Anna Perera was born in London to an Irish mother and Sri Lankan father. She worked as an English teacher in secondary schools in London before running a unit for excluded boys. She gained an MA in Writing for Children and has since had six children’s books published, including the critically...
Participants
 Anwar Hamed is a Palestinian novelist, poet and literary critic who was born in the West Bank in 1957, and is currently living in London. He has published work in different literary genres, in Hungarian, English and Arabic, in Budapest, Beirut, Amman and Ramallah: His novels include:... |
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 Brian Keenan was born in Belfast in 1951. An Evil Cradling is the story of his four years' captivity in Beirut and is recognized as a non-fiction classic. He is also the author of the novel, Turlough and two travel books, Between Extremes (with John McCarthy) and... |
 China Miéville is an author of science fiction and fantasy. His books have won the Arthur C Clarke, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. His most recent novel is Embassytown. He also writes non-fiction, including Between Equal Rights, a critical study of international law. (Image by... |
 Performance of Harold Pinter's One for the Road by former drama students from the College of North East London. Harold Pinter wrote One for the Road (1984) after meeting two "extremely attractive and intelligent young Turkish women" at a party, who seemed casually indifferent to the use... |
 David Harrold is a freelance teacher, actor and writer. He has worked in the West End, the Edinburgh Festival and a number of regional theatres. He also works at the University of Hertfordshire. Besides chairing Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) he has written and produced a version of "The Railway... |
 Ewa Jasiewicz is a journalist, union organiser and solidarity activist. She is a coordinator with the Free Gaza Movement and was on the first Freedom Flotilla and was in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead volunteering with ambulance services. She is the author of Podpalic Gaze (Razing... |
 Born a Beirut, Lebanon, Ghada emmigrated to the USA in 1985. She is a poet, activist, mother and now happy grandmother. Ghada has received awards and recognition for her work for human and civil rights and her tireless efforts against racism and exclusion. 'A Life in Pencil' her collection of... |
 Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem and left Palestine for England in 1949. She practised as a doctor for many years working as as specialist in the health of migrants and refugees. She held a number of research appointments on Middle Eastern politics and culture at the School of Oriental and... |
 Hanna Braun lives in Tottenham. Now 84, Braun has lived through political events and upheavals that shaped individuals’ personal lives, and her memoirs, Weeds Don't Perish: memoirs of a defiant old woman, reflect this. Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1927, she started school and simultaneously... |
 Ours is a group of community orientated citizens all living in the London Borough of Haringey, screening monthly films and documentaries that are sometimes challenging, always thought-provoking and usually rarely shown. Where possible and to broaden the interest further, we will invite those... |
 For more than 25 years, Ian Saville has been presenting his Marxist Magic and ventriloquism. Whereas David Copperfield is content with little tricks like making the Statue of Liberty disappear, Ian Saville aims at the much more ambitious goal of making International Capitalism and... |
 James Miller was born in London in 1976 and educated at Oxford University, UCL and King's College London. He is the author of the highly acclaimed LOST BOYS (Little, Brown 2008) and SUNSHINE STATE (Little, Brown 2010). His short stories and critical essays have appeared in various publications.... |
 Author Jamila Gavin has produced numerous stories, novels and plays for children aged six to sixteen. Short listed for the Smarties Award, the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, for which she was also runner up with The Wheel of Surya, she won the Whitbread... |
 Karl Sabbagh is a writer, documentary maker and publisher. With a Palestinian father and an English mother he was brought up in the UK but has travelled extensively in the Middle East, particularly in Palestine and Israel. His book, Palestine: A Personal History, tells the story of the... |
 LEON ROSSELSON has been at the forefront of songwriting in Britain for 50 years. His songs range from the lyrical to the satirical, from the personal to the political, from the humorous to the poignant. Tim McGuire, Don't get Married, Girls, Stand Up for Judas, Song of the Olive Tree, My... |
 Louis is a film maker, DOP and camera operator. His first film was a documentary on the Lake of Stars Festival in Malawi since when he has filmed many other music festivals including Lovebox and Soundwave. Louis' passion is documentary and at present he is working on a project with Tottenham... |
 Lucie Brown is a communications professional who has volunteered and campaigned for human rights throughout her life. She left her role as Head of Brand Communications at disability charity Mencap at the end of last year to volunteer in the West Bank monitoring and intervening in human rights... |
 Michael Rosen writes 'stuff'. He doesn't mind whether its called poetry or not, but he likes writing that sort of thing and children like reading it. Michael has written many anthologies of poems and edited collections of classic poems. He has also written some picture books. Michael... |
 Mohamed Altawil was born in a refugee camp in Gaza. He came to the UK on a Ford Foundation Scholarship in 2004 to do a PhD on the effects of chronic traumatic experience on the children of Gaza. In 2008 when the wall between Gaza and Egypt was blown up, he returned, rescued his wife and children... |
 Naomi Foyle is a British-Canadian poet and performer. Her first collection, The Night Pavilion, an Autumn 2008 PBS Recommendation, was followed by Grace of the Gamblers, an illustrated ballad pamphlet about 16th C Irish chieftain Grace O’Malley; and, also from Waterloo Press, The World Cup, a... |
 Having started his career as a drama script editor with the BBC and later producer/ director with Yorkshire Television, since 1995 Peter Kosminsky has worked largely as a freelance drama director. TV Dramas include No Child of Mine for ITV, (BAFTA for Best Single Drama), Warriors... |
 Philip Marfleet is Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies at the University of East London. He has written widely on refugee issues and on Middle East society and politics. His latest book, with Rabab El Mahdi, is Egypt:The Moment of Change. |
 Haim Bresheeth chaired different Film Schools in UK and Israel until 2002. Since January 2002 he has been Chair of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London.He has directed and produced many documentary films, including A State of Danger (1988) and published a number... |
 Reem is arguably the most important female Arab singer of her generation. In her work, Reem explores a profoundly personal musical territory, creating an intense & emotional soundscape that starts somewhere between propulsive contemporary jazz & spine-tingling Arabic maqaams, and... |
 Roisin Murray is a lively and engaging storyteller and workshop leader with many years experience, working with all ages in many educational, community and performance settings. She has travelled widely with her work. In 2009 this included touring Palestine and Israel in the Healing Words group... |
 Selma Dabbagh (b. 1970) is a British Palestinian writer based in London. She has also lived in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, France and the West Bank. Her fiction is mainly set in the contemporary Middle East. Recurring themes in her work are idealism (however futile), political... |
 Tim Llewellyn was the BBC's Middle East Correspondent from 1976 to 1980 and 1987 to 1992, based first in Beirut then Nicosia. During these periods he covered Israel and Palestine, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and the First Gulf War, of 1990-91. Since 1993 he... |
 The Wildcat Arts Collective organises cultural/arts events and activities including: comedy, music, poetry, dance and film/outdoor screenings. Sometimes a bit edgy and thought provoking, but usually 'a bit of a riot', these events are, at the moment, aimed at three groups: children (Kids... |