First names announced for literary festival

Gibraltarian Fernando Piere, the director of the Ivy restaurant and club, has been confirmed as one of the main speakers at this year’s Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival. He is amongst the first names to be released for the sixth edition of the festival which will be held from 15 to 19 November.

Mr Piere was “The Restaurant Inspector” in Channel 5’s critically-acclaimed television series which ran for two seasons. To celebrate The Ivy’s centenary, he has written The Ivy Now, chronicling the history of The Ivy.

Sky News presenter Stephen Dixon, currently anchoring the channel's Sunrise programme, has also been confirmed as another of the speakers. No stranger to the Rock he was a judge in the Miss Gibraltar Pageant a few years ago.

Tourism Minister Gilbert Licudi commented this year’s five day event already has a great line up.

“We’ve only just started, with a further list of eminent speakers to come. The Festival is now established as benchmark for others in the English speaking world and the Government is committed in its support of this magnificent event,” he said.

Other speakers in 2018 include John Crace, the parliamentary sketch writer who coined the satirical name Maybot, and who will take a wry look at Theresa May’s time in Downing Street.

Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature at Oxford University, whose bestselling book on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and the HBO TV show ‘Game of Thrones’, Winter is Coming: the Medieval World of Game of Thrones will be the inspiration for her Festival talk. She is currently working on the follow-up book, exploring the TV show as a whole and will be called All Men Must Die, and will appear in late 2020.

Stand-up comic and television personality Johnny Ball will also be Gibraltar to talk about Wonders Beyond Numbers - A Brief History of all things Mathematical. His gift for mathematics was not spotted until he got a rare 100% in his O Level, just before leaving school. Throughout his life he has excelled in anything mathematical and maths became a lifelong hobby and conceived, wrote and presented “Think of a Number” for the BBC in 1978 winning a BAFTA.

On a similar theme is Dr David Acheson, one of the UK’s most well-known popularisers of mathematics. His bestselling book ‘1089 and All That’ has been translated into 11 languages.

Author Pat Mills, is famed as ‘the Godfather of British comics’, created 2000AD, featuring Judge Dredd, and wrote many of its key stories such as Judge Dredd, Slaine and Nemesis the Warlock. He also co-created the anti-superhero character Marshal Law, with artist Kevin O’Neill, for Marvel Comics, and currently writes the satirical French bestselling graphic novel series Requiem Vampire Knight. His acclaimed, long-running, anti-war saga Charley’s War has been the subject of major exhibitions in French war museums during the centenary years of the Great War. He is currently immersed in writing a black comedy thriller series Read Em and Weep.

Returning to the Festival is Lord Peter Hennessy, one of Britain's best-known historians, joining him and a first for the Festival is James Jinks.