Elite authors and prominent literary figures from the UK will be hosted at this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), which is organized by Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) and is taking place from November 1-11 at Expo Centre Sharjah.
Flying the flag for Britain – this year’s Guest of Honour at the fair – will be such acclaimed authors and celebrated media personalities as Mark Billingham, creator of London-based detective Tom Thorne; Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series and bestselling historical romance writer, Nicola Cornick.
Each of the literary luminaries will participate in a range of festival activities that have been put together to celebrate the UK as its Guest of Honour. A special dedicated programme to shine a spotlight on the outstanding achievements of English literature and strengthen cultural ties between the UAE and the UK will be rolled at SIBF 2017.
Actor, TV writer, stand-up comedian and novelist Mark Billingham achieved literary fame with his first novel Sleepyhead, while former barrister and entrepreneur Mark Ellis is a thriller writer and the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London. Both will be attending SIBF 2017 to participate in its extensive array of cultural activities.
Nicola Cornick, whose historical romance novels and timeslip mysteries have been translated into over 40 languages will be appearing at SIBF 2017, as will Katherine Woodfine, bestselling author of The Clockwork Sparrow, which was published in 2015 and shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal.
Also appearing as part of the Guest of Honour programme are Amanda Prowse, known as ‘The Queen of Family Dramas’ for her achievements in writing commercial women’s fiction; BA Paris, whose debut novel Behind Closed Doors was a runaway success; Shahed Saleem, award-winning architect and design studio leader at the University of Westminster School of Architecture and Kiran Millwood Hargreaves, whose work The Girl of Ink & Stars was the winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017 and the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year 2017.
Internationally celebrated authors from the British Council who will be attending SIBF 2017 include Neel Mukherjee, whose second novel The Lives of Others was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2014 and Oxford University Professor of Global History, Peter Frankopan, whose work The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, is an international bestseller.
Leading marketing author Giles Lury, who is also the Director of the brand consultancy ‘The Value Engineers’ will be attending, as will fashion journalist and author, Claudia Joseph; British author, historian and television presenter Kate Williams and Alexandra Shulman OBE, ex-editor-in-chief of the British edition of Vogue and one of the country’s most oft-quoted voices on fashion trends.
Themed ‘A World in My Book,’ the forthcoming edition of SIBF will see the participation of 1,650 publishing houses from 60 countries. More than 1.5 million titles will be on display throughout the 11-day celebration of literature, knowledge and culture. Spreading across 14,625 square meters, this year’s edition will feature 393 guests from 48 countries who will take part in more than 2,600 events.
