Sherborne Literary Festival 2015 Programme

For lovers of good books and creative expression Patron: Lady Rachel Billington OBE

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Come and join us for five days of fascinating talks and workshops Main sponsor:

Full details on our website: www.sherborneliterarysociety.com

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SHERBORNE CASTLE

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Event Locations 1 Digby Hall

6 Sherborne Castle Gardens

2 Digby Memorial Hall

7 Cheap Street Church

3 Raleigh Hall

8 St Mary Magdalene Church

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9 Winstone’s

The Eastbury Hotel

5 The Britannia Inn

Proud to be the

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Welcome Welcome It seems hardly a year has passed since we were lining up speakers for the 2014 Festival. That proved such a resounding success that it encouraged many authors and publishers to approach us, offering to speak at this Festival. Putting the programme together is no easy task and it goes through many drafts before we can say we are satisfied. Each year we try and make sure there is something for everyone, even the people who insist they never read a book. We have managed to persuade some of them into the Digby Hall!

We also like to stick to our original plan to be a literary festival focussing on books and not a festival for ‘celebrities’, however you define them. Reading remains an important part of our lives and we try and encourage young people in the joy and delights of finding a new author and revelling in their words.

This year we have persuaded some of our finest authors of fiction, biography, science and history to join us. These authors are funny, knowledgeable and above all captivating speakers.

Come and meet them!

Once more we have to thank our sponsors, particularly our main sponsor, Knight Frank, for their continued support. We hope you will support them and the advertisers.

We listen to our audiences and try and improve each year. This year we have introduced a lunch time slot usually starting at 12.30pm. This means you can arrive a bit earlier, have a drink and a snack before the talk and order, from our pop-up café, a meal to be ready afterwards. Or have a quick lunch beforehand and a coffee afterwards. The pop-up café is proving very popular as a meeting place before and after an event. As well as tea or coffee and light meals, wine is also on sale.

Do come and join us and be prepared to be entertained, stimulated, surprised and even inspired!

Judith Spelman Festival Director

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Spnsors & Supporters

Sponsors & Supporters

Main Sponsor

Sponsors

EASTBURY HOUSE RESIDENTIAL HOME

The Simon Digby Charitable Trust

THE DOUGLAS ADAMS ESTATE

Supporters

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Every Day...

Festival Café The Festival Café, under the watchful eye of Sue Adams, is open during Festival hours serving tea, coffee, wine and light lunches including home-made soups and tempting cakes. We can cater for people following special diets such as gluten-free or vegetarian.

Writer in Residence Diana Cambridge once more resumes her role at the Festival of Writer in Residence. This year she will be based in the Wingfield Room at the back of the Digby Hall offering help and advice to writers just beginning or those who have reached a tricky part of their work and are unsure how to go ahead. As many writers will know Diana is the agony aunt of Writing Magazine and a publisher. She is an award-winning journalist, a former managing editor of several magazines and an author of three how-to books on writing as well as running group and personal writing workshops. She

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specialises in one-to-one critiques and coaching. Writers can email up to 2,000 words of their work to reach Diana by 6 October. She will provide a written critique and a 15-minute pre-booked consultation. You can always bring your work and ideas to her drop-in writing clinic and have a 15-minute chat between events. It will cost you £5.00 at the door – probably the best £5.00 a writer can spend! Writers who attended Diana’s clinic last year are more than welcome this year for top-up advice.

Diana’s website: www.dianacambridge.co.uk Diana’s email: diana@dianacambridge.co.uk

Wednesday 14 October Wednesday Event 1

Quicksilver: A Novel

£12

Digby Hall, Hound Street 12.30pm – 1.30pm

Event 2

Writing Your Life Workshop with Sophie King

£20

Raleigh Hall, Digby Road 3.00pm – 5.00pm HRH Princess Michael of Kent, bestselling author of The Queen of Four Kingdoms, talks about the final book of her Anjou trilogy, Quicksilver, that focuses on the merchant, Jacques Coeur. He is a man of humble beginnings but is fiercely ambitious and becomes one of the richest and most powerful men in 15th century France. Princess Michael vividly depicts the life of Jacques Coeur as he becomes the trusted confidante of the Anjou royal family. She has meticulously researched this book and unveils a rarely told story that is enriched by her own perspective of royal life.

Princess Michael is the author of four previous books: The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King, Crowned in a Far Country: Portraits of Eight Royal Brides, Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours, and The Queen of Four Kingdoms.

