The third of a new series of author events with MMU features special guest Francis Spufford in conversation with the Manchester Writing School’s Jean Sprackland. Francis Spufford has edited two acclaimed anthologies and a collection of essays about the history of technology. His first book, I May Be Some Time, won the 1996 Writers’ Guild Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, the Banff Mountain Book Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award. His second, The Child That Books Built, gave Neil Gaiman “the peculiar feeling that there was now a book I didn’t need to write”. His third, Backroom Boys, was called “as nearly perfect as makes no difference” by the Daily Telegraph and was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize. Francis will be introducing some brand new fiction, reading from and discussing his latest non-fiction book, Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense as well reading from Red Plenty, a book about “the moment in the mid-20th century when people believed that the state-owned Soviet economy might genuinely outdo the market, and produce a world of rich communists and envious capitalists”. The event will open with short readings from original work by Manchester Writing School MA Creative Writing students Ann Cunningham and Anne Worthington. Drinks will be available to purchase from the bar, plus there’ll be a Blackwell’s bookstall and signing after the event. Contact events@anthonyburgess.org to reserve seats.