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Family business from Willesden Cemetery

 

With Thomas Harding, Peter Conradi and Anne Sebba

Family stories are the mainstay of Willesden Cemetery. Thomas Harding’s forebears the Salmons and Glucksteins, many of whom are buried there, built the Lyons catering and hotels empire that was a British household name for more than a century.

Peter J Conradi’s ancestors came from Europe in the 1870s and continued a family tradition in engineering and railways.

Join these phenomenal story-tellers as they delve deep into the business of family and the art of biography in this conversation with Anne Sebba.


Contributors

Thomas Harding

Thomas Harding is a bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 16 languages. He has written for the Sunday Times, the Washington Post and the Guardian, among other publications. He is the author of HANNS AND RUDOLF which won the JQ-Wingate Prize for Non-Fiction; THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE, which was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; and BLOOD ON THE PAGE which won the Crime Writers’ Association “Golden Dagger Award for Non-Fiction”. His recent books include LEGACY, FUTURE HISTORY, and a picture book version of THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE.

Peter J. Conradi

Peter Conradi is probably best-known for his authorised biography of Dame Iris Murdoch (Iris Murdoch : A Life), for collecting and editing her essays (Existentialists and Mystics), war-time letters and a journal (A Writer at War) and for his study of her novels (The Saint and the Artist) which has gone into three editions.

Peter J Conradi has written or reviewed for the TLS, New Statesman, FT, Spectator, Independent and Guardian. His BBC appearances have included Radio 3 Nightwaves, Radio 4 Front Row, Something Understood and The Today Programme, and a special edition of BBC TV’s Omnibus.

Peter J. Conradi’s memoir Family Business includes a cast of characters ranging from his European Jewish forebears who came to Britain in the Victorian era to influential novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch, whose biography Conradi himself wrote.

Chair

Anne Sebba

Award winning biographer, historian and author of eleven books. Her latest, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940’s, optioned for a TV multi part series, was the winner of the 2016 Franco-British Society book prize. Her latest book Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy will be published in the UK and US in 2021.

F is for family

F is for family

 
Thomas Harding© Christian Jungeblodt

Thomas Harding

© Christian Jungeblodt

Peter J Conradi

Peter J Conradi

 
Anne Sebba© serenabolton

Anne Sebba

© serenabolton

 

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