For more than twenty-five years, she has pursued a successful career lecturing on historical topics. The outspoken Princess has a history of headline-grabbing comments when promoting her books on European royalty and will no doubt prove to be a very entertaining speaker at the Festival.

Do you remember when…..? Family stories are precious and all too often, they get lost as time goes by. Starting to write your life story for your children and grandchildren can be daunting. It can also be a cathartic experience to come to terms with the past. Sophie King, author of How to Write to Your Life Story in 10 Easy Steps, has several unique tips and tricks on how to get you started. Let her guide you.

Sophie King read English at university and then worked as a journalist for a wide range of women’s magazines and newspapers. She is also a prolific novelist, writing under the name of Jane Bidder, Janey Fraser and Sophie King depending on the genre of the book. Working as a writer-inresidence in a high-security prison started her writing crime fiction, a successful move from romantic fiction.

BECOME A MEMBER Please visit our website

www.sherborneliterarysociety.com or call the Secretary on 07712 590897

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Wednesday 14 October Wednesday Event 3

The War in the West

Event 4 £8.50

Digby Hall, Hound Street 5.30pm – 6.30pm James Holland has written a revisionist history of World War 2.

Much of what we think we know about that war is steeped in myth rather than fact and the achievements of Britain have been rather downplayed over the years.

For 70 years, we have looked at this conflict in much the same way, particularly when it comes to the war in the west. In this sweeping narrative history, the first of three volumes, James uses deep research, incisive analysis, and a profound sense of humanity to revise and enhance our understanding of one of the most significant events in history.

James is a Sunday Times bestselling author, historian, TV personality and Director of the Chalke Valley History Festival. He has written a number of bestselling histories such as The Battle of Britain and DamBusters and his non-fiction titles have sold over 200,000 copies. He has fronted a number of BBC programmes including a documentary marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, one on the infamous Dambusters mission and another on The Battle for Malta.

He has also presented a number of other programmes for Sky and Channel 5, including Heroes of the Skies.

James writes regularly for a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman.

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Distilled – The Talk and the Tasting £20 Raleigh Hall, Digby Road 8.00pm – 9.00pm

Today’s world of spirits is experiencing an explosive increase in craft distillers and pioneers of new distillates. Men and women are tearing up the rule books and creating new spirits with extraordinary personality. Neil Ridley, with co-author Joel Harrison, unearths, explores and enjoys this in Distilled, explaining everything from when a gin can be called “London Dry” and when it can’t, to cocktail bitters. There are plenty of suggestions of how to drink too, with innovative and classic cocktails, and insider tips on getting the best out of our spirits.

Neil Ridley is at the forefront of providing expertise and innovation in the spirits world. From whisky to gin, cognac to exotic drinks, he has a wealth of knowledge to share. With Joel, he writes about whisky on his award-wining website Caskstrength.net and contributes regularly to a number of different publications, including Whisky Magazine, Imbibe and the Evening Standard. He has been a judge at the World Whisky Awards and the prestigious IWSC awards. He takes an irreverent and independent-minded approach to the world of spirits and, with Joel, has hosted over 250 tastings worldwide.

Come and join us as Neil talks us through a tasting of five of his favourites.

Tickets also include a free copy of Distilled.

Thursday 15 October Thursday Event 5

My House in Damascus

Event 6 £8.50

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road 1.30pm – 2.30pm Diana Darke has specialised knowledge of the Middle East, living and working in a range of Arab countries for over thirty years. She is an established authority on Syria, contributing to The Guardian, The Financial Times and the BBC's From Our Own Correspondent, having first visited the country in 1978. Ten years ago, she fulfilled a dream, buying a run-down courtyard house within the Old City of Damascus. She was forced to leave when the revolution began, but she has returned six times since. Her house has been used as a refuge for displaced friends and her links with Syria are deep and ongoing. Diana is actively committed to helping Syrians achieve a better future, and to that end, £1 from every copy of her book, My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution, along with 15 percent of her royalty, is donated to a Higher Education Fund for Syrians, administered by the Saïd Foundation.

Poems in a Pub with a Pint The Britannia Inn, Westbury 6.00pm – 7.45pm Come along with a poem – one that you have written yourself or one of which you are particularly fond – and join an interesting bunch of other poets and poetry lovers putting the world to rights over a drink.

