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Do accounts of humanitarian crises ever move readers to action? And are some forms of writing more effective in this way than others? Caroline Moorehead has written columns on human rights for both The Times and The Independent. Her books include Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees, and, most recently, A Train in Winter, an account of women of the French Resistance deported to Auschwitz. Ahdaf Soueif, a novelist and social commentator, witnessed at first hand last year's Egyptian revolution, and captured her experiences in newspaper articles and radio broadcasts, and in Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, published earlier this year, Roma Tearne's novels, which include Mosquito and The Road to Urbino, are inspired by political events, and their personal consequences, in her native Sri Lanka. In a conversation joitnly hosted by the RSL and Chatham House, and chaired by Alan Philps, editor of The World Today, they reflect on how to combat compassion fatigue, and to ensure that words lead to deeds.

Ahdaf Soueif photographed by Eamonn McCabe