Lichfield Literature Festival 2024

21 – 24 March 2024

Booking Information: www.lichfieldfestival.org 01543 306271 boxoffice@lichfieldfestival.org

Welcome

Welcome Welcome to Lichfield 2024! In a time of turbulence, we offer you books to make sense of what’s going on, but also books that will take you away from it all.

Disillusioned with politics? Ian Dunt’s How Westminster Works… And Why It Doesn’t diagnoses what’s gone wrong, and how we can fix it. Want to know what your taxes are being spent on? Paul Johnson’s Follow the Money will tell you. Furious about the way sub-postmasters were treated? Nick Wallis’s Post Office Scandal – the Inside Story lifts the lid on what really happened and why.

Should we apologise for the British Empire? Nigel Biggar, author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, thinks not. Meanwhile, Sunder Katwala and Tomiwa Owolade have a refreshingly original take on what it means to be British today.

Going further back in history, the ever popular Alison Weir returns with Henry VIII – The Heart and the Crown, while Jessie Childs gives a vivid picture of what it was like to live through the English Civil War in The Siege of Loyalty House. Fiction explores the past too, with Matthew Gibson’s Bram Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum, set in Victorian London.

We also look at the theme of “family”, as Bob Cryer remembers his beloved father Barry in Same Time Tomorrow?, while Rory Cellan-Jones discovers the truth about his parents in Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC, and in Sarah Sands’s memoir, the natural world and family history come together in The Hedgehog Diaries.

All this, and much, much more… at Lichfield 2024.

Julian Bell, Melonie Atraghji & Emma Reed Lichfield Literature Festival Programmers 2024 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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PROUD SUPPORT PROUD TO TO SUPPORT

LICHFIELD LICHFIELD FESTIVAL FESTIVAL VISIT ON VISIT US US ON MARKETSTREET STREET MARKET FOR A A RANGE RANGE OF FOR OF WONDERFUL BOOKS. WONDERFUL BOOKS. Waterstones, 35 Market St, Lichfield, WS13 6LA Waterstones, 35 Market St, Lichfi eld, WS136LA

Coffee, Community, Art, Theatre

The Hub is thrilled to be a Literature Festival Venue in 2024!

Coffee Shop open daily Tues to Sat 9.30am to 3pm serving hot drinks, freshly made cakes, pastries and light lunches.

The most beautiful space to:

The Hub is also home to a beautiful gallery space & a diverse programme of high quality arts, music and theatre.

Pop in and pick up a new season brochure or visit our website – www.TheHubStMarys.co.uk 01543 256611

Enjoy a coffee Be inspired

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Festival Diary

Festival Diary At a Glance Thursday 21st March

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10.00am Peter Moore – Life, Liberty and the Pursuit…

George Hotel

12.00pm Professor David Nutt – Psychedelics

George Hotel

1.45pm Rosamund Young – The Wisdom of Sheep…

George Hotel

3.30pm Sarah Sands – The Hedgehog Diaries

The Hub

5.30pm Jessie Childs – The Siege of Loyalty House

The Hub

7.30pm What Does It Mean To Be British Today?

The Hub

Friday 22nd March

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10.00am Katherine MacInnes – Snow Widows

George Hotel

12.00pm Professor Carl Chinn – Peaky Blinders

George Hotel

3.30pm Freya North – Eadie Browne

The Hub

5.30pm Nigel Biggar – Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

The Hub

7.30pm Rory Cellan-Jones – Ruskin Park

The Hub

Saturday 23rd March

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10.00am Dr Phil Jones – Reading Dr Johnson

George Hotel

12.00pm Tiffany Jenkins – Keeping Their Marbles

George Hotel

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Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Festival Diary

3.30pm Bobby Palmer – Small Hours

The Hub

5.30pm Bob Cryer – Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow?

The Hub

7.30pm Matthew Gibson – Mr Stoker and the Vampires…

The Hub

Sunday 24th March

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10.00am Steve Webb – Peng and Spanners

The Hub

11.45am Niall Kishtainy – The Infinite City

The Hub

1.45pm Paul Johnson – Follow The Money

The Hub

3:45pm Alison Weir – Henry VIII: The Heart And The Crown The Hub 5.45pm Iain Dunt – How Westminster Works…

7.30pm Nick Wallis – Post Office Scandal

The Hub Garrick Theatre

Festival Books Books for each author will be available to buy after each event.