Double Trouble with Mark and Carolyn

£5

Cheap Street Church 3.30pm – 4.30pm By popular request we have invited Mark Freestone and Carolyn Corlett to join us again, this time performing a dramatic miscellany featuring excerpts from Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Tom Stoppard, Walter de la Mare, Lewis Carroll, Monty Python and more...

Carolyn’s main experience is in theatre, featuring comedy, drama and musicals, both in Bermuda where she lived for 10 years and in the UK. In 2009 Carolyn and her husband Derek set up The Flying Mouse with the aim to bring theatre to rural communities.

Recent productions include the two-handers The Secret Lives of Henry and Alice by David Tristram and Two by Jim Cartwright. She is a qualified and experienced senior school teacher and a professional artist.

Mark studied speech and drama at the University of Natal in South Africa, moving to the UK after obtaining his honours degree.

Since emigrating he has worked in the drama field both as a professional actor, as a workshop leader with various youth theatre groups around the country and as a teacher at two Sherborne schools. Mark is a prominent public speaker, presenting innovative talks at conferences both in the UK and abroad.

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Thursday 15 October Thursday Event 7

Sicily: A Short History, from the Greeks to Cosa Nostra £10 Digby Hall, Hound Street 5.30pm – 6.30pm

John Julius Norwich was born in 1929. After National Service, he took a degree in French and Russian at New College, Oxford. In 1952 he joined the Foreign Service, serving at the embassies in Belgrade and Beirut and with the British Delegation to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva. His publications include The Normans in Sicily; Mount Athos (with Reresby Sitwell); Sahara; The Architecture of Southern England; Glyndebourne; and A History of Venice. He is also the author of a three-volume history of the Byzantine Empire. He has written and presented some thirty historical documentaries for television, and is a regular lecturer on Venice and numerous other subjects. He was made a CVO in 1993.

John Julius Norwich was inspired to become a writer by his first visit to Sicily in 1961 and this book is the result of a fascination that has lasted over half a century.

In tracing its dark story, he attempts to explain the enigma that lies at the heart of the Mediterranean's largest island.

This vivid history covers everything from erupting volcanoes to the assassination of Byzantine emperors, from Nelson's affair with Emma Hamilton to Garibaldi and the rise of the Mafia. Taking in the key buildings and towns, and packed with fascinating stories and unforgettable characters, Sicily is the book he was born to write.

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Event 8

Stalin’s Englishman

£8.50

Digby Hall, Hound Street 8.00pm – 9.00pm Andrew Lownie talks about his new book on Guy Burgess and the Cambridge spies.

Burgess is the most complex and enigmatic of the Cambridge spies, a man of enormous contradictions and complexities. Regarded as louche, unreliable and often unemployable, he nevertheless managed to penetrate such bastions of the Establishment as the BBC, the Foreign Office and MI6, to earn the respect of Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain and Anthony Eden and to use his position to pass on crucial secrets over a period of fifteen years. His friends included Maynard Keynes, Lucian Freud, WH Auden, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood.

Andrew Lownie, in this first detailed biography of Burgess and drawing on thirty years of research in archives around the world, charts Burgess’s life from naval cadet, Eton schoolboy and brilliant Cambridge undergraduate to his lonely tragi-comic exile in Russia.

EVENT 7 SPONSORED BY

EASTBURY HOUSE RESIDENTIAL HOME

Friday

Friday 16 October Event 9

Walk and Talk with Kate Bradbury

£8.50

Castle Gardens 10:30am Walk and talk with Kate Bradbury in Sherborne Castle grounds and Castle Gardens. Meet in the Butterfly House at Castle Gardens.

Kate Bradbury is an RHS qualified gardener and established garden journalist.

She is passionate about organic, wildlifefriendly gardening and gardens on a small patch of land in Hackney. She spent five years as a staff writer for Gardeners’ World. She is the author of The Wildlife Gardener – creating a haven for birds, bees and butterflies.

She will talk about wildlife gardening in general and will show how to make a bee hotel (she has a travelling bee hotel). After questions she will lead a walk around the gardens.

Event 10 The Trail of the Whale

£10

Digby Hall, Hound Street 5.30pm – 6.30pm Mark Carwardine is a zoologist, an active and outspoken conservationist, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter, a widely published wildlife photographer, and a magazine columnist. He has co-

A Day with

presented two BBC TV series (Last Chance to See, with Stephen Fry, in 2009, and The Museum of Life, in 2010) as well as several one-hour shows for the BBC. He also presented BBC Radio 4’s weekly half-hour programme, Nature, for many years and has written more than 50 books, including several bestsellers such as the original Last Chance to See, with Douglas Adams. He is also a Contributing Editor of Wanderlust magazine and writes a provocative conservation column in BBC Wildlife magazine.

SPONSORED BY

THE DOUGLAS ADAMS ESTATE AND

THE MELBURY GALLERY

Event 11 What Nature does for us

£10

Digby Hall, Hound Street 8.00pm – 9.00pm Tony Juniper is a British campaigner, writer, sustainability advisor and environmentalist. He is recognised for his work as Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and is the author of What has Nature Ever Done for Us? In March 2015, he published What Nature does for Britain. He has worked in a variety of roles including that of Special Advisor to the Prince’s Rainforest Project. He advises companies on their sustainability strategies and was a member of the advisory group that helped the Science Museum with the development of their new climate science exhibit called Atmosphere.

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Friday

Friday 16 October Event 12 The Sunrise

£8.50

Digby Hall, Hound Street 12.00pm – 1.00pm Victoria Hislop joins us to talk about writing her new book, The Sunrise.

In the summer of 1972, Famagusta in Cyprus is a city bathed in a golden glow of good fortune, a place where Greek and Turkish Cypriots live in harmony. An ambitious couple, Aphroditi and Savvas Papacosta, are about to open the most spectacular hotel on the island and among their staff are both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, who have come to Famagusta to escape the years of unrest and violence that have swept across Cyprus. Members of two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Ozkans, find work in the hotel.

But beneath the city’s façade of glamour and success, tension is building.

When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a devastating conflict.

Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is attacked. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers. In the deserted city, just two families remain - for different reasons it is impossible for them to leave. This is their story.

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Event 13 Tudors and Roses

£5

The Raleigh Hall, Digby Road 3.30pm – 5.00pm Joanna Hickson and Jenny Barden bring their travelling roadshow, Tudors and Roses to The Raleigh Hall. They talk about their writing, the true lives behind their novels, and some of the women who shaped history through their passion and courage. From the English Queen who defied convention to find love and found the Tudor dynasty, to the wayward Red Rose girl who faced triumph and disaster as mother to the White Rose kings. Enter a forgotten past of romance, danger and adventure…

For 25 years Joanna Hickson worked for the BBC as a writer and presenter on radio and television but recently she has turned to historical fiction, publishing three novels set in the 15th century. Her debut novel, The Agincourt Bride, was shortlisted for the 2014 Romantic Novelists’ Historical Novel of the year.

Jenny is an artist turned city solicitor turned author of Elizabethan adventures.

Mistress of the Sea and The Lost Duchess were both shortlisted for the For Best Historical Read.

Obsessed with history, Jenny has trekked across the Andes to the hidden city of Vilcabamba, negotiated the jungle-obscured remains of the Camino Real, and given talks in Elizabethan dress in the hold of the Golden Hinde.

Come and hear them present a period of history in their particularly unique way.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO TODAY…?

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Or lunch in the garden, crosswords, singing group…

EASTBURY HOUSE RESIDENTIAL HOME

Long Street, Sherborne DT9 3BZ Tel. 01935 812132 www.eastburyhouse.co.uk eastburyhouse@btinternet.com

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Saturday

Saturday 17 October Event 14 An Audience with Ian Whybrow

Event 15 The Remains FREE

Raleigh Hall, Digby Road 10.00am – 12.00noon This year we welcome Ian Whybrow back to the Festival to offer some lively, hilarious insights into every aspect of his work. He’s a prolific writer of children’s books. His first book, The Sniff Stories, was published over 25 years and now he has written well over 100. These have been translated into many languages and published worldwide.

He is probably best known for the million-selling series about Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs, which has been adapted into an animated television series.

Other favourites include the series about Little Wolf, beginning with his Book of Badness which has also been adapted for screen and stage, his Books for Boys series and the Meerkat Madness series. His books have won many prizes in this country and abroad.

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£8.50

Cheap Street Church 1.00pm – 2.00pm Annie Freud was born in London in 1948. She studied English and European Literature at the University of Warwick. Since 1975, she has worked as a tapestry artist and embroiderer, exhibiting work and undertaking commissions from people including Anthony D'Offay, Jon Snow and Graham Norton. She is the daughter of the artist Lucian Freud and her maternal grandfather was the sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein.

The Remains is a powerful new collection from the T S Eliot Prize shortlisted poet, featuring beautiful full-colour illustrations by Annie herself. This new book was inspired by a visit to an exhibition of Sung Dynasty works on paper, and their unselfconscious blending of illustration and poetry. However the book has its imaginative origins in a huge collection of broken household china she collected while digging her garden. Stranger items also came to light: a minute horseshoe, a fossilised scallop shell, a rusted metal silhouette of a hound. These worn shards and talismans soon began work on Annie’s singular imagination, and this extraordinary collection of poetry and art is the result. The Remains is concerned with what is left when everything seems broken or lost - and the new and unexpected things that happen when they are found again.

Beautifully illustrated in full colour by Annie herself, The Remains is a powerful book of consolation and surprise from one of our most original literary voices.

Saturday 17 October Saturday Event 16 Victoria: a life

£10

Digby Hall, Hound Street 3.00pm – 4.00pm When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years. She was mother of nine and grandmother of fortytwo, and the matriarch of Royal Europe, through the marriages of her children. To many, Queen Victoria is a ruler shrouded in myth and mystique - an aging, stiff widow, paraded as the figurehead to an all-male imperial enterprise. But in truth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch was one of the most passionate, expressive, humorous and unconventional women who ever lived, and the story of her life continues to fascinate.

A N Wilson's exhaustively researched and definitive biography includes new material from previously unseen sources. It explores the curious set of circumstances that led to Victoria's coronation, her strange and isolated childhood, her passionate marriage, Prince Albert's pivotal influence, her widowhood and subsequent intimate friendship with John Brown.

Andrew Wilson grew up in Staffordshire and was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and celebrated novelist. His most recent books are The Potter’s Hand (fiction), Dante in Love, The Book of the People: How To Read The Bible (May 2015).

Event 17 Book Clubs Unite!

£5

Raleigh Hall, Digby Road 5.30pm - 6.30pm This year we have invited local book clubs to read the same book – The Italian Wife – and then pose questions to the author, Kate Furnivall.

From the questions we shall choose ten and invite the author to come along to answer these questions and talk about her writing.

The Italian Wife is a colourful, romantic thriller set in the 1930s against a background of Mussolini’s Blackshirts.

Kate Furnivall worked in publishing and then moved to TV advertising. In 2000, she decided to write her mother's extraordinary story of growing up in Russia, China and India, and this became The Russian Concubine, which was a New York Times bestseller. All her books since then have had an exotic setting and Kate has travelled widely for her research.

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Saturday

Saturday 17 October Event 18 The Last Waltz: The Strauss Dynasty and Vienna £12.50 Digby Hall, Hound Street 7.30pm – 8.30pm John Suchet tells the intriguing story of two generations of the Viennese family that produced some of the best known and best loved music of the nineteenth century. Yet this was also a family riven with tension, feuds and jealousy, and their story is set in an Austria that witnessed seismic upheavals, from revolution to multiple tragedies within the Imperial family. Through the personal and political chaos, the two waltz kings, along with the rest of the family, continued to compose, creating literally hundreds of instantly recognisable and enduring melodies, such as The Blue Danube Waltz, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Voices of Spring and The Radetzky March.

John Suchet presents Classic FM’s flagship morning programme, from 9am every weekday. Before turning to classical music, John was one of the UK’s best-known television journalists, covering world events as a reporter for ITN, and then a newscaster, regularly presenting ITN’s flagship News at Ten over a period of nearly twenty years. In 1986 he was voted Television Journalist of the Year, in 1996 Television Newscaster of the Year, and in 2008 the Royal Television Society awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award.

John has written six books on Beethoven, including Beethoven: The Man Revealed.

SPONSORED BY THE

BREWERS GARAGE LTD MOT SERVICING REPAIRS Proprietors: James and Victoria Curtis

Western Ways Yard Bristol Road, Sherborne Dorset DT9 4HR

Tel: 01935 812720

CHARTERHOUSE AUCT IO N EERS & VALUERS

We are pleased to support the Sherborne Literary Festival The Long Street Salerooms Sherborne Dorset DT9 3BS 01935 812277 info@charterhouse-auction.com www.charterhouse-auction.com

BRITANNIA INN 17

Sunday

Sunday 18 October Event 19 Festal Mattins

Donation

Castleton Church 11.00am – 12.00pm As this is the last day of the Literary Festival, we invite you to join the congregation of the pretty Church of St Mary Magdalene at Castleton on the edge of Sherborne for a service full of literary references and music.

