Chester Literature Festival 2017

12 – 19 November 2017

storyhouse.com @StoryhouseLive #ChesterLitFest

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Welcome to the Chester Literature Festival We are our words. What we say becomes who we are. The Chester Literature Festival is our chance to celebrate and tackle the words we choose and their power over our identities.

This year’s festival of words offers a weekend of free events and installations directed by Ted Hughes Prize-winning poet Hollie McNish.

Her words will flow throughout the building; expect to be caught by Hollie’s poetry in the most unexpected locations...

Key partner:

Sponsored by:

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Funded by:

A raft of internationally celebrated writers is set to make this year’s Chester Literature Festival a great balance of celebration and challenge to us all. These are inclusive, exciting, high-quality events that will entertain, inspire and provoke. Get up close to your favourite writers and experience poetry, history, fiction, live music, politics, or a pub crawl. Chester Literature Festival will shine a light on the power of words to stimulate extraordinary action and shape our lives, in a wonderful week this November.

Principal sponsor:

Festival bookseller :

Supported by:

Chester Literature Festival

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Festival at a Glance

FREE Book ahead*

FREE Drop in

*Visit storyhouse.com to book

Saturday 11 November

Space

Price

Time

Page

Den

FREE

10am

N/A

Space

Price

Time

Page

Jacqueline McCormick, Meadowsweet, Broom and Oak (Dance piece)

Kitchen

FREE

2.30pm

07

Petals and Claws Video

Kitchen Big Screen

FREE

3.30pm

07

One to One Sessions with a Literary Agent

Meeting Room

£20

4pm 6.40pm

06

Roderick Williams & Ensemble Deva Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Storyhouse Theatre

£24.50

7.30pm

06

Devil’s Violin - Stolen

Garret Theatre

Liz Ellis - Ceramic Owl Making

Sunday 12 November

£15.50

8pm

Wednesday 15 November

Space

Price

Time

Page

Uni at the Fest: Clara Neary on Ghandi

Cinema

FREE

6pm

09

Storyhouse Book Club

Garret Bar

FREE

7pm

13

Lip Service - Mr Darcy Loses The Plot

Storyhouse Theatre

£20.50

7.30pm

13

Molly Naylor - True Stories Live

Garret Theatre

£5

8.30pm

12

Space

Price

Time

Page

Uni at the Fest: Simon Poole Bumblebees Like Jazz

Garret Theatre

FREE

1pm

09

SEE STORYHOUSE.COM

Storyhouse Theatre

£15.50

6pm

N/A

Molly Naylor and Gavin Osborn Poetry Pub Crawl

Meet at Storyhouse

£20

7.30pm

14

Pam Ayres - BBC Radio 4 Extra

Garret Theatre

£8

7.30pm

13

Ben Fogle - English

Storyhouse Theatre

£12.50

8.30pm

14

Space

Price

Time

Page

Thursday 16 November

07 Friday 17 November

Monday 13 November

Space

Price

Time

Page

Uni at the Fest: Peter Blair - Flash Fiction

Garret Theatre

FREE

6pm

09

Jacqueline McCormick Dance workshop (Adults)

Garret Theatre

FREE

1pm

07

Clair Whitefield - Chopping Chillies

Cinema

£8

6.45pm

14

Katie Kirkby - Hurrah for Gin

Garret Theatre

£12.50

8.30pm

15

One to One Sessions with a Literary Agent

Meeting Room

£20

3pm

06

Jacqueline McCormick Dance workshop (Children)

Garret Theatre

FREE

4pm

07

Space

Price

Time

Page

Stephen McGann - Flesh and Blood

Storyhouse Theatre

£12.50

2pm

15

Uni At the Fest: Francois Cusset with Timo Obergoker

Cinema

FREE

6pm

09 Laura Barnett & Kathryn Williams Greatest Hits

Garret Theatre

£8

2.30pm

18

Peter Snow & Ann McMillan

Storyhouse Theatre

£12.50

7.30pm

08 £5

5.30pm

18

Garret Theatre

£10.00

8pm

09

Martin Fitzgerald Martin and Ruth’s Album Club

Garret Theatre

Martin Figura Dr Zeeman’s Catastophe Machine

Jeremy Vine - What I Learnt

Storyhouse Theatre

£12.50

7.30pm

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Hollie McNish - Plum

Garret Theatre

£10

8pm

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Space

Price

Time

Page

New Voices

Garret Theatre

FREE

1pm

20

Simon Savidge Blogging Workshop

Meeting Room

£10

1pm

20

Jane Harris - Sugar Money (with Simon Savidge)

Garret Theatre

£5

5.30pm

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Lines of Retreat

Garret Theatre

£8

8.30pm

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Tuesday 14 November

Space

Price

Time

Page

Uni at the Fest: Katherine Wilson on Silk

Garret Theatre

FREE

1pm

09

Molly Naylor True Stories Live Workshop

Meeting Room

FREE

6pm

10

Simon Edge - The Hopkins Conundrum

Cinema

£5

6.45pm

N/A

Lemn Sissay - Something Dark

Storyhouse Theatre

£15.50

7.30pm

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Adverse Camber Dreaming the Night Field

Garret Theatre

£15.50

7.30pm

10

Saturday 18 November

Sunday 19 November

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Chester Literature Festival

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Roderick Williams and Ensemble Deva

The Devil’s Violin Stolen

The Rime of The Ancient Mariner Sunday 12 November | 8pm Sunday 12 November | 7.30pm Tickets £15.50 Tickets £24.50 Garret Theatre Storyhouse Theatