Erich Fried fled Austria when the Nazis invaded in 1938 and destroyed his family, and went on to become their most famous living poet while residing in North London. Fried now returns to the Vienna of his childhood and visits East and West Berlin, while Observer correspondent Neal Ascherson assesses the relevance of his poetry to what Fried sees as the never-ending battle against the re-emergence of fascism.

Josef Skvorecky has lived through Nazi occupation, Stalinist clampdown, and the Prague Spring before his exile in 1968. The acclaimed novelist remembers his extraordinary chequered past and returns to one of his first loves: the bass saxophone.

Edward Said, one of America's most distinguished literary scholars and critics, puts his argument for a just settlement to the Palestinian question - his homeland and his dispossessed people.