Come and enjoy a service in this delightful church built in 1714 by the 5th Lord Digby to replace the original Norman building pulled down by Sir Walter Raleigh.

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Event 20 From Fact to Fiction: Miranda Carter talks about the way her writing has developed. £8.50 Raleigh Hall 12.30pm – 1.30pm The Infidel Stain is the second book by M J Carter in the Blake and Avery Mystery series. It follows The Strangler Vine, shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger award and longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize.

London, 1841. Returned from their adventures in India, Jeremiah Blake and William Avery have both had their difficulties adapting to life in Victorian England.

Moreover, time and distance have weakened the close bond between them, forged in the jungles of India.

Then a shocking series of murders in the world of London’s gutter press forces them back together. The police seem mysteriously unwilling to investigate, and as connections emerge between the murdered men and the growing and unpredictable movement demanding the right to vote for all, Blake and Avery must race against time to find the culprit before he kills again. But what if the murderer is being protected by some of the highest powers in the land?

M J Carter is a former journalist and the author of The Strangler Vine, the first book in the Blake and Avery series, and two acclaimed works of non-fiction: Anthony Blunt: His Lives and The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and The Road to World War One.

Sunday

Sunday 18 October Event 21 Fizz, Fun and

Event 22 Farewell Kabul

Fabulous Company! with Carole Matthews and James Crowden £15

From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World £12.50

Eastbury Hotel 3.00pm – 5.00pm

Digby Hall, Hound Street 7.30pm – 8.30pm

Join Carole Matthews, James Crowden and members of the Literary Society Committee to celebrate this final day of the Festival at The Eastbury Hotel in Long Street, Sherborne.

Carole is no stranger to Sherborne. She has judged this year’s short story competition and will be revealing the winner. Who better to do this? Carole’s hugely successful career as an author started when she won a short story competition and put the money towards a writing course. Her latest book, The Chocolate Lover’s Christmas, will be available, too.

James, again no stranger to the town, is a poet, author and publisher and has judged the poetry competition. This is when he will reveal the winner. Both Carole and James will talk about their work and answer any questions from budding authors and poets.

Come and spend a very relaxed afternoon drinking fizz and eating chocolate and enjoying the company of writers and poets in beautiful surroundings!

For the final event of this year’s Festival we offer you the opportunity to hear two of our finest foreign correspondents in conversation at the Digby Hall. Both Christina Lamb and Kate Adie have reported from war zones around the world, bringing breaking news to the reading, listening and viewing public.

Christina is an award-winning journalist for the Sunday Times. She received the Prix Bayeux Calvados for her reporting from Afghanistan and the Foreign Press Association Award for her reporting on the war on terrorism. She has written five books including I Am Malala that she co-authored with Malala Yousafzai. Her new book is Farewell Kabul.

Until 2002, Kate was the BBC’s Chief News Correspondent covering wars, uprisings and atrocities worldwide. Her reporting skills won her The British Academy Television Richard Dimbleby Award and the Mungo Park Medal. She has written four books and is working on a fifth. She presents From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4.

It should be a fascinating conversation.

SPONSORED BY

BATTENS 19

Festival EventsEvents for Young People Festival for You Lucy Beney, Schools Liason, writes: Fostering a love of literature among the next generation is a key aim of Sherborne Literary Festival. Last year, for the first time, we were delighted to welcome around 900 children and young people to our youth events.

Thanks to generous sponsorship, these events were entirely free for all those taking part and their schools.

This year, we are planning another full programme of events for children and young people in the area. While our schools programme will once again be based at The Gryphon School, speakers will be visiting several different venues to talk about their work and hold workshops.

Teen fiction author Virginia Bergin will talk about her “distinctly British dystopian survival thrillers”; successful novelist Lulu Taylor will hold workshops on creative writing, giving advice on what to do with that daunting blank page; Middle-East expert Diana Darke will hold a seminar on the current situation in Syria; and Michael Fowkes, acclaimed puppeteer and illustrator of the Amazing Esme books, will entertain our younger audiences.

As part of the Literary Festival’s Wildlife Day, Dr Simon Cripps, CEO of Dorset Wildlife Trust will hold a Café Scientifique for students, entitled ‘Who has failed to save our oceans?’.

This will be an interactive event and debate based on Simon’s career as a marine biologist in many countries.

Following last year’s successful Festival debate at The Gryphon, an inter-school debate is planned this year, with participants from across the town. Another university Student Ambassador will also visit, to talk about taking English beyond school.

For practical reasons, these events cannot be open to the general public.

THESE EVENTS ARE SPONSORED BY

THE SIMON DIGBY CHARITABLE TRUST

Dates for your Diary Sherborne Literary Festival 2016 Wednesday 12 October 20

to Sunday 16 October 2016

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Overview Overview Date

Time

Event

Location

Price

Wed 14 Oct

12.30pm

1. Quicksilver: A Novel

Digby Hall

£12.50

3.00pm

2. Writing Your Life Workshop

Raleigh Hall

£20.00

5.30pm

3. The War in the West

Digby Hall

£8.50

8.00pm

4. Distilled – The Talk and the Tasting

Raleigh Hall

£20.00

5. My House in Damascus

Digby Memorial Hall

£8.50

3.30pm

6. Double Trouble

Cheap Street Church

£5.00

5.30pm

7. Sicily: A Short History Digby Hall

£10.00

8.00pm

8. Stalin’s Englishman

Digby Hall

£8.50

10.30am

9. Walk and Talk with Kate Bradbury

Sherborne Castle

£8.50

5.30pm

10.The Trail of the Whale Digby Hall

£10.00

8.00pm

11.What Nature does for us

Digby Hall

£10.00

12.00pm

12.The Sunrise

Digby Hall

£8.50

3.00pm

13.Tudors and Roses

The Raleigh Hall

£5.00

Thurs 15 Oct 1.30pm

Fri 16 Oct

22

Overview Overview Date

Time

Event

Location

Price

Sat 17 Oct

10.00am

14.Childrens Event

Raleigh Hall

FREE

1.00pm

15.The Remains

Cheap Street Church

£8.50

3.00pm

16.Victoria: a life

Digby Hall

£10.00

5.30pm

17.Book Clubs Unite!

Raleigh Hall

£5.00

7.30pm

18.The Last Waltz

Digby Hall

£12.50

11.00am

19.Festal Mattins

Castleton Church

Donation

12.30pm

20.From Fact to Fiction

Raleigh Hall

£8.50

3.00pm

21.Fizz, Fun and Fabulous Company!

Raleigh Hall

£15.00

7.30pm

22.Farewell Kabul

Digby Hall

£12.50

Sun 18 Oct

23

Tickets Tickets Tickets for all Events are available at Sherborne Tourist Information Centre Digby Road Sherborne DT9 3NL Tel: 01935 815341 e-mail: sherborne.tic@westdorset-dc.gov.uk Opening Hours: Monday-Saturday 9.30am-4.00pm

Tickets during the Festival will also be available at The Festival CafĂŠ, Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne, DT9 3AA

Tickets also available through our website www.SherborneLiterarySociety.com Disabled Access Digby Hall, the Raleigh Hall and Cheap Street Church are fully equipped for disabled access.

always read the small print LIVE LOCAL, LOVE LOCAL ...

Printed materials offer a tangible and tactile end product that can create a brand memory if undertaken with creative skill and finished well. If you require any of the following please contact Shelleys The Printers to receive a hello discount off your first order: Letterheads, Business Cards, Leaflets, Brochures, Flyers, Books, Magazines, NCR Sets, Compliment Slips, Personal Stationery, Wedding Stationery, Display Stands, Brand and Advert Creation. In fact, if it’s on paper, we can probably do it!

Sherborne, Dorset www.shelleystheprinters.com

24

The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association prides itself on providing a wide-ranging selection of books at all prices.

The PBFA Sherborne book fair is held three times a year at the Church Hall, Digby Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NL from 10am to 4pm.

Saturday 3rd October 2015 Saturday 2nd January 2016 Saturday 26th March 2015

We look forward to welcoming all our visitors throughout the year PBFA Enquiries: 01763 248400 info@pbfa.org www.pbfa.org

EXHIBITION MARCUS HODGE Exhibiting until 21st October Next Exhibition JOHN MADDISON 31st October

www.jerramgallery.com

Olive Grove

Oil

The Jerram Gallery Half Moon Street, Sherborne DT9 3LN 01935 815261 info@jerramgallery.com Monday – Saturday

LEWESTON Situated just outside Sherborne in 46 acres of beautiful parkland, Leweston School offers a challenging and inspiring education to girls aged 3 months to 18 years and boys aged 3 months to 8 years.

Boarding packages are available for girls from age 7 and local transport links are provided for day pupils.

