Le Carre, Atwood and Smith set for Southbank appearances

A rare public appearance from John le Carré, and events by Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith, feature in Southbank Centre's summer/autumn 2017 programme, alongside Naomi Klein and Orhan Pamuk, amongst others.

Le Carré will be introducing his new novel, A Legacy of Spies (Viking), which sees the return of his most iconic Cold War character on 7th September, whilst the author of The Handmaid’s Tale (Vintage) Margaret Atwood will reflect on her visionary work in the context of the Trump era and the real world it reflects on 2nd October.

Also part of the programme is journalist and activist Naomi Klein ,who will be discussing her new book No Is Not Enough (Allen Lane) which looks at the tactics used to bring Trump into power and what happens next. Laurie Penny and Rebecca Solnit each present their new essay collections, Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults (Bloomsbury) and The Mother of All Questions (Granta).

Also taking part will be Zadie Smith, reading from her most recent novel Swing Time (Hamish Hamilton) and discussing writing fiction that responds to our current times; Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk on his latest novel, The Red-Haired Woman (Faber), and the city which has had such an influence on his writing - Istanbul; and Nigerian-American author and photographer Teju Cole, who will present his new work, Blind Spot (Faber), which explores the unexpected connections between the visual world and written word, and offers a guide to seeing in our changing times.

The season culminates with William Boyd who will take to the stage - alone - on 6th November to talk about his life as a creator of many fictions, beginning with the publication of his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (Penguin, 1981) right through to an exclusive reading from his new book of short stories, The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth (Viking).

In addition Southbank Centre welcomes London’s award-winning LGBT literary salon, Polari for the 10th successive year, featuring leading authors from the LGBT community including Susan Wilkins and Alys Fowler in their summer programme.

Ted Hodgkinson, Southbank Centre’s senior programmer, literature and spoken word, said: "Literature has anticipated many of the changes we have seen in the last twelve months, and distilled seismic historical shifts into unforgettable writing. Few epitomise this power of literature to place global events on a human scale more than this exceptional array of authors we host this season, who illuminate worlds as distinctive as the Cold War, political upheavals in Istanbul and the current Trump administration. They are essential voices, whose work expands our sense of shared humanity, and offers vital insights into our times. Southbank Centre is proud to be exploring these important issues and providing a platform for some of our most era-defining and visionary writers.”