We are very grateful to Waterstones for supporting the 2024 Lichfield Literature Festival.

Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Thursday 21 March

Peter Moore Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Britain and the American Dream 1740-1776 Enlightenment Britain was ablaze with ambition and energy. Great writers like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Samuel Johnson and Catharine Macaulay were part of a pioneering generation that shaped and inspired the American Dream.

For the first time, bestselling historian Peter Moore vividly traces the transatlantic friendships and revolutionary ideas that inspired the Declaration of Independence.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness tells the story of the years that preceded the Declaration. From the accession of King George III to the astonishing tale of John Wilkes, from the Stamp Act to the Boston Tea Party, it shows how Britain and her American Colonies broke apart.

Peter Moore is a writer, journalist and lecturer. He was born in Staffordshire in 1983 and attended the local schools before studying further at the University of Durham and City, University of London. He is the author of four works of history. The Weather Experiment and Endeavour were both Sunday Times Top Ten Bestsellers. He teaches creative writing at the University of Oxford and also hosts the acclaimed history podcast Travels Through Time.

10.00am The George Hotel £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 8

Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Thursday 21 March

Professor David Nutt Psychedelics The Revolutionary Drugs That Could Change Your Life The definitive guide to psychedelics and MDMA, and how they can impact our health by world-renowned, leading authority, Professor David Nutt.

We are on the cusp of a major revolution in psychiatric medicine and neuroscience. After fifty years of prohibition, criminalisation and fear, science is finally showing us that psychedelics are not dangerous or harmful. Instead, when used according to tested, safe and ethical guidelines, they are our most powerful new treatment of mental health conditions, from depression, PTSD and OCD, to disordered eating, addiction and chronic pain.

Professor David Nutt, one of the world’s leading Neuropsychopharmacologists, has spent 15 years researching this field. In 2018, he co-founded the first academic psychedelic research centre, underpinned by his mission to provide evidence-based information for people everywhere. It revived interest in the understanding and use of this drug’s many forms (including MDMA, magic mushrooms, LSD, ketamine), with ground-breaking results for the future categorisation of drugs, and what we know about brain mechanisms and consciousness.

At a time where there is so much noise around their benefits, Psychedelics contains the knowledge you need to know about a drug that is about to go mainstream, direct from the expert.

12.00pm The George Hotel £10 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Thursday 21 March

Rosamund Young The Wisdom of Sheep & Other Animals Observations from a Family Farm Be transported to Kite’s Nest Farm and peek into the surprising private lives of some of our most familiar of animals. A life-enhancing read from the author of the best-selling gem The Secret Life of Cows.

“We talk about people behaving like sheep, which assumes that sheep all behave in the same way. That has not been my experience.”

Farm animals are familiar to us from childhood stories, but little did we know that their inner lives are full of complexity and family dramas. This is a story of joy, discovery, cooperation and sometimes heartbreak. We learn about sheep growing old disgracefully, the intelligence of supposedly ‘birdbrained’ hens, ‘conversations’ between cows and why you should never send a text whilst milking…

Rosamund Young is the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Cows, a Times Book of the Year. Her farm is on the edge of the Cotswolds, where nature is left to itself as much as possible and the animals receive exceptional kindness and consideration.

1.45pm The George Hotel £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 10 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Thursday 21 March

Sarah Sands The Hedgehog Diaries A Story of Faith, Hope and Bristle It is the Winter Solstice and Sarah Sands is sitting by her father’s bedside, bracing herself for loss.

What her father needs to do, she thinks, is conserve his energy – to curl up and hibernate like a hedgehog in its bed of leaves.

A few days earlier, Sarah and her grandson had found an ailing hedgehog – Peggy – and her fate had become a matter of pressing concern. When death looms, it’s easier to talk about hedgehogs…

For Sarah Sands, our failure to protect them is a symptom of our alienation from the living world.

