Sherborne Literary Festival 2019 Programme

Speakers at this year’s festival include:

Kirsty Wark

Jonathan Scott

Raynor Winn

Ziauddin Yousafzai

Max Hastings

Rory Maclean

Paul Williams

Libby Page

John Hemming

For full details and tickets please go to

www.sherborneliterarysociety.com Registered Charity No: 1168489 /SherborneLiteraryFestival

@Sherlitfest

sherborneliteraryfestival

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Escape to the country THE EASTBURY HOTEL Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3BY Tel: 01935 813131 Email: relax@theeastburyhotel.co.uk www.theeastburyhotel.co.uk

A huge welcome to the 8th SHERBORNE LITERARY FESTIVAL After last year’s Festival, when some of our best, but lesser-known, speakers had disappointingly small audiences, we decided that a Festival of five days was too much and consequently the decision was made to extend Festival-quality events throughout the year, while still providing a shorter Festival of three days in October in order to tap into the rich seam of pre-Christmas publications.

Our ‘Festival-Plus’ occasions during the year have been very well attended, sometimes selling out in advance of the day. Now with just nine events in October we hope that everyone will feel able to support more of the lesser-known authors, most of whom in the past have proved to be some of our very best speakers.

A Festival is a chance to stretch your mind and enjoy hearing about new subjects hitherto unexplored. To encourage this we have created both a Season Ticket for the entire Festival and individual Day Tickets, both of which offer savings to make their purchase really worthwhile.

Massive thanks to our Festival Committee for all their hard work in getting this Festival launched with such an exciting team of speakers and to all our sponsors for their generous support.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to the newly-opened Merritt Centre in Bradford Road. We are most grateful to Sherborne Girls for offering us exclusive use of this state-of-the-art venue.

FESTIVAL TEAM

John Gaye Chairman Sherborne Literary Society

Jules Bradburn

Festival Director

John Gaye

Festival Advisor

Wayne Winstone

Programme Advisor

Michela Franchini

Advertising and Marketing

Mark Pender

Treasurer

1

WEDNESDAY 23rd OCTOBER

EVENT 1

KIRSTY WARK The House By The Loch

Scotland 1950s. Walter MacMillan is bewitched by the clever, glamorous Jean Thompson and can’t believe his luck when she agrees to marry him. Neither can she, for Walter represents a strong, steady and loving man who can perhaps quiet the demons inside her. Yet their home on remote Loch Doon soon becomes a prison for Jean and neither a young family, nor Walter’s care, can seem to save her.

Many years later Walter is with his adult children and adored grandchildren on the shores of Loch Doon, where the family has been holidaying for two generations. But the shadows of the past stretch over them and will turn all their lives upside down on one fateful weekend.

Inspired in part by Kirsty’s childhood memories and her late father, this is a story about the bonds between generations, the need to belong and the devastating consequences of family secrets.

SPONSORED BY

2

11AM

TICKETS: £8

Solicitors Solicitors

Battens Battens Charitable Charitable Trust Trust

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The Bank House, Long The Bank House, Long Street, Sherborne, DT9 3BU Street, Sherborne, DT9 3BU

WEDNESDAY 23rd OCTOBER

EVENT 2

R AY N O R W I N N

The Salt Path

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world.

Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

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2PM

TICKETS: ÂŁ10

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WEDNESDAY 23rd OCTOBER

EVENT 3

MAX HASTINGS

Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943 A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the RAF’s 1943 assault on Germany’s dams, has passed into legend as one of the RAF’s greatest feats of arms. The book is expected to be available on 5th September 2019.

Max Hastings will be introduced by well-known author Rachel Billington, the Sherborne Literary Society’s Patron.

SPONSORED BY

6

7PM

TICKETS: £12.50

ANA BIANCHI • EMMA DUNBAR • FIONA MILLAIS 19th October – 6th November

ANA BIANCHI

The Jerram Gallery Half Moon Street Sherborne, DT9 3LN

LANDSCAPE WITH FARM OIL

jerramgallery.com

01935 815261 info@jerramgallery.com Tuesday – Saturday

THURSDAY 24th OCTOBER

DIANA CAMBRIDGE WRITER IN RESIDENCE

Award-winning journalist and author Diana will be the Literary Festival’s Writer-In-Residence for 2019, offering a 30 minute pre-booked writing clinic.

FROM 10AM TO 6PM TICKETS £25 / 30 MIN SESSION

EVENT 4

PAUL WILLIAMS Wildlife Photography from the Edge: saving my life one frame at a time

The story of one man’s journey to restore his mental health and find meaning once again.

Paul Williams, 58, joined the army at 17 and loved being a soldier. He especially enjoyed the physical, adrenaline-filled side of it. But in 1988 he shattered both ankles falling 100 feet in a climbing accident and was never physically the same again. He left the military in 1993.

