11 May 2005
Amstelkerk

A highly-successful writer and broadcaster, Purves has presented BBC Radio 4's Midweek programme since 1984, and formerly presented the Today programme from 1977-1981. In addition to her Radio 4 work, she's a renowned columnist for The Times and received the OBE for services to journalism in 1999, the same year she was named Granada Columnist of the Year.

She's written numerous books on childcare and family life which are translated worldwide, as well as a number of bestselling novels for Hodder and Stoughton. Her latest being Acting Up.

Acting Up
Susie and Francis Anderson were born into a family whose heritage is honour, courage, and the British military tradition.  For over 200 years their ancestors have fought for king and country and it is only natural that the new generation should also step bravely into the line of fire.

When the second Iraq war calls, however, it is the sister rather than the brother who joins her regiment in the Kuwaiti desert. Francis - amiable, clever, musical and fey - has quite another career, as Madame Fanny Fantoni, drag chanteuse and fishnet-stockinged vamp of the cabaret scene.  He lives in penury, and takes the flak from bottle-hurling drunks in hostile pub audiences, arming himself with songs and jokes to conquer the Edinburgh comedy fringe. His father the General hardly knows what to think. Just as Francis' lonely efforts are beginning to bear fruit, he finds his normally capable sister turning to him in a crisis of her own.

Her fiancé, a dashing young officer, is seriously wounded in Basra and sent home. Callum, lame and angry, rapidly reaches breaking point as he struggles to re-evaluate his life and career, and takes what Francis considers the lamentably Gilbert and Sullivan expedient of running away to sea. His life and Susie's seem to life in ruins; but rescue comes from a wholly unexpected quarter.

Following the talk, Purves will sign copies of Acting Up which Waterstone's Booksellers Amsterdam will have on sale at the Amstelkerk.

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