But all is not lost. In this charming, idiosyncratic book, she explores the meaning and morals of hedgehogs, and finds, in hedgehog world, a source of deep solace and wisdom.

Sarah Sands lives in Norfolk and London. In between editing two newspapers, Reader’s Digest, and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she has written three novels and an acclaimed work of non-fiction ‘The Interior Silence’ (2021).

3.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Thursday 21 March

Jessie Childs The Siege of Loyalty House A new history of the English Civil War It was a time of climate change and colonialism, puritans and populism, witch hunts and war.

Jessie Childs recovers the shock of this conflict by plunging us into one of its most extraordinary episodes: the siege of Basing House. To the parliamentarians, the royalist stronghold was the devil’s seat. Its defenders called it Loyalty House.

Drawing on unpublished manuscripts and the voices of dozens of men, women and children caught in the crossfire, Childs weaves a thrilling tale of war and peace, terror and faith, savagery and civilisation.

Jessie Childs is an award-winning author, broadcaster and historian. The Siege of Loyalty House was a Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Economist, Spectator, Daily Express and Mail on Sunday Book of the Year. Jessie’s TV credits include the RTS Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents (BBC 2 & PBS), and BBC Four’s two series on Charles I: Downfall of a King and Killing a King. She lives in Hammersmith with her husband and two daughters.

5.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Thursday 21 March

Sunder Katwala & Tomiwa Owolade What Does It Mean To Be British Today?

How To Be A Patriot & This Is Not America Our 2024 panel event What does it mean to be British today? investigates an age of culture wars and illtempered clashes on social media.

Instead, we need a better conversation on who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going.

How To Be a Patriot offers a new way of understanding our collective identity in a country wracked by division and brimming with markers of selfhood – faith, race, gender, age, sexuality. In a rousing story of lives lived together and shared values, Sunder Katwala reflects on how he has negotiated his mixed Irish and Indian heritage, and how it is possible for people of all heritages to love Britain without bigotry.

This Is Not America addresses one of the most divisive issues in our age. In the rush to address racial inequality and prejudice, Britain has followed the lead of the world’s dominant power: America. But what if we’re looking in the wrong place? In his humane and passionate book, Tomiwa Owolade argues that it is possible to be both proudly black and proudly British, with too much of this debate at home viewed through the prism of American ideas that fail to reflect the history, challenges and achievements of black communities in Britain.

7.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Friday 22 March

Katherine MacInnes Snow Widows With unprecedented access to family archives, Snow Widows is the story of the race for the South Pole from the perspective of the women whose lives would be forever changed by it.

Robert Falcon Scott and the men of his polar expedition were heroes of their age, enduring tremendous hardships to further the reputation of the empire they served. But they were also husbands, fathers, sons and brothers.

Katherine MacInnes vividly depicts the lives, loves and losses of five women forced into the public eye by tragedy and shaped by the unrelenting culture of empire: Kathleen Scott, the fierce young wife of the expedition leader, Oriana Wilson, ‘Empire’ Emily Bowers, Lois Evans, and the indomitable Caroline Oates, who was the very picture of decorum and everything an Edwardian woman aspired to be.

Snow Widows offers a fresh perspective to a familiar story, and a fascinating window onto a lost world.

Katherine MacInnes has been an arts journalist and commissioning editor.

She is a regular on local BBC Radio and her journalism has appeared widely, including in the Times, Telegraph and Country Life.

She lives in Gloucestershire with her family.

10.00am The George Hotel £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 16 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

The George Hotel is a family owned and run hotel set in the heart of historic Lichfield just a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral. Full of character, you’ll love the warm and friendly atmosphere of this charming Georgian coaching inn.

Our central location makes The George a great choice to stay overnight for out of town visitors to the festival. Or dine in our cosy Lounge Bar which is open all day for coffee, bar snacks, afternoon tea and dining.

Bird Street, Lichfield WS13 6PR T: 01543 414822 E: mail@thegeorgelichfield.co.uk W: www.thegeorgelichfield.co.uk

Friday 22 March

Professor Carl Chinn Peaky Blinders: Historical Reality The true history of Birmingham’s most notorious gangs The Peaky Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused with drama and dread.

Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but deeply flawed Shelby family blind enemies by slashing them with the disposable safety razor blades stitched in to the peaks of their flat caps, as they fight bloody gangland wars and defy the authorities.

But who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist? Professor Carl Chinn has spent decades searching them out, revealing the true story of the notorious Peaky Blinders, one of whom was his own great grandfather.

Drawing together a remarkably wide range of original sources, including rarely seen images of real Peaky Blinders and interviews with relatives of the 1920s gangsters, Peaky Blinders: The Real Story adds a new dimension to the true history of Birmingham’s underworld and fact behind its fiction Professor Carl Chinn MBE is a social historian with a national profile, a Sunday Times bestselling writer, teacher, tour guide, and public speaker. He is the author of over 30 books that include studies of working-class life, manufacturing, Birmingham and the Black Country.

12.00pm The George Hotel £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 18 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Friday 22 March

Freya North The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne With a career spanning 27 years, Freya North is one

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contemporary domestic drama. In her first visit to the Festival, Freya will give an insight into the life and career (and occasional frustrations!) of a best-selling novelist, and talk about her newlyreleased book The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne, a beautifully written, life-affirming story of finding yourself – even when your past won’t let you go.

Eadie Browne, an odd child with eccentric parents, lives next door to a cemetery in a small Garden City. Bullied at school, she is protected by her two best friends, and her many imaginary friends lying six feet under. Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s, Eadie tastes freedom for the first time… until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her and she fears nothing will ever be the same again.

Freya North is one of the UK’s best loved authors of contemporary domestic drama. She has written 15 bestselling novels including her debut Sally, RNA award-winner Pillow Talk and her 2022 critically-acclaimed Sunday Times bestseller Little Wing was selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club.

3.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Friday 22 March

Nigel Biggar Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning The Sunday Times bestselling Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning tests the ‘decolonising’ movement’s indictment of the West by examining the record of the British Empire. It addresses the crucial questions, including those of slavery, genocide and undemocratic colonial government, making it clear that the British Empire involved elements of injustice, sometimes appalling, and on occasion was culpably incompetent and presided over moments of dreadful tragedy.

Nevertheless, from the early 1800s the Empire was committed to abolishing the slave trade, and ended endemic inter-tribal warfare, opened local economies to the opportunities of global trade, and established the rule of law and liberal institutions such as a free press.

As encyclopaedic in historical breadth as it is penetrating in analytical depth, Colonialism offers a moral inquest into the colonial past, forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to rejuvenate faith in the West’s future.

Nigel Biggar is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford. Described as “one of the leading living Western ethicists” (New Statesman), Biggar has written widely for the press, including the Times, the Telegraph and the FT. He was appointed Commander of the British Empire for services to higher education in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

5.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 20 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Friday 22 March

Rory Cellan-Jones Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother died, he knew little of its beginning or ending. Or why his isolated childhood had so tested the bond between him and Sylvia as she single-parented two sons, while working full time, through the 1950s and 60s.

Ruskin Park is a compelling account of what Rory uncovered in the papers, letters and diaries; of a relationship between two romantics and the restrictive forces of post-war respectability and prejudice that ended it. It is also an evocation of the centrifugal force at the centre of all their lives – the BBC itself.

Both tender and troubling, the drama moves from wartime radio broadcasts to the golden era of TV drama. His father may have directed The Forsyte Saga and Rory may have watched him from afar, but he would never meet him until adulthood, when the damage to his mother’s life had already been done.

Rory Cellan-Jones was the BBC’s principal technology correspondent until 2018. He now writes an influential and fast-growing Substack column on medical innovation and tech. Through this and his 300k+ Twitter followers he spreads awareness of technological developments in the fields of medicine, health care and – more specifically – Parkinson’s.

7.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Saturday 23 March

Dr Phil Jones Reading Dr Johnson: Johnson among the Writers Rambunctious and opinionated, Dr Johnson – Lichfield’s greatest writer – never knowingly undersold himself. But what did later writers think of him? William Hazlitt, the 19th-century essayist, thought him pompous: ‘the author is always upon stilts’. By contrast, Samuel Beckett, author of Waiting for Godot, paid homage to a writer he considered a genius, by visiting Johnson’s Birthplace in Lichfield, but, characteristically, did not sign the visitor book.