The book is the first of its kind in that it’s a hybrid of genres – combining textual snapshots of his journey, alongside which he opens his heart about the stigma attached to men with mental health problems, and includes a wealth of his stunning wildlife photography.

It also includes tips and techniques about wellbeing and how Paul managed to step back from the brink to the person he is today.

8

11AM

TICKETS: £8

OPEN DOORS 24 September 10.00am & 5 November 10.00am

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THURSDAY 24th OCTOBER

EVENT 5

JONATHAN SCOTT The Vinyl Frontier

Forty years ago, a group of scientists, artists and writers gathered in a house in Ithaca, New York to work on the most important mix tape ever conceived. It wasn’t from one person to another, it was from Earth to the Cosmos.

During the design phase of the Voyager mission, it was realised that the probes would eventually leave our solar system to drift forever in the unimaginable void of interstellar space. Therefore NASA commissioned astronomer Carl Sagan to create a message for any passing alien that might one day chance upon them.

The result was the Voyager Golden Record, a genre-hopping multimedia metal LP that contained a 90-minute playlist of music from across the globe, a sound essay of life on Earth, spoken greetings in multiple languages and more than 100 photographs and diagrams, all painstakingly chosen by Sagan and his team to represent humanity.

The Vinyl Frontier tells the story of this record through interviews with key figures throughout the process, from the first phone calls to final launch.

Jonathan Scott is a music writer and self-confessed astronomy geek. Formerly a contributing editor to Record Collector magazine, he has edited books about Prince, Cher and the San Francisco psych explosion, and written about Nirvana, the Pogues, the Venga Boys, Sir Patrick Moore and Sir Isaac Newton in a variety of magazines.

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10

2PM

24/07/2019 13:34

TICKETS: ÂŁ8

th P RFriday O G R12 A MOctober ME 2019 All events are held at the Merritt Centre at Sherborne Girls, Sherborne DT9 3QN WEDNESDAY 23rd OCTOBER 11 am

Kirsty Wark

The House By The Loch

£8

2 pm

Raynor Winn

The Salt Path

£10

EVENT 11

Max Hastings ROB IN THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER BUTLER 7 pm

FRANCES E U STAC E

Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943

th

10 am – 6 pm

Diana Cambridge

EVENT 12

£12.50

£25

Writer in Residence

per 30 min session At the Heart of Power A Carol is not Wildlife Photography from the Edge: 11Interviewed am Paul Williams £8 by just for Christmas Saving my life one frame at a time Michael Jago Known for her instrumental workshops, £8 2 pm Jonathan Scott The Vinyl Frontier

Robin Butler,

7 pm

Ziauddin Yousafzai

later Lord

Let Her Fly

Frances is a leading

£12.50

performer in

Butler of FRIDAY 25th OCTOBER

M

the world of

10Brockwell, am – Tom George 4 pm

Mindfulness Writing Workshop

11Secretary am Rory fromMaclean

Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels as well as to the End of Europe

£8

The Lido

£8

1989-1999. In

2 pm

£40

Early Music

was Cabinet

Libby Page

2016 Michael

7 Jago pm published John Hemming

a full-length biography of Lord Butler.

In a relaxed setting, more chat than HOW TO BOOK

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a published author and

People of the Rainforest: The Villas Boas Brothers entertaining Explorers and Humanitarians of the Amazon

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MY

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£12.50

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speaker. For this workshop she’ll focus on the text of medieval carols. Alongside the touching religious lyrics we discover

discusses Lord Butler’s • interview, ONLINE viaJago www.sherborneliterarysociety.com some less familiar and less suitable for early or through Eventbrite/Sherborne Literary life and Civil Service career.

LordSociety church performances.

• Butler, IN PERSON at the Information Centre, Digby Road, Sherborne DT9 3NL the soul ofSherborne discretionTourist concerning (Opening hours are Monday to Saturday 9.30 am Frances – 4 pm) brings formidable erudition to

classified material, speaks frankly about

• BY TELEPHONE to the above on 01935 815341

his career and the ups

an examination of the secular and the

and downs of life at the

downright rude. After an informative talk

• DURING THE FESTIVAL from the box office at the Merritt Centre, Sherborne Girls, Sherborne DT9 3QN

RETURNS

heart of power.

on the tradition of carolling there will be

All tickets are non-refundable unless the organisers have to cancel a particular event.

In this an opportunity to write and sing yourcase please contact the Festival using any of the booking methods outlined above. You will receive a full refund on the own carol verses. tickets purchased. Signed copies will be

available from Winstone’s DISABLED ACCESS

Tickets: £5

TheTickets: Merritt Centre at Sherborne Girls is fully equipped for disabled access.

