Alan Johnson

Writer and former home secretary Alan Johnson talks about his debut novel, The Late Train to Gypsy Hill.

Gary Nelson’s life is turned on its head thanks to a chance meeting on a train with young waitress Arina. There’s more to Arina than meets the eye, and Gary finds himself on the run from Russian secret agents, mobsters and even the Metropolitan Police.

‘Fascinating and ingenious’ Melvyn Bragg

Johnson was a Labour MP for 20 years. He served in Blair and Brown cabinets as education secretary, health secretary and home secretary. His 2013 childhood memoir, The Boy, won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize. His second volume of memoirs, Please Mr Postman, won the National Book Club award for Best Biography, and the final one, The Long and Winding Road, won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Memoir. Here he talks to novelist Simon Mason, author of A Killing in November.

This event is part of the festival’s crime fiction programme.