James Meek was born in London in 1962. He worked as a reporter for 20 years and won several awards for his work, including reports on Guantánamo Bay and from Iraq. He continues to contribute to The Guardian, the London Review of Books and Granta.

He has published two books of short stories: Last Orders (1992) and The Museum of Doubt (2000). His three novels are: Drivetime (1995), McFarlane Boils the Sea (1989), and, most recently, The People's Act of Love (2005), set in Siberia during the Russian Revolution. This book won the 2006 Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award and the 2006 Ondaatje Prize.

A fourth novel, We Are Now Beginning Our Descent, is due to be published in 2007.

The event will be held in English. Admission free.