The internationally bestselling author of Hans & Rudolf speaks to Anne de Courcy about the first biography of a complex man, champion of Nabakov, Kissinger and Bellow, who transformed publishing forever.

Arriving in London in 1938 as a penniless, teenage Austrian-Jewish refugee, George Weidenfeld went on to transform publishing, championing Nabokov, Simone de Beauvoir, Saul Bellow, Edna O’Brien, Isaiah Berlin, Golda Meir and many more.

Thomas Harding, the internationally bestselling author of Legacy and Hans & Rudolf, returns to the festival to discuss The Maverick, the first biography of this complex and fascinating figure, in conversation with social historian Anne de Courcy.

Buy a copy of The Maverick by Thomas Harding from Blackwells

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the speakers:

Thomas Harding is a bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than sixteen languages. He has written for the Sunday Times, the Washington Post and The Guardian, among other publications. His books include 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; Blood on the Page, which won the Crime Writers Association ‘Golden Dagger Award for Non-Fiction’ and White Debt: The Demerara Uprising and Britain Legacy of Slavery.

Anne de Courcy is a biographer and social historian, who has often appeared on television, for which two of her books have been made into documentaries. Many have been best-sellers; among them are The Viceroy’s Daughters, The Fishing Fleet, Snowdon: The Biography, The Husband Hunters and Chanel’s Riviera: Life, Love and the Struggle for Survival on the Cote d’Azur, 1930-44. Anne has worked for the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, and currently reviews for the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. Much of her latest book, Five Love Affairs and a Friendship: Scenes from the Paris Life of Nancy Cunard, was written during lockdown at her house in nearby Barnsley.