's favourite wordsmiths invite you to join them in a quest to find out where literary ideas come from, how they take shape and how they are put on the page. Lucy is a columnist with The Sunday Telegraph and wrote the Samantha Smythe series of novels. Miranda is a novelist who teaches and mentors emerging female writers. Two authors share their knowledge about writing in an event that certainly won't be dull and could very well be an education.
Sponsored by HW Fisher

Terrorism has tragically become part of our lives and three leading journalists discuss what it is like to meet terrorists, what motivates them and the threat they pose to our society. In his distinguished career BBC reporter and documentary maker Peter Taylor has become an expert on the subject firstly on the streets of Northern Ireland reporting on 'Bloody Sunday'. He he spent the next 30 years investigating the Troubles but after 9/11 switched his focus to the far more deadly threat posed by Al Qaeda. He appears with two journalists who have written novels about Afghanistan and Pakistan. Former Daily Telegraph foreign editor Patrick Bishop was in the Falklands and since then has reported on almost every major war of the era. His novel is a dramatic story about two young soldiers whose special duties team must ambush and capture a notorious Taliban leader. The meticulously planned operation goes wrong and the hunters are now the hunted. Jill McGivering, senior foreign news correspondent with the BBC has worked in journalism for 25 years and travels extensively including assignments to Afghanistan and China. The heroine of her novel is teenager Layla who is forced to flee the Swat valley region of Pakistan when her father's school is burned down and ends up in the squalor of a camp for refugees from the Taliban near Peshawar, forced to choose between the old fashioned way of life with her family - or a dangerous journey into independence.

Peter Taylor Talking to Terrorists – Harper Collins, Patrick Bishop – Follow Me Home – Hodder, Jill McGivering – Far From My Father's House – Harper Collins
Sponsored by HW Fisher

For more than 20 years Ulrika has adorned our television screens from the weather to comedy shows, quiz programmes and personal interviews. Now she talks about writing her first novel which looks at the consequences for Myrtle when her husband of over 40 years collapses and dies on a bus in the arms of Gianni, a gardener who decides to find the dead man's family. What follows becomes a voyage of discovery as Gianni and Myrtle's neighbour Dorothy take the fragile and unhappy widow into their vivid warm world.

The Importance of Being Myrtle – Penguin
Sponsored by www.notonthehighstreet.com

It was the sixties so no one thought it odd that two young Australians John Rendall and Anthony Bourke bought a lion from Harrods and kept him in their furniture shop in trendy Chelsea. He was called Christian but as he grew it was clear that keeping him in London was not on. He was given to George Adamson of Born Free fame who released the lion back into the wild in 1971. What made the story so remarkable was the reunion between the two Australians and Christian who by now had his own pride. Footage of it became a massive YouTube hit. Their remarkable story has spawned several books. John Rendall will be talking to Charles Mayhew, of Tusk Trust about their passion for wildlife conservation.

Sponsored by SJD Events

Our attitudes to lying are confused and contradictory. On the one hand we hate lies, and liars. On the other, we all indulge in fibs, tall tales and fantasies. In Born Liars, Ian Leslie argues that, far from being a bug in the human software, lying is central to who we are; that we cannot understand ourselves without first understanding the dynamics of deceit. He explores the role of deception and self-deception in our childhoods, our careers, and our health, as well as the part played by lies in art, advertising, sport, politics and war. Born Liars is crammed with colourful stories and we'll peer inside the minds of Bill Clinton and Saddam Hussein.

Born Liars - Why We Can't Live Without Deceit –Quercus

Created in 1611, the King James Bible has had such an impact through the four centuries that have followed that it is often called The Book of Books. In an enthralling look at the book that spread the protestant faith, one of our finest authors looks at the history of the bible and the impact that it has had. He argues that the book "is one of the fundamental makers of the modern world" and was a force for democracy. Bragg's skill as a communicator – whether as broadcaster or writer – promises a formidable event.

The Book of Books - Hodder and Stoughton
Sponsored by Baillie Gifford

In the 22 years since she wrote her first novel Penny Vincenzi's books have sold over four million copies. Not bad for someone whose first job was working in Harrods Library at the age of 16. Via secretarial college she became a journalist working on The Times, the Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan before turning to fiction. Her latest book is set in the vibrant sixties, the story of two bright young things: Eliza, an ex-deb working in the world of fashion, and Matt, a working-class boy carving out a serious name for himself in property. They marry; have a baby but soon what started out with such promise descends into a harrowing divorce case and an epic custody battle.

The Decision - Headline
Sponsored by HW Fisher

One of the HLF's favourite authors returns by popular demand for the third year in a row, with his first novel for adults. Anyone who has yet to hear Gervase's rich Yorkshire tones and appreciate his wonderful observations and humour should take this opportunity. His book tells the story of the head of a big inner-city school moving to a primary in sleepy little Barton-in-the-Dale, 'with more problems than school dinners'. And that's not even counting a bitter former head teacher, a grumpy caretaker and a duplicitous chair of governors - and then there's the gossip.

The Little Village School – Hodder and Stoughton
Sponsored by HW Fisher

One of the hits of HLF 2010 returns as John Harris hosts his top-of-the-range Rock Quiz. Get your teams ready for a splendid hour or so of brainteasing, knockabout testing your knowledge of the world of rock n roll. One of our best writers on music, he turns his encyclopaedic, and invariably eccentric, storehouse of facts into a test that will make Monday night quizzes in your local pub seem tame and dull. Prepare yourself to be grilled on rock 'n' roll's feuding brothers, the set list for Live Aid, what sort of guitar Eric Clapton played in the Sixties and much, much more....

Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll: The Ultimate Guide to the Music, the Myths and the Madness - Sphere

This pretty cafe on Friday Street provides the perfect intimate venue for poetry readings. Ask the box office for more details.
Wine and supper available.

One of our foremost columnists brings to the stage an adaption of his latest book in the company of two wonderful actors – the evergreen Eleanor Bron and Simon Russell Beale. Eleanor is remembered as a star with the Beatles in Help! and appearing with Michael Caine in Alfie as well as a raft of the best of British television shows while Simon has been called the 'greatest actor of his generation'. The book relates 101 chance meetings, juxtaposing the famous and the infamous, the artistic and the philistine, the pompous and the comical, the snobbish and the vulgar, each 1,001 words long, and with a time span stretching from the 19th century to the 21st. Often it is the most fleeting of meetings that, in the fullness of time, turn out to be the most noteworthy. The book examines the curious nature of different types of meeting, from the oddity of encounters with the Royal Family (who start giggling during a recital by TS Eliot) to those often perilous meetings between old and young (Mark Twain terrifying Rudyard Kipling or Sickert closing the curtains on the carol-singing Edward Heath ) and between young and old (the 23-year-old Sarah Miles having her leg squeezed by the nonagenarian Bertrand Russell), to contemporary random encounters (George Galloway meeting Michael Barrymore on Celebrity Big Brother). Ingenious in its construction, witty in its narration, panoramic in its breadth, it is a wholly original book.

One on One – Fourth Estate
Sponsored by SJD Events

Well-known for his one-man show A Step Out of Time Timothy Ackroyd also gives readings of Saki, Dickens and M.R.James. In his latest venture he returned to the stage in a play written by himself and the late Dame Beryl Bainbridge. He has also written a book of poetry and established the African Wildlife charity Tusk Trust. A true entertainer with a wonderful collection of West End roles to his name and stories to tell.