Later authors, including Thomas Carlyle and T. S. Eliot, admired Johnson but re-wrote him as versions of themselves. Johnson’s life also fascinated writers, such as James Boswell, Mrs Thrale and Frances Burney. The most famous Johnson biography, Boswell’s Life of Johnson, however, became hostage to feuding editors, so much so, that Percy Fitzgerald argued that the footnotes of rival editor, George Birkbeck Hill, ‘whelm and submerge poor Boswell’. Dr Phil Jones examines in this entertaining book how Johnson’s legacy has been fought over, mis-represented and re-interpreted over the last 220 years.

Dr Phil Jones is a local author, and the Chairman of The Johnson Society (Lichfield). He has written widely on Johnson and the 18th century.

A lecture in memory of Peter Barrett

10.00am The George Hotel £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 22 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Saturday 23 March

Tiffany Jenkins Keeping Their Marbles The fabulous collections housed in the world’s most famous museums are trophies from an imperial age. Yet the huge crowds who visit the British Museum, the Louvre or the Met each year have little idea that the objects on display were acquired by coercion or theft.

Now the countries from which these treasures came would like them back. The Greek demand for the return of the Elgin Marbles is the tip of an iceberg that includes claims for the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria, the bust of Nefertiti and Aboriginal human remains.

Keeping Their Marbles tells the bloody story of how western museums came to acquire these objects and investigates why repatriation claims have recently soared. Contrary to the arguments of campaigners, it shows that sending artefacts back will not achieve the desired social change nor repair the wounds of history.

Instead, this ground-breaking book makes the case for museums as centres of knowledge, demonstrating that no object has a single home and no one culture owns culture.

Tiffany Jenkins is an author, academic, broadcaster and columnist, and was previously the director of the Arts and Society Programme at the Institute of Ideas. Her first degree is in art history, her PhD in sociology. She divides her time between London and Edinburgh.

12.00pm The George Hotel £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Saturday 23 March

Bobby Palmer Small Hours Small Hours is the eagerly awaited new novel from Bobby Palmer, author of the criticallyacclaimed debut Isaac and the Egg. If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden, here’s what you’d see: A father and son, a fox standing between them.

Jack, home for the first time in years, still determined to be the opposite of his father. Gerry, who would rather talk to animals than the angry man back under his roof.

Everything that follows is because of the fox, and because Jack’s mother is missing.

It spans generations of big dreams and lost time, unexpected connections and things falling apart, great wide worlds and the moments that define us.

If you met them in the small hours, you’d begin to piece together their story.

Bobby Palmer is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He is co-host of the acclaimed podcast Book Chat with Pandora Sykes. His debut novel, Isaac and the Egg, was widely reviewed and a word of mouth bestseller, and has sold over 50,000 copies in a year.

3.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £10 / £5 Under 16s 24 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Saturday 23 March

Bob Cryer Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow?

The Life and Laughs of a Comedy Legend ‘I don’t know how long I’ve got left... I don’t even buy green bananas anymore’ When the legendary comedian Barry Cryer died in 2022, there was a vast outpouring of grief, appreciation and anecdotes – from the public and fellow comics alike. Now, his son, Bob, is doing what Barry’s humility did not allow: revealing the story of the man behind the jokes.

Laced with candour, warmth, and filled with his trademark humour, this is an ode both to Barry’s incredible life and to the lessons he so generously imparted during his sixty-year career in comedy.

Stretching from the music halls of the fifties, via working alongside everyone from Morecambe and Wise to Kenny Everett and David Frost, and into more recent times as a stalwart of the long-running I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue on Radio 4, Same Time Tomorrow? is a hugely entertaining insight into the life of a true comedy legend.

Bob Cryer is an actor and writer best known for Coronation Street and Hollyoaks. The youngest child of Barry Cryer, he collaborated with his father on Barry’s book of anecdotes, Butterfly Brain and the book series Mrs Hudson’s Diaries. Their joint podcast, Now Where Were We?, launched just before Barry’s death in January 2022.

5.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Saturday 23 March

Matthew Gibson Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum is a new novel from Dracula and Bram Stoker scholar Matthew Gibson. Alive with intrigue, reversal and surprise, this tightly plotted Gothic crime thriller will keep the reader enthralled and confounded until its final shocking scene; indeed, until its very last word.

London, September 1888. A scream rings out from beneath the stage of the Lyceum Theatre...

A young actress has been attacked, suffering peculiar bite wounds to her neck; an event that announces a series of strange vampiric happenings, and thrusts an unwitting Bram Stoker – acting manager of the Lyceum and aspiring, future author of Dracula – into the limelight.

Increasingly perplexed by his mercurial leading actor Henry Irving and Irving’s acclaimed leading lady Ellen Terry, Stoker soon starts to suspect the worst and is forced to investigate. Then there is another attack – revealing a vicious Prussian baron, returned to London as a vampire seeking revenge…

Matthew Gibson is a leading scholar on Bram Stoker and the Gothic.

Currently an Associate Professor at the University of Macau, he previously worked at the universities of Surrey and Hull. Author of Dracula and the Eastern Question, Matthew curates Stoker resources for Oxford Bibliographies. Mr Stoker is his first novel.

7.30pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £10 / £5 Under 16s 26 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Monday 8th - Saturday 13th April

lichfieldgarrick.com box office 01543 412121

Academic excellence for boys and girls aged 21/2 to 18 Outstanding academic results Traditional education built on Christian values Small class sizes and excellent teachers Wide range of GCSEs, A Levels and BTECs Extensive extra-curricular programme and Forest School Minibus transport: Great Haywood, Rugeley, Armitage, Longdon, Tamworth, Wigginton, Burton, Fradley, Alrewas, Kings Bromley, Whittington, Sutton Coldfield, Mere Green, Little Aston, Four Oaks, Streetly, Walmley, Wylde Green, Barton Marina, Walton, Aldridge, Shenstone & Stonnall

Call the Admissions Team today 01543 306168 admissions@lichfieldcathedralschool.com Green Gables, Longdon WS15 4PT | The Palace, The Close, Lichfield WS13 7LH

Sunday 24 March

Steve Webb Peng and Spanners For a Sunday morning packed with fun, join the hilarious author and illustrator Steve Webb as he introduces your new favourite superheroes... a sarcastic penguin and a clever cat with a toolbelt.

Peng and Spanners are investigating the craziest pizza mystery ever in this brand new graphic novel series (perfect for fans of Dogman, Barry Loser and Bunny vs Monkey).

Learn how to draw the characters and create your very own graphic novel comic strips. Expect laughter, mayhem and free pizza... drawings!

When the school pizza parlour disappears and a giant robot suddenly appears, Pengtastic and Spanners know that only they can help the headmaster find his parlour before the school inspectors arrive and shut him down. There’s just one massive pesky robot to defeat, Cinderella the caretaker, who roars about rules and an incredible jail break to get out of first.

Steve Webb is an author of various picture books and some young fiction, as well as being a freelance graphic designer. Previously he has written a middle grade series, Spangles McNasty, for Andersen and also has a couple of picture books with them as an author, including Cows go BOO!.

10.00am The Hub at St. Mary’s £8 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Sunday 24 March

Niall Kishtainy The Infinite City Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London begins with Thomas More in the 16th century and traces a utopian lineage running from the Civil War to William Morris through to the contemporary transformation of the East End docklands and the COVID lockdowns. It shows how London’s spirit has been one of visionary imagination amid relentless change and innovation.

In his talk, Niall Kishtainy’s tour of utopian London will draw us into the imaginative worlds of Thomas Spence, the fiery radical who came to London to agitate for a land revolution, of the garden city pioneers who worked to create spacious, leafy towns and suburbs in London and around the country, and of 92 year-old Dolly Watson who became the queen of Claremont Road, an experimental utopian enclave during the 1990s’ Reclaim the Streets protests.

