Leone Ross
Leone Ross was born in Coventry, England, on 26 June 1969. She grew up in Jamaica, and studied at the University of the West Indies and at the City University in London, where she now lives. She has worked as a journalist for The Voice newspaper in London and as a researcher for LWT as well as contributing to a wide range of magazines and newspapers in Britain and America, including The Guardian and The Sunday Times. In 2000, she received a London Arts Board Writers' Award.

Leone Ross teaches creative writing and was a Fellow at Trinity College Dublin in 2001. Presently she works as an Associate Lecturer at Cardiff University, Birkbeck College and the City Literary Institute.

She is the author of two novels, All the Blood is Red (1996) and Orange Laughter (1999).

Date: 2. November 2005, 20.00 hrs

Venue: British Council, Hackescher Markt 1, 10178 Berlin

Roger Hutchinson
Roger Hutchinson is a full-time writer living on the island of Raasay . In 1975 he became a freelance journalist and went on to author several books on subjects as diverse as the professional tennis circuit, the Royal Family, Bruce Lee and man-eating sharks. He has won several awards, including North of Scotland Feature Writer of the Year and UK Weekly Sports Writer of the Year.

His last book "The Soap Man: Lewis, Harris and Lord Leverhulme" was short-listed for The Saltire Book the Year Award 2004. In his publication: A Waxing Moon – The Modern Gaelic Revival , Hutchinson celebrates Scotland 's most ancient language.

A Waxing Moon will tell the story of one institution, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college in Skye that has stood at the centre of this revival. But, chiefly, the book will examine how a venerable culture was given hope for the future at the point when all seemed lost. It recounts the scores of personalities, from Sorley Maclean and Donnie Munro of Runrig to Michael Forsyth and Gordon Brown, who have become involved in that process. The book shows how language shapes the cultural identity. It tells a story that has implications for the future of all of Scotland and the UK , and wherever lesser-used languages face the modern world.

Date: 8 November 2005, 20.00 hrs

Venue: British Council, Hackescher Markt 1, 10178 Berlin

Ekow Eshun
Ekow Eshun is a journalist, broadcaster and director of The Institute of Contemporary Arts. His first book, Black Gold of the Sun, charts his search for his roots in Ghana. Growing up in London, Ekow Eshun never felt truly at home. Born in Britain to African parents, he found himself caught between two cultures without fully belonging to either.

Plagued by the unease of dual identity, he travels to Africa to look for an idea of home - only to discover he's as much of a stranger there as in Britain. As he retraces the steps of his ancestors, Eshun's journey becomes an increasingly disorienting search to locate a sense of self that's not reliant on place.

Date: 15 November 2005, 20.00 hrs

Venue: British Council, Hackescher Markt 1, 10178 Berlin

Dr. Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev was educated at Oxford and has taught at New York University . He is also a trustee at Salidaa, an organisation dedicated to collecting and preserving South Asian creative contributions to British art and culture over several decades and a well-known film critic. He writes for the London Review of Books, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph . His publications include Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters (1997) and Black British Writers , the first volume of Pickering and Chatto's ' Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation ' series (1999).

In 2003 he published a book: London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City. Sandhu examines the history of the capital city through the eyes of black and Asian writers, he highlights authors as diverse in style as the 18th century grocer aesthete Ignatius Sancho right through to Rushdie, Kureishi and yardie chronicler Victor Headley.

For Sandhu, black writing has been too often seen by its critics and even its supporters as 'emergency literature', in which the only value is journalistic reportage, or political agitation. He shows how black writers display a much wider range. The cultural variety of authors can and certainly does contribute to form a cities identity. The book spotlights a rich literary tradition and gets to the heart of the immigrant's experience.

Date: 17 November 2005, 20.00 hrs

Venue: British Council, Hackescher Markt 1, 10178 Berlin