Speakers at the Queen’s Park Book Festival in north London (September 5-6), the ninth and final edition of the event, will include Sara Wheeler, talking about her acclaimed biography, Jan Morris: A Life; Monisha Rajesh (Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train); and Charlie Walker (On Thin Ice: An Explorer’s Memoir of Siberia, Surveillance and Survival), in conversation with Ash Bhardwaj (whose latest book is Why We Travel).

Wheeler will also be taking part in a session of the spoken-word forum 5×15 on “The unique magic of Venice” at the Royal Geographical Society in London on September 15, talking about Jan Morris and her lifelong fascination with the city. The other contributors are the writer Geoff Dyer, on the rich and layered history of Venice in literature, and its surprising similarities with the Indian city of Varanasi; Stephen Bayley, co-founder of London’s Design Museum, on the architect and designer Carlo Scarpa; Martin Gayford, art critic, writer and curator, on “Venice, the City of Pictures”; and Francesco da Mosto, writer, architect, historian and film-maker, on his Venetian family history.