Cover Stories: Visions of Iraq; Kristin Gore; Tennis books

Anyone who yearns to think of Iraqis as something other than victims, tyrants or warriors should rush to the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith this Sunday evening at 7.30pm. This weekend, a series of arts events, "Visions of Iraq", kicks off. One of the first sessions involves a reading by three leading Iraqi poets, with the translations read by Corin Redgrave, and music played on the oud. Box office, 020-8237 1111.

Last year, Irish PM Bertie Aherne's twentysomething daughter Catherine signed a six-figure deal for a novel with HarperCollins. Now, in the US, Al Gore's daughter Kristin has hit the jackpot with a novel described as "a Washington DC Bridget Jones". The buyer's a Brit, the former Chatto editor Jonathan Burnham, who now presides over Talk Miramax Books. Cousin Gore Vidal might have an acid word for Kristin should they meet at a family do.

John McEnroe broke the mould with his memoir Serious, a bestseller which proved the exception to the rule that tennis books don't sell. Now, having watched the former world number one serve an ace, two other publishers have rushed to sign up tennis memoirs. Transworld has bought Boris Becker; HarperCollins has taken on Ilie Nastase, who was arguably the most entertaining player of his generation. Both books will be published in the run-up to Wimbledon 2004, though Nastase will write about his many off-court activities.