At Leweston all are encouraged to reach their full potential.

Our teaching philosophy incorporates small class sizes and individual mentoring programmes within a broad, flexible and enriching curriculum. Pupils achieve consistently high results, secure places at the most selective universities and go on to pursue challenging careers.

For more information please contact Chiara Damant on 01963 211010 email: admissions@leweston.dorset.sch.uk

www.leweston.co.uk

A Catholic Foundation which welcomes pupils of all denominations Leweston School Trust is a registered charity number 295175

25

Sherborne Literary Sherborne Lit Festival 2014

Festival 2014

26

01935 814586

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01935 814811

Sherborne • Yeovil • Dorchester Weymouth • London enquiries@battens.co.uk www.battens.co.uk

A HEAD FOR PR

28

Booking Form

Booking Form Date

Time

Event

Price

Wed 14 Oct

12.30pm

1

Quicksilver

£12.00

3.00pm

2

Writing Your Life Workshop

£20.00

5.30pm

3

The War in the West

£8.50

8.00pm

4

Distilled – The Talk and the Tasting

£20.00

1.30pm

5

My House in Damascus

£8.50

3.30pm

6

Double Trouble

£5.00

5.30pm

7

Sicily: A Short History

£10.00

8.00pm

8

Stalin’s Englishman

£8.50

10.30am

9

Walk and Talk with Kate Bradbury

£8.50

5.30pm

10

Mark Carwardine

£10.00

8.00pm

11

What Nature does for Britain

£10.00

12.00pm

12

The Sunrise

£8.50

3.00pm

13

Tudors and Roses

£5.00

Thurs 15 Oct

Fri 16 Oct

No. Cost

29

Booking Form

Booking Form Date

Time

Event

Price

Sat 17 Oct

10.00am

14

Childrens Event

FREE*

1.00pm

15

The Remains

£8.50

3.00pm

16

Victoria: a life

£10.00

5.30pm

17

Book Clubs Unite!

£5.00

7.30pm

18

The Last Waltz

£12.50

11.00am

19

Festal Mattins

Donation

12.30pm

20

From Fact to Fiction

£8.50

3.00pm

21

Fizz, Fun and Fabulous Company!

£15.00

7.30pm

22

Farewell Kabul

£12.50

Sun 18 Oct

No. Cost

A discount of 10% per ticket for Sherborne Literary Society Members 10% discount for Group Bookings (6+ tickets)

TOTAL COST £ * Those events marked as Free with a single asterisk (*) still require a ticket due to restrictions on numbers and are available from Sherborne Tourist Information Centre and during the Festival from the Festival Café in Digby Hall.

NAME: ................................................................................................................................................

TELEPHONE: ........................................................................................................................................

Please tick the box if you are a wheelchair user

30

Please enclose a Stamped-Addressed Envelope

Box Office & Booking Information

Box Office & Booking Post

Please fill in the Booking Form and send to: Sherborne Tourist Information Centre, Digby Road, Sherborne, DT9 3NL together with: - a cheque made payable to West Dorset District Council - a stamped-addressed envelope

Phone

Just ring Sherborne Tourist Information Centre on 01935 815341 There is a small fee to cover charges and postage.

In Person

You may use credit/debit card, cheque or cash at Sherborne Tourist Information Centre or you can purchase tickets with cash or cheque at the Festival CafĂŠ in Digby Hall (only during the Festival).

Website

Tickets are also available from our website www.SherborneLiterarySociety.com

Opening Hours

Sherborne Tourist Information Centre - Monday-Saturday 9.30am-4.00pm.

Festival CafĂŠ in Digby Hall, Sherborne - Wednesday 14 - Sunday 18 October 9.30am-7.30pm (Sunday 10.00am until 5.30pm) only during the Festival.

Tickets on the door

Tickets will be available to purchase at the event venue from Wednesday 14 - Sunday 18 subject to availability. Be aware that events can sell out in advance so early booking is recommended.

Discount of 10%

This is applicable to either Sherborne Literary Society Members or Group Bookings of 6+ tickets booked at the same time.

Refunds

The Festival is unable to refund money or exchange tickets except in the case of an event cancellation.

31

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Furniture + Art Alterations Poles + Tracks Roman + Roller Blinds Window Seats and more

FREE ESTIMATES The Old School Rooms, Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3BS Email: info@updowninteriors.co.uk www.updowninteriors.co.uk Tel: 01935 813831 Mon - Sat 9:30am - 5:00pm