Corelli's Mandolin author for two-day visit

Louis de Bernières, the best-selling author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Birds Without Wings and one of Britain's foremost novelists writing today, will be in Malta on March 21 and 22.

The news should delight readers who follow the contemporary literary scene. Mr de Bernières will be brought over by the British Council and Miller Distributors and the public will have a number of opportunities to hear him talking about his work.

On March 21, Mr de Bernières will be meeting university students at 1 p.m. in Lecture Theatre 2, at the university, Tal-Qroqq, where he will read extracts from his work and participate in a question and answer session.

This event is being organised in collaboration with the Department of English and the University Students' Council (KSU), and will be followed by a book signing session at 3 p.m., at the Agenda Bookshop on campus.

On the same day, Mr de Bernières will be taking part in another reading at St James Cavalier's Music Room in Valletta, at 7 p.m.

Mr de Bernières is perhaps most famous for Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1994), which was both a popular and a critical success and was adapted into a film in 2001 by director John Madden.

He is also the author of a number of other impressive novels, including The War Of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990), Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991), The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal Guzman (1992), and most recently the acclaimed Birds Without Wings (2004).

Born in London in 1954, de Bernières graduated from the Victoria University of Manchester, took a postgraduate certificate in education at Leicester Polytechnic and passed his MA, with distinction, at the University of London.

He has held various jobs: Landscape gardener, mechanic, officer cadet at Sandhurst and schoolteacher in both Colombia and England. Currently he lives in Norfolk, England.

In 1993 Granta magazine nominated Mr de Bernières as one of 20 Best British Young Novelists, and he went on to win a number of literary awards, including the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

The British Council has attracted to the island a number of high-profile events in various fields, including theatre, literature, cultural criticism and science.

Tickets for the reading at St James Cavalier cost Lm1. For booking information contact the booking office on 2122 3200 or 2122 3216 or send an e-mail to boxoffice@sjcav.org.

Further book signings are scheduled for March 22 at Sapienza Bookshop, in Valletta, at 12.30 p.m., and at Agenda Bookshop, at the Waterfront, in Valletta at 6.30 p.m.