James Naughtie (18:30 BST)

Round off the festival in the company of veteran BBC broadcaster, James Naughtie whose mellifluous tones and calm analysis have brought enlightenment and joy to generations of listeners to Radios 3 and 4. With his unrivalled knowledge of US politics going back decades and his years as a lead political interviewer, who better to make sense of today’s turmoil?

Woven into his take on actual events, Naughtie, a host of Radio 4’s Book Club, will also discuss his latest thriller, The Spy Across the Water hailed by Lee Child as ‘the best kind - intelligent, resonant, suspenseful... and plausible’. Set at a political turning point in the 1980s, with his protagonist, an ex-spook, now Ambassador in Washington, caught up in the Cold War and the Northern Ireland Troubles, Naughtie’s fiction proves just as enthralling as his masterly grasp of Realpolitik.

In conversation with Gerry Foley.

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