Novelist William Sutcliffe and author and journalist Victoria Brittain discuss youth, women, power, and resilience in the context of two books where Palestine is the foreground of one, and a shadowy background in the other. These two books, Sutcliffe’s The Wall: Which Side Are You On, and Brittain’s Shadow Lives, reveal lives unimaginable to most people in the West. Both explore the texture of family life lived at a nexus of extreme political pressure.

Sutcliffe has written six novels that have been translated into more than 20 languages. They include international bestseller Are You Experienced? Brittain has lived and worked as a journalist in Saigon, Washington, Algiers and Nairobi and is a former associate foreign editor of The Guardian. She is author and co-author of books and plays on Africa and on Guantanamo Bay.

Discussions are chaired by Sir Stephen Sedley, a retired Lord Justice of Appeal, who recently headed a legal team assessing the treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli military law.