Desai, Tharoor, Jaishree in Hay-on-Wye fest lineup

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US model and actress Pamela Anderson and her dancing partner perform during the TV programme ShowMatch 2011 in Buenos Aires

Indian-origin Nobel prize winner V.S. Naipaul leads the long list of South Asian writers at the 10-day literary festival at Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, which kicks off on Thursday.
The South Asian presence is quite strong at the Hay Festival, regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious literary festivals, after the launch of the Kerala edition of the festival franchise in November.
This year, Hay Festival Kerala will be held on November 18, 19 and 20.
The annual festival, which was founded by British actor and director Peter Florence in 1988, has spread all across the world and there are literary 15 festivals under the Hay franchise, including the one in Kerala. The other Hay festivals are held in Segovia (Spain), Cartagena and Bogota (Colombia), Nairobi (Kenya), Beirut (Lebanon), Maldives, Cape Town (South Africa), Xalapa (Mexico), Belfast, Brecon, Merthyr (UK).
Kashmir-born and Delhi-educated novelist Mirza Waheed will discuss his debut novel, The Collaborator. Bangladesh-born Tahmima Anam, who has just launched her second novel, will talk about The Good Muslim and Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid will discuss his two books Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist at the festival.
Lord Meghnad Desai, the world famous economist, will lecture on “The Rediscovery of India” on May 29 and his wife Lady Kishwar Desai, will discuss her debut novel Witness The Night with Orange Prize winner Ann Patchett.
The lineup of Nobel laureates at Hay-on-Wye includes Nobel French writer J.M.G. le Clezio, British genetist Paul Nurse and Egyptian diplomat Mohammed ElBaradei. Booker winner Howard Jacobson will discuss his comic novel The Finkler Question.
The South Asian writing on focus at Hay includes a variety of genres: Indian author Siddhartha Deb will talk about new India and his new book The Beautiful and the Damned, journalist Rahul Bhattacharya will discuss his novel The Sly Company of People Who Care and Jaishree Misra will talk about her A Scandalous Secret.
Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor will talk about Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary.
Other highlights at the festival include historians Eric Hobsbawm, Michael Wood, Bettany Hughes and Niall Ferguson, actors Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Fiennes, Rob Lowe, and Gillian Anderson, and writers Paul Theroux, Linda Grant, Malorie Blackman, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson. This year’s festival runs from 26 May to 5 June 2011.