The Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival 2008

Patrick Gale is a British writer who wrote his first novel on his order pad while working as a singing waiter. He has since become well known for his family dramas, the latest of which is 'Notes from an Exhibition', a story of a gifted artist suffering from bi-polar disorder. He started by telling Sarah Passmore what he does when he's not writing – farming!

Colin Thubron is an award-winning travel writer and novelist. His latest travel, book 'Shadows of the Silk Road' is an account of his 7,000-mile journey along the route of the Silk Road. He spoke to Sarah Passmore and told her why he was drawn to travel.

Philip Ardagh is a successful children's author known for his quirky style. He is best known for his two series 'Eddie Dickens' and 'Unlikely Exploits' and for co-writing a book with Sir Paul Mccartney. He told Sarah Passmore about his unique writing style and said he didn't think it was too dark for children.

Marina Lewycka had huge success with her first published novel A 'Short History of Tractors in Ukranian', which deals with the sticky subject of an elderly parent deciding to marry a woman less than half his age. She spoke to Sarah Passmore about her apparent overnight success.

David Davidar is a publisher turned author. He was president and CEO of Penguin books in India when his novel 'The House of the Blue Mangoes' was published and went on to become an international best seller. He told Sarah Passmore how rather than helping him, being a high profile publisher was actually a hindrance.

Ian McEwan has published numerous award-winning novels and short story collections. He gained notoriety early in his career for his shocking and often disquieting subject matter. An accomplished novelist, he has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize numerous times, most recently for his novel 'On Chesil Beach' and he won the award for Amsterdam in 1998. Many of his books have been adapted for film including 'First Love', 'Last Rites', 'The Cement Garden', 'The Comfort of Strangers', 'Enduring Love', and, most recently, 'Atonement'. RTHK's Gary Pollard spoke to him

Ann Enright is an Irish writer whose first novel 'The Wig My Father Wore' was published in 1995. Her 2007 work 'The Gathering' won wide praise ('Reckless intelligence, savage humor, slow revelation, no consolation: Anne Enright's fiction is jet dark — but how it glitters.' – New York Times), and that year's Booker Prize. She talks to Hugh Chiverton about the novel, and whether critics were right to call it 'bleak'.

Zia Sardar is a Muslim scholar with an interest in science, culture and the politics of the modern world. He is the author of many books, including 'Postmodernism and the Other'; 'Introducing Muhammad ', 'Why Do People Hate America?', and 'Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Skeptical Muslim'. Hugh Chiverton asked him what he was skeptical about?

Dava Sobel is a popular science writer who came to prominence with 'Longitude' in 1995, which told the story of John Harrison's search for a more perfect clock. 'Galileo's Daughter' in 2000 was subtitled 'A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love'. Her most recent work was 'The Planets', a study combining science, mythology and history. The subjects of her first books had lifelong struggles against authority to make their point, so Hugh Chiverton asked her first if that age of the heroic scientist was over?

Professor Edward Larson is a Pulitzer-prizewinning historian and legal scholar. He writes mostly about issues of law, science and medicine from a historical perspective, with a particular interest in the controversies surrounding Evolution. His most recent book is a detailed study of the first Presidential Campaign in US history ; ' A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800'. Hugh Chiverton asked him what happened in that year?

Marina Benjamin is a British journalist and non-fiction writer whose most recent book is 'Last Days in Babylon', telling the story of the last Jews of Baghdad. Her earlier study 'Rocket Dreams'was a kind of farewell to the vision of a space age. Hugh Chiverton talked to her about the second book first, and whether it was written in the United States.

Dr. Kathy Reichs is an internationally recognized forensic anthropologist and the bestselling award-winning author of numerous crime novels, including Deja Dead, which became a New York Times bestseller. The hit television series Bones, featuring the heroine Temperance Brennan, was inspired by Dr. Reichs's life and writing. Sarah Passmore spoke to her at a special lunch at M at the Fringe and asked her first to explain what it is that a forensic anthropologist actually does.

Detecting in Bejing, murder in San Francisco; British crime writer Catherine Sampson and the Chinese-born, award-winning novelist Yan Geling discuss writing about the underworld with Sarah Passmore.

Gail Jones

Priya Basil

In 'Ishq and Mushq' Priya Basil's main character stifles unwanted memories that torment her and Gail Jones' novel 'Sorry' laments lost opportunities. Sarah Passmore speaks to them about delving into the burden of the past.

|Tan Twan Eng

Yan Geling

Yan Geling and Tan Twan Eng talk with Sarah Passmore about the racial tensions in their historic stories. 'The Lost Daughter of Happiness' is a heartbreaking account of a Chinese prostitute's life during San Francisco's Gold Rush era. 'The Gift of Rain', longlisted for the Booker Prize is set in Japanese occupied Malaya and is a sad tale of friendship and betrayal.

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