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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2016 40 THE British academic and writer Patrick McGuinness will be among the special guests for this year's edition of the Malta Book Fes- tival. Born in Tunisia in 1968 to a Belgian French-speaking mother and an English father of Irish descent, he grew up in Belgium and also lived for periods in Venezuela, Iran, Romania and the UK. It is, in fact, the time that he spent in Romania as a witness of the downfall of the communist regime that provided invaluable material for his first novel, The Last Hundred Years, which he will present here in Malta during the festival. He is also expected to participate, along with three other guests, in a conference on Litera- ture and Totalitarianism. McGuinness is also well-known as an academ- ic specialising in French symbolist poetry. His translations into English of Mallarmé's poems filled a huge gap in the English language schol- arship of symbolist poetry as it was notoriously difficult to find convincing translations of Mal- larmé's work prior to his translations. He has also published a number of poetry collections, the first being The Canals of Mars in 2004, fol- lowed by 19th century Blues, which was a win- ner in The Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition 2006. His latest poetry publication is Jilted City, in which a sequence called Blue Guide is about the train journeys made by the young McGuin- ness on the historic railway line, la ligne 162, between Brussels and Luxembourg. Visitors to the festival can meet Patrick both at the conference on Literature and Totalitari- anism, which will take place on Wednesday, November 9 at 19:00, as well as on the following evening at 19:00 at the event which will be held in his honour and during which the author will discuss his novel with the Head of Department of English at the University of Malta, Dr James Corby, and answer questions from the audi- ence. For more info about the Festival five-day cul- tural programme of events log on to: http:// ktieb.org.mt/?page_id=137 or find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ events/1951963831697045/ EU biofuels policy also has huge im- pacts on communities including provok- ing land grabs, depriving local communi- ties of their access to land and the right to define their own food systems, all exac- erbating the unequal distribution of land resources. Fundamentally, EU policies threaten the food sovereignty of those who rely on their land the most. More widely, us- ing land to grow crops for fuel, and for the wider bioeconomy, rather than food increases the level and volatility of food prices internationally, meaning more people struggle to afford to eat. This Week It's not every day that a new bird turns up in Malta (or anywhere else for that matter) so whenever that happens it's always news among the naturalist community. A new species for Malta was spotted some days ago by BirdLife Malta people monitoring bird migration at Buskett. It was a levant sparrowhawk (M: sparvier tal-lvant), a bird more typical of the East Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond. But the bird is migratory and sometimes individuals stray off course, especially young and inexperienced birds on their first big adventure south to Africa. Indeed the bird seen and photographed (see picture) on 27 September was a juvenile. It was afternoon and getting late, and the bird wisely decided to spend the night at Buskett rather than risk a 350km sea-crossing in the looming dark. Another reason, by the way, why Buskett and rave parties don't mix. GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 430: BAN BATHE TIME: HAVE A NO-BATH WEEK, AND TAKE SHOWERS INSTEAD. BATHS REQUIRE ALMOST TWICE AS MUCH WATER. NOT ONLY WILL YOU REDUCE WATER CONSUMPTION, BUT THE ENERGY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH HEATING THE WATER. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text: Victor Falzon Photo: Raymond Galea 527. LEVANT SPARROWHAWK EU's Land Footprint – Social impacts (…continued) Patrick McGuinness at the Malta Book Festival 2016 McGuinness specialises in French symbolist poetry – his translations into English of Mallarme's poems filled a huge gap Patrick McGuinness