Taboos

Should everything be allowed in the name of free speech? How do we react to offensive cartoons? Can we make fun of the Holocaust? Are mothers sacred? Does criticizing Israel necessarily make you a self-hating Jew? Will comedy as a genre survive our politically correct and fearful age? These are some of the questions our witty and provocative panel will address.

Jon Canter grew up in Golders Green and studied law at Cambridge. He writes for TV and radio. Seeds of Greatness is his first novel.

Jeremy Gerlis’ cartoons for the Jewish Chronicle have been published in A Little Kosher Whine. He has recently created Roger, a character who wanders through life wearing no trousers.

Jonathan Maitland is a reporter on the Tonight programme with Trevor McDonald. He presented House of Horrors series, and Vote for Me. He is the author of How to Make Your Million from the Internet and How to Survive Your Mother in which he uncovers his mother’s amorality and unsavoury business practices. 

Arabella Weir is a comedian, actress and writer, famous for her role in The Fast Show and books such as Does My Bum Look Big in This? and Onwards and Upwards. She writes for The Guardian. Weir wrote and starred in Posh Nosh and contributes to Grumpy Old Women.

David Aaronovitch is a journalist, broadcaster, and author. He is a regular columnist for The Times and The Guardian, and is the author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country. He won the George Orwell Prize for political journalism in 1998 and again in 2001.