7pm at Oliver’s, £10

24

12

7pm at Digby Hall, Hound Street Cheap Street

THURSDAY 24th OCTOBER

EVENT 6

ZIAUDDIN YOUSAFZAI

Let Her Fly

In this intimate and extraordinary memoir, Ziauddin Yousafzai, the father of Malala, gives a moving account of fatherhood and his lifelong fight for equality – proving there are many faces of feminism.

For over twenty years, Ziauddin Yousafzai has been fighting for equality – first for Malala, his daughter – and then for all girls throughout the world living in patriarchal societies. Taught as a young boy in Pakistan to believe that he was inherently better than his sisters, Ziauddin rebelled against inequality at a young age. And when he had a daughter himself he vowed that Malala would have an education, something usually only given to boys, and he founded a school that Malala could attend.

Let Her Fly is Ziauddin’s journey from a stammering boy growing up in a tiny village high in the mountains of Pakistan, through to being an activist for equality and the father of the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and now one of the most influential and inspiring young women on the planet.

Told through intimate portraits of each of Ziauddin’s closest relationships, Let Her Fly looks at what it means to love, to have courage and fight for what is inherently right.

Personal in its detail and universal in its themes, this landmark book shows why we must all keep fighting for the rights of girls and women everywhere.

SPONSORED BY

14

7PM

TICKETS: £12.50

THE pLACE TO MEET & RELAX EAT & DRINK CELEBRATE & STAY and of course read...

BREAKFAST ~ BRUNCH ~ LUNCH ~ DINNER ~ SUNDAY ROAST Open Tuesday-Saturday 9am-11pm | Sunday 10am-5pm | Closed Monday

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t: 01935 508130

www.thecrosskeyssherborne.com

FRIDAY 25th OCTOBER

TOM GEORGE MINDFULNESS WORKSHOP

Learn to free your natural creativity at this unique workshop combining writing and mindfulness. Taking inspiration from nature, the senses and an open-ended approach to creativity we will learn to free our inner voice and create without self-judgement.

FROM 10AM TO 4PM TICKETS £40 / MAX 20 PEOPLE

EVENT 7

RORY MACLEAN Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the end of Europe

An unsettling, poignant and darkly comic exposé of Putin’s Russia and European disintegration from the acclaimed author of Stalin’s Nose.

In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In that euphoric year Rory MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow, exploring the forgotten half of Europe. Thirty years on MacLean retraces his original Stalin’s Nose journey, travelling from revanchist Russia through Ukraine’s bloodlands, to illiberal Hungary, Poland, Germany and the UK, across countries confronting old ghosts and new fears. Along the way he shoulders an AK 47 to go hunting with Moscow’s Chicken Tsar, plays video games with a St Petersburg cyber-hacker who cracked the US election, drops by the Che Guevara High School of Political Leadership and meets the Warsaw doctor who tried to stop a march of 70,000 nationalists.

As Europe sleepwalks into a perilous new age, MacLean explores how opportunists – from Putin to Home Counties populists – have made a joke of truth and examines the veracity of historical narrative from reportage to fiction to fake news. He asks what happened to the optimism of 1989 and, in the shadow of Brexit, chronicles the collapse of the European dream

16

11AM

TICKETS: £8

The Sherborne Indies are proud to support

the Sherborne Literary Festival

DESIGNER

SHERBORNE

WEB DESIGN

Chapter House Books & The Sanctuary Coffee Shop

visit

sherborneindies.co.uk

FRIDAY 25th OCTOBER

EVENT 8

LIBBY PAGE The Lido

Meet Rosemary, 86, and Kate, 26: dreamers, campaigners, outdoor swimmers... Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life, but everything she knows is changing. Only the local lido, where she swims every day, remains a constant reminder of the past and her beloved husband George. Kate has just moved and feels adrift in a city that is too big for her. She’s on the bottom rung of her career as a local journalist, and is determined to make something of it. So when the lido is threatened with closure, Kate knows this story could be her chance to shine. But for Rosemary, it could be the end of everything. Together they are determined to make a stand, and to prove that the pool is more than just a place to swim - it is the heart of the community.

‘Feel-good and uplifting, this charming novel is full of heart’ - Lucy Diamond

18

2PM

TICKETS: £8

S WA N YA R D , S H E R B O R N E , D T 9 3 A X 0 1 9 6 5 8 1 6 1 7 7 W W W. M A R G A R E T B A L F O U R . C O . U K

THURSDAY 24th OCTOBER

EVENT 9

JOHN HEMMING

People of the Rainforest: The Villas Boas Brothers, Explorers and Humanitarians of the Amazon

The three dashing Villas Boas brothers became Brazil’s most famous explorers, in tough and exciting expeditions. They used their fame, throughout the second half of the twentieth century, to champion a series of indigenous tribes (four of which they contacted for the first time). They transformed public attitudes to these splendid peoples; and achieved the first gigantic reserve to protect them and their Amazonian rivers and rain forests.

