Two new authors discuss their debut work with Robert Collins, assistant literary editor of The Sunday Times. The festival is committed to showcasing new writing so we are delighted to welcome Patrick Flanery, author of Absolution, and Chibundu Onuzo, author of The Spider King’s Daughter.

Absolution is set in contemporary South Africa as the two main protagonists confront the ghosts of their own pasts and the long shadow of the apartheid era. Flanery was born in California and completed a doctorate in 20th-century English literature at the University of Oxford.

The Spider King’s Daughter is the story of an unlikely friendship between a male street hawker and the daughter of a member of the corrupt elite in Nigeria. Onuzo grew up in Lagos and is currently studying history at King’s College, London.