Talks of the Week: The Economist Books of the Year, Queen Elizabeth Hall & Purcell Room, London SE1

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum will talk about Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 (AP)

Six of the writers on The Economist's list of the 50 best books of the year discuss their writing at this four-day event, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum (above) talking about Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56, which chronicles the Stalinisation of the satellite states after the Second World War, and the Booker Prize-winning Pat Barker, who in her latest novel, Toby's Room, returns to the First World War to catch up with the students from Slade School of Art introduced in her earlier Life Class.

Philip Pullman opens the series on Thursday, discussing Grimm Tales: For Young and Old, a retelling of his 50 favourite fairytales from the German siblings, while elsewhere Ben Goldacre dissects the drugs industry in Bad Pharma, the New Yorker's Adam Gopnik celebrates the season of winter and Thomas Heatherwick surveys his design career in Making.

(0844 875 0073; southbankcentre.co.uk) Thur to 9 Dec