John Hemming knew the brothers well, and has himself undertaken many expeditions and visited and written about tribal peoples all over Brazil. Like the Villas Boas, he has trekked into unexplored forests and made first European contact with four tribes.

SPONSORED BY

20

7PM

TICKETS: ÂŁ12.50

Choice of Hearses available including our Land Rover Hearse

A J Wakely& Sons Independent Family Funeral Directors Established 1897

16 Newland, Sherborne DT9 3JQ 01935 816817 – 24 Hour Service – Pre-payment plans available

www.ajwakely.com Please contact Clive Wakely, or a member of our dedicated team for any advice or guidance.

2019

23 rd -

25 th O

ctob er

HEARTILY SUPPORTING THE 2019 SHERBORNE LITERARY FESTIVAL sherbornetimes.co.uk

Green by name and nature

2019 MICHELIN BIB GOURMAND WINNERS Tuesday - Saturday Lunch 12pm - 2.30pm | Dinner 6.30pm - 9.30pm | Sunday Lunch 12pm - 2.30pm 3 The Green, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3HY 01935 813821 | @greensherborne | greenrestaurant.co.uk

2019 SCHOOLS’ PROGRAMME

FUTURE EVENTS 2019

In 2017 seven of the local schools – The Gryphon, Sherborne Primary, Sherborne Abbey Primary, St Mary’s Bradford Abbas, St Andrew’s Yetminster, Thornford Primary and Buckland Newton Primary – were formally established as the Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust. They are committed to working together, sharing expertise and resources, so that they can deliver an excellent and exciting education for their pupils.

FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER AT 7 PM

One of the main objectives of the Sherborne Literary Society is to encourage a love of reading and writing in these pupils. As the Literary Festival this year is to be held during half term in October we are going to organise author visits and workshops for the schools throughout the year, at times to suit the schools, rather than all within a few days within the Festival.

Raleigh Hall

We are most grateful for the sponsorship and support we have received in the past. We should, of course, be delighted to receive any extra sponsorship so that the schools can enjoy and benefit from inspiring literary and creative sessions completely free of charge.

Digby Memorial Hall

DAVID BURNET T Lost Dorset Tickets from Winstone’s Bookshop, Sherborne Tourist Information Centre or online

FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER AT 7 PM

POETRY PLUS Tickets from Winstone’s Bookshop or at the door

SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER AT 7 PM Digby Memorial Hall

ANDREW LOWNIE The Mountbattens Tickets from Winstone’s Bookshop, Sherborne Tourist Information Centre or online

Sue Cameron Schools’ Programme

23

The Festival is an event organised under the auspices of the Sherborne Literary Society. Why not become a member of the Society and enjoy many more of its activities throughout the year? The costs of membership are kept at a level to cover the administration of the Society but are easily recovered through the various benefits described below.

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP For only £10 per year as a member you can benefit from the following: • Regular information on all Sherborne Literary Society events • A 10% discount on all Sherborne Literary Festival events • A 10% discount on books purchased at Sherborne’s independent bookshops (Abbey Bookshop, Chapter House Books and Winstone’s Bookshop) • A quarterly newsletter with information about forthcoming events.

MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION FORM Name (please print) Address Postcode Email

Telephone

Please tick if you would be willing to be contacted should help be needed at an event Please return, together with a stamped addressed envelope for us to return your membership card, to SLS Membership, 3 Twines Close, Sparkford, Nr Yeovil BA22 7JW and tick the box below for payment method:

I enclose a cheque for £10 made payable to Sherborne Literary Society I have set up payment by bank transfer/standing order* (our preferred method)

* delete as appropriate

Signature Date Our account details for standing orders and transfers are as follows: Beneficiary: Sherborne Literary Society Sort Code: 20-99-40 Account Number: 23133036 Amount of first payment £10. Date of first payment ........./........./2019 Thereafter, payable annually on 1st April each year until further notice starting 1st April 2020

THE NEWLY-OPENED MERRITT CENTRE AT SHERBORNE GIRLS IS THE HOST VENUE FOR THIS YEAR’S SHERBORNE LITERARY FESTIVAL

01935 812245 events@sherborne.com sherborne.com

Our boutique style inn is perfect for dropping by to catch up over drinks with friends or a romantic getaway for two to explore what this lovely village offers.

The Kings Arms is located at the heart of Charlton Horethorne on the B3145, five miles from the historic towns of Sherborne and Wincanton. London is just two hours away by car.

www.thekingsarms.co.uk North Road, Charlton Horethorne, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 4NL

T. 01963 220 281 E. admin@thekingsarms.co.uk

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