Journalist Spotlight: Lorna Bradbury, deputy literary editor for the Daily Telegraph

Lorna Bradbury is the deputy literary editor for the Daily Telegraph, writing mainly for the Saturday paper as well as contributing online content. As a literary journalist with the Daily Telegraph for the past 10 years, she has written extensively on fiction and non-fiction while maintaining her weekly column ‘Ask Lorna’, answering Review reader’s letters, as well as running the children’s book coverage.

“It’s extremely important for readers to have access to intelligent, well-informed reviews of books, especially before they part with their money”.  Bradbury believes that “readers need a reliable voice to help them make good, informed choices” and feels that Telegraph staff are in the “privileged position of being able to do that”.

Bradbury regularly chair’s book events and discussions at literary events and festivals and will be reporting on the Hay Festival for the Telegraph.

The Hay Festival for the past 25 years has brought together writers, authors and readers from around the world to debate and share stories. With the festival fast approaching, Bradbury says the Telegraph “are hugely excited as things are gearing up for this year’s event from May 31 2012 to June 10 2012. It is Hay’s 25th anniversary year, and the programme is stronger than ever with writers such as Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Terry Pratchett and Hilary Mantel appearing, as well as performers like Tim Minchin and Harry Belafonte”. Bradbury says “culture and literature are taken seriously at the Telegraph, and so the sponsorship of the Hay festival is a natural fit” and being one of the world’s leading festivals, she says “it is a privilege for us to be associated with it”.

Bradbury will be chairing some of the events at the festival, including a session on Wallis Simpson and the abdication crisis with historians Anne Sebba and Juliet Nicolson, and an event in the children’s programme with two novelists for teenagers, Annabel Pitcher and Marcus Sedgwick. “I’ll be part of a large team of Telegraph journalists who will be at Hay for the duration of the festival, both reporting on events, and chairing them. We will also be hosting our own event there – a Question Time style panel, featuring, among others, Peter Oborne, Kate Humble and Brian Moore”.

As a literary journalist, Bradbury believes that social media is not only “fun” but is also an important promotional tool. “Twitter and Facebook are great ways of finding out what literary stories people are talking about and of keeping up with the latest book news”. Bradbury is very active on Twitter, tweeting on a regular basis on her personal Twitter account as well the updating the Telegraphs books Twitter.  “Best way of keeping up to date with what’s going on hour by hour during the Hay Festival”.

Pitching Preferences
Bradbury is happy to receive “information about forthcoming books by email, and would urge publishers to send copies of books for review as soon as they have them before publication”

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For more information on the Hay Festival, please check out the full programme.