Niall Kishtainy has worked in government, journalism and academia, also holding posts at the UN and World Bank. While teaching at LSE and the University of Warwick, he began writing about the history of economic thinking and the economic struggles of the past and present. He is also author of A Little History of Economics, which has been sold in over twenty languages, and now lives in his hometown of London.

11.45am The Hub at St. Mary’s £10 / £5 Under 16s 30 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Sunday 24 March

Paul Johnson Follow The Money How Much Does Britain Cost?

Follow The Money is a forensic examination by the man best placed to do so – Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson – of what it costs to run the United Kingdom’s economy.

Government decisions determine the welfare of the poor and the elderly, our health service, our children’s education, and our preparedness for the future.

Nearly four pounds out every ten we earn goes, one way or another, to the taxman. What are the combined effects of these decisions to take billions from us every year and then dish it out again?

Johnson looks at the financial crisis of 2008-09, the austerity years that followed, and then the reaction to the coronavirus with by far the biggest spending splurge in peacetime history, as well as peering into our economic futures as we try to reach a new ‘normal’ after Covid-19.

Paul Johnson has been Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies since 2011.

A Times columnist, he also regularly contributes to other broadcast and print media. He is a visiting professor in the UCL Policy Lab and at the UCL department of economics. Paul was appointed CBE in the 2018 birthday honours and published the Sunday Times bestseller Follow the Money in 2023.

1.45pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Sunday 24 March

Alison Weir Henry VIII: The Heart And The Crown The first of two visits this year from our 2024 Writer/Historian in Residence, Alison Weir, sees Henry VIII brought to life in Lichfield.

In grand royal palaces, Prince Harry grows up dreaming of knights and chivalry – and the golden age of kings that awaits his older brother. But Arthur’s untimely death sees Harry crowned King Henry of England. As his power and influence extends, so commences a lifelong battle between head and heart, love and duty. Henry rules by divine right, yet his prayers for a son go unanswered. The future of his great dynasty depends on an heir. And the crown weighs heavy on a king with all but his one true desire.

Alison Weir is the biggest-selling female historian (and the fifth best-selling historian) in the United Kingdom since records began. She has published 32 titles and sold more than 3 million books. She is now working on two concurrent series of books: the Tudor Rose trilogy of novels about Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and Mary I, and England’s Medieval Queens, a quartet of historical works of non-fiction.

Alison will also appear at the Festival this coming summer (July 13th) to talk about her new 2024 release Mary I: Queen of Sorrows, the sequel to today’s book Henry VIII: The Heart And The Crown.

3.45pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s 32 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Sunday 24 March

Ian Dunt How Westminster Works... and Why It Doesn’t The No. 2 Sunday Times Bestseller How Westminster Works... is a biting critique that shines a light on how British politics really operates.

What is a ‘special adviser’ and how did they take over British political life? Why do some PMs manage to get things done – while others miserably fail? And why is the House of Lords more functional than most people think?

Most of us have a sense that our political system doesn’t seem to work, but struggle to articulate exactly why. And for good reason: our political and financial institutions are cloaked in secrecy, ancient custom and impenetrable jargon. Now, Ian Dunt lifts the lid on British politics to expose every aspect of the setup in a way that can be understood and challenged. From Downing Street to Whitehall, the Commons to the Lords, this book is an indispensable guide to our political system – and how we might begin to fix it.

Ian Dunt spent many years working in the heart of Westminster as editor of Politics.co.uk. He is a columnist for the i newspaper and regularly appears as a political pundit on TV and radio. He is the author of two previous books – Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now and How to be a Liberal.

5.45pm The Hub at St. Mary’s £12.50 / £5 Under 16s Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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Sunday 24 March

Nick Wallis Post Office Scandal – The Inside Story This is the true and unbelievable story of how hundreds of innocent people fought to clear their names against the Post Office’s refusal to accept responsibility for its failings. The really unlucky ones were sent to prison.

Nick Wallis released a best-selling book that became serialised both by BBC Radio 4, The Sunday Times and The Daily Mail.

Now a primetime ITV drama, this jaw-dropping and gripping account is the subject of this equally compelling stage show.

THE most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK legal history – Nick’s account will include a Q&A section with the audience and there may also be a special guest or two present from the scandal itself, to provide some first-hand expositions.

Nick Wallis is a TV, radio and online journalist. His main area of expertise is the Post Office Horizon scandal and, in 2020, he fronted a 10-part series for Radio 4, a BBC Panorama and co-wrote a Private Eye special. He has also fronted several crime series for Channel 5 and works as a freelance reporter for ITV. This is a Lichfield Garrick Theatre event as part of the Lichfield Literature Festival.

Tickets via www.lichfieldgarrick.com or 01543 412121

LICHFIELD

FESTIVAL 34 Box Office: 01543 306271

7.30pm Lichfield Garrick £18 www.lichfieldfestival.org

LICHFIELD FESTIVAL FRIENDS Lichfield Festival Friends support the Festival via annual subscriptions at various price levels in return for which we receive PRIORITY BOOKING. LFF members also offer practical assistance as volunteers.

Additional financial support comes from fund-raising events with the emphasis on FUN!

Since autumn 2021, these have included: 40th Anniversary Lunch Concerts, both pop and classical Wine and General Quizzes A Walk – A Race Night Story-telling and Talks

JOIN US AND SEE!

lff.lichfieldfestival.org

Booking Information

Booking Information Priority and Public Booking Dates: LFF Platinum, Gold, Millennium & Founder Members: Thursday 1 February LFF Silver & Bronze Members: Thursday 8 February General Sale: Thursday 15 February

How to Book: Online www.lichfieldfestival.org 24 hours / 7 days a week (please note you will be directed to the Tixly online booking service).

Telephone Call the Festival’s ‘call back’ phone line on 01543 306271 and our Box Office team will reply as soon as possible.

Email Contact boxoffice@lichfieldfestival.org and our Box Office team will reply as soon as possible.

On The Door Tickets are available on the door at most Festival events, 30 minutes prior to the event start time, subject to availability.

Terms and Conditions Information and prices in this brochure are correct at the time of going to print. Please check details when booking your tickets. All events are approximately 60 minutes in length unless otherwise specified, but running times may vary. Doors will generally open 30 minutes before the start of the event although we reserve the right to not open doors until authors and venue are ready. Unforeseen circumstances may result in programme changes. The use of cameras and mobile phones for recording Festival events is strictly prohibited.

36 Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

Booking Information

Refunds and Exchanges Tickets may not be refunded once purchased. Tickets may be exchanged for alternative Literature or Summer Festival events to the same or higher value with the difference paid. No change or credit can be given when exchanged for a lower value. Returned tickets for sold-out events may be offered for resale.

Carers and Essential Companions A 50% discount is available to carers and essential companions (please email or ring to book).

Accessibility Please inform the Box Office of any individual needs at the time of booking so that we may offer any assistance required during your visit to the Festival.

Wheelchair spaces are available at all of the Festival venues.

Where to find our events The George Hotel

The Hub at St Mary’s

12-14 Bird St, Lichfield, WS13 6PR www.thegeorgelichfield.co.uk

Market Square, Lichfield WS13 6LG www.thehubstmarys.co.uk

The Garrick Theatre Castle Dyke, Lichfield WS13 6HR www.lichfieldgarrick.com

Box Office: 01543 306271

www.lichfieldfestival.org

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LICHFIELD

FESTIVAL 4 - 14 JULY 2024

Please join us for our 42nd annual Summer Festival this July, featuring SETH LAKEMAN BBC NATIONAL ORCHESTRA OF WALES UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN BALLET CYMRU RACHEL PODGER LIZA PULMAN & JOE STILGOE BRODSKY QUARTET MIDLANDS CHOIR OF THE YEAR and much more!

www.lichfieldfestival.org

MUSIC

TO MOVE THE

HEART Treat yourself! There are dozens of daytime recitals and evening concerts each week at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

For full listings scan here or visit

www.bcu.ac.uk/concerts /birmcons /birmcons /royalbirmcons

Birmingham City University

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Only 20 minutes from Lichfield mcarthurglenwestmidlands.com