Coronavirus: Stay home and learn from literary legends

Dubai: While we stay home – doing our part in the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) – why don’t we also brush up with our love for literature?

The 2020 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature has launched a YouTube channel on Tuesday to share and relive some of the top sessions from the annual festival.

This is a great opportunity for everyone who love the letters to get inspired by legendary authors and literary giants.

All one has to do is subscribe to the EmiratesLitFest YouTube channel and follow its social media to stay up to date with a new session added each week.

The series has kicked off with a panel discussion with two of the world’s greatest living adventurers – the legendary explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington sharing their extraordinary experiences of adventure at the highest points of the Earth, from the polar ice caps to the world’s tallest mountains.

Born in England in 1944, Fiennes has been named as the “world’s greatest living explorer,” by the Guinness Book of World Records. He is the only living person to have circumnavigated the world along its polar axis and alongside with Burton, he was also the first to reach both Poles, plus cross the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans.

The session with the explorers will be followed by more conversations with world-leading writers and experts who graced the Festival, which was first held in 2009 and has grown into the UAE’s premier literary festival.

Other sessions uploaded on YouTube include an interview with legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, who shared how we can save the planet, stop climate change, and make a difference.

There is also a video on Vegan YouTube sensations, BOSH!, who came to the EmiratesLitFest back in February and told us how to eat well and help the planet by choosing a plant-based diet. Plus the author of The Book Thief and Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak, talked about his writing process and shared advice for aspiring writers.