IT BILLS itself as the biggest celebration of Irish/Celtic culture in the world and Armagh writer John McAllister will be heading to the Milwaukee Irish Fest on the shores of Lake Michigan later this summer to share his craft.

BOOK OF THE WEEK The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson is published in hardback by Century, priced £20 (ebook £9.

MINDING Frankie was the final novel from the late and much-loved writer Maeve Binchy.

DIRECT from London’s West End and based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner is a haunting tale of friendship which spans cultures and continents, following one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.

TOM and Giovanna Fletcher are known for their upbeat writing – he for his songwriting skills with bands McFly and McBusted and his children's books, she for her romantic fiction and blogs about being a mum.

1. When did you think about a career in writing/painting/film making and what were your first steps into it? When I want to explain the word oxymoron to my students I write the two words 'literary career' on the board.

GEORGE Costigan is one of those actors you instantly recognise on screen but whose name may easily escape you.

BOOK OF THE WEEK Belfast Walks by Seth Linder is published by O'Brien, priced £9.

AS SHE returned home from work as a cleaner in London one day seven years ago, the then 21-year-old Anna's life suddenly took an almost unimaginably horrific turn: bundled into a car by two men and a woman and taken to Luton airport, she was forcibly brought to the west of Ireland, where she sold into the sex industry for €30,000.

:: Fire Food: The Ultimate BBQ Cookbook by DJ BBQ is published by Quadrille, priced £15.

ON JUNE 27 2012 Martin McGuinness, then deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, shook hands with Queen Elizabeth backstage at the Lyric Theatre in a moment that was photographed and broadcast across the globe.

ANY book titled To Be A Machine: Adventures among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers and the Futurists solving the Modest Problem of Death is bound to pique the curiosity of the existentially inclined.

Last Stories by William Trevor is published in hardback by Viking, priced £14.

THE latest publication in a series of books documenting IRA experiences in the War of Independence and Irish Civil War, The Men Will Talk To Me: Ernie O'Malley's Interviews With The Four Northern Divisions, compiles oral histories from 14 former IRA volunteers.

BOOK OF THE WEEK The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse is published in hardback by Mantle, priced £20 (ebook £8.

GRITTY, raw and edgy are words you normally associate with a Pearse Elliott play.

BOOK OF THE WEEK You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld is published in hardback by Doubleday, priced £16.

KATE Mosse, the author whose historical and Gothic adventure sagas have sold in their millions and are translated into 37 languages, is back.

AWARD-winning Cork writer Kevin Doyle will launch his first novel To Keep A Bird Singing at Belfast bookshop No Alibis tonight.

"SHOULD you ever find yourself onstage playing the bass guitar with three left hands, it is usually the one in the middle that is the real one.