Pranvera Smith

BookNight with Kevin Sullivan: The Longest Winter

The Frontline Club is delighted to welcome Kevin Sullivan to present The Longest Winter, inspiring and authentic debut novel about life in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.

BookNight with Luke Harding

For April’s members’ BookNight, we are delighted to welcome Marina Litvinenko and Luke Harding on the release of his new book, A Very Expensive Poison.

1 November 2006. Alexander Litvinenko is brazenly poisoned in central London. His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia. Based on the best part of a decade’s reporting, as well as extensive interviews with those closest to the events, Luke Harding‘s A Very Expensive Poison is the definitive inside story of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko.

BookNight with Rod Nordland

For February’s BookNight we are delighted to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and Frontline Club member Rod Nordland to present his latest book, The Lovers. Afghanistan’s Romeo and Juliet, the true story of how they defied their families and escaped an honour killing. This is a riveting, real-life equivalent of The Kite Runner and an astonishingly powerful and moving portrayal that puts a human face to the ongoing debate about women’s rights in the Muslim world.

BookNight with Chris Riddell

This BookNight with illustrator and writer Chris Riddell will be dedicated to political satirical cartoon. Riddell will talk about the cartoonist’s craft and tradition, as well as the tragic events in the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo a year ago.

BookNight with Michela Wrong

We are delighted to welcome Anglo-Italian author and reporter Michela Wrong to present her debut novel, Borderlines. Wrong has been writing non-fiction about African politics for two decades. In this novel, she probes the motives underlying Western engagement with the continent, questioning the value of universal justice and exploring how history itself is forged.

BookNight with David Rieff

For our first BookNight of the year, we are delighted to welcome American non-fiction writer and policy analyst David Rieff to present his new book The Reproach of Hunger over an evening with Frontline Club members.

BookNight with Anthony Loyd

We are delighted to welcome Anthony Loyd to present his classic piece of war writing My War Gone By, I Miss It So, reissued in November 2015 with a new introduction by the author. Please join us for a delicious three-course dinner and an evening of captivating discussion.

BookNight with Max Porter

We are delighted to welcome Max Porter to present his exceptional new book Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. This deeply moving study of loss is partly based on the author’s life and partly inspired by Ted Hughes’ Crow. Full of unexpected humour and profound emotional truth, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers marks the arrival of a thrilling new talent.

BookNight with James Rodgers

For October’s BookNight we are pleased to welcome an author and journalist, James Rodgers, who will present his book Headlines from the Holy Land over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members. Starting from a historical perspective, Rodger’s latest book identifies the challenges the conflict presents for contemporary journalism and diplomacy, and suggests new ways of approaching them.

BookNight with Martin Bell

For July’s BookNights we are delighted to welcome the distinguished former foreign affairs correspondent for the BBC, Martin Bell, OBE, who will present his book The End of Empire over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

Before his career as a BBC war reporter and independent MP, Martin Bell also served as a soldier in Cyprus between 1957 and 1959. In a chocolate box in his attic many years later he found more than 100 letters that he had sent home to his family. He was not a journalist then, but the letters are war reports of a sort, impressions of what it was like to be a conscript on active service during the EOKA rebellion against British rule.

BookNight with Fred Abrahams

For June’s BookNight we are pleased to welcome author and special advisor at Human Rights Watch Fred Abrahams, who will present his book Modern Albania From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members. A rich, narrative-driven account, Modern Albania gives readers a front-row seat to the dramatic events of the last battle of Cold War Europe.

BookNight with Patrick Bishop

As the long trudge towards the general election begins and the news media speculate on a myriad of hypothetical scenarios as to what the brave new world might bring, we are taking a look back at one of the most prominent British leaders and what remains of the values and ideals that he championed.

For April’s members’ BookNight, we are pleased to welcome Patrick Bishop, who will present his book Churchill’s Funeral over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

BookNight with John Hooper

For March’s members’ BookNight, we are delighted to welcome an award-winning author and foreign correspondent specialising in the countries of the Mediterranean, John Hooper, who will present his new book The Italians, over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

BookNight with Andrey Kurkov

For February’s members’ BookNight we are pleased to welcome acclaimed Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who will present his recently published book Ukrainian Diaries over an intimate dinner with Frontline Club members.

BookNight with Dan O’Brien

For our members’ BookNight in November we are delighted to welcome the acclaimed playwright, poet, and librettist Dan O’Brien. He will give a reading from his book of poems War Reporter, as well as from his critically acclaimed play The Body of an American, based on the poems.

War Reporter is focused on photojournalist Paul Watson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1993 photograph of a dead American being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. Deriving from correspondence between poet and photojournalist and their eventual meeting, the collection of poems bears unsparing witness to the incalculable damage inflicted by contemporary warfare.

BookNight with Robert McCrum

After four nights featuring Afghanistan, Bosnia, phone-hacking and Iraq – we’re going to shift into a more literary gear to welcome editor and writer Robert McCrum. Robert is reaching the half-way mark in compiling a vast list of, and guide to, the hundred greatest novels of all time – week by week, one year in, one to go. The books “choose themselves”, says Robert, but how fascinating it will be to hear how he chooses novels that choose themselves; what gets left out and how the public reacts.

Following the BookNight with Patrick Cockburn

On Monday 15 September, the Clubroom hosted another fascinating night of discussion following the presentation of Patrick Cockburn’s new book, Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising.

BookNight with Patrick Cockburn

Following the success of our members’ BookNights with Carlotta Gall, Tim Butcher and Nick Davies, we welcome Patrick Cockburn, who will – with striking topicality – talk about his new book, The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising.

For more information about membership and the other benefits on offer, please contact Membership Coordinator, Sophie Kayes.

New Monthly Members’ Night

Frontline BookNights The idea is to have a thoroughly good time, encourage reading and discussion of reading, and to end the night happier and wiser than when it began. The notion is further to harvest and focus some of the best ways in which the club has developed over its decade of existence, but also […]

Frontline Club Tenth Anniversary tribute

  Your wonderful and kind messages mean so much to us, as has your friendship, council and support over so many years. There is no prize in our trade that we could ever value as much as your belief in us. – Vaughan and Pranvera Smith