Why You Might Love Lennoxlove

One of the biggest names at the festival is Iain M Banks, and the ‘M’ is important since he’s written a new novel using his sci-fi name. In fact, Surface Detail is also a Culture novel (which probably pleased his publishers - they're very popular). For those who don’t know, and you really should, The Culture is Banks’s grand invention, a utopian socialist society in space, around which various novels occur. Surface Detail sees The Culture helping out one Lededje Y'breq, a slave from a less advanced society, in a truly epic tale involving several other plot strands – including the battle to abolish hells(!) – and a massive amount of imagination. You can hear the possessor of that imagination in conversation on 20 November.

And not to make Mr Banks feel old, but he’d published 7 books, by the time Daniel Sloss was born (and nearly 8, trivia fans – Use of Weapons first hit the shops two days after Sloss was born). Sloss, who will be appearing on the 21st at 6pm, is that maddeningly young comedian you’ve seen on telly talking about how maddeningly young he is (and I’m not old!) It’s a good thing he’s actually funny then.

If comedy is not to your taste, and you’re more of a fan of, um, murder, then you’ll be glad to know that crime writers are well represented. In particular, two Scots will be appearing, Quentin Jardine, and Ian Rankin. Jardine will be talking about his latest, A Rush of Blood, featuring his recurring cop Bob Skinner, and Rankin will be talking about… actually, Rebus has retired, so it won’t be him. To find out what Ian Rankin is up to now, best attend the event.

Speaking of people who get up to things, spin doctor Alasdair Campbell’s new volume of diaries, Prelude to Power, will be promoted by the man himself on the 20 November. Something of a must for political junkies, the diaries cover the period just before New Labour came to power in 1997, with all of the manoeuvring and bargaining that entails. And as an ex-journalist in a prominent position, Campbell may be the ideal man to cover the period.

Other journalistic events include BBC correspondent Fergal Keane talking about his account of the Siege of Kohima in 1944, ominously entitled Road of Bones on the 19th. Similarly, there’s the former master of the swingometer, Peter Snow, talking about the career of the famous general in To War With Wellington, also on the 19th.

Of course, war might not interest you, and so happily there’s another BBC man appearing with a light comedy hour – it’s master of light comedy hosts, Nicholas Parsons, once annoyingly mainstream, now an appealingly cult figure, especially as the host of the long running Radio 4 show Just A Minute. He’ll be talking about his career to promote his autobiography, featuring everyone from Norman Wisdom to Paul Merton, on the 21st.

It’s a pretty varied programme then, and in an unusual, but very appealing setting. Check out the details for yourself at: www.lennoxlovebookfestival.com.