Two rising literary stars, Ben Fergusson and Jason Hewitt discuss their debut novels, both of which are set amid the dramatic events of World War II and its aftermath.

Fergusson has published a range of prize-winning short fiction in both the UK and the US and is editor of the magazine, Oval Short Fiction. His debut novel, The Spring of Kasper Meier, is the story of a German who finds a solution to the desperation of a post-war country in trading on the black market. He gets drawn into a world of intrigue where nothing is what it seems and he has to try to save himself and those around him.

Hewitt is a playwright, actor and recent graduate, with distinction, of the creative writing course at Bath Spa University. His debut novel, The Dynamite Room, sees a German Nazi officer swim ashore in Suffolk in 1940 and break into a boarded-up house to find a 12-year-old evacuee there. The story follows the next four days from both points of view, but the question is, how does he already know Lydia’s name?

Discussions will be chaired by historian, broadcaster and writer Kate Williams, and 1940s-style singing trio the Scarlet Starlets, pictured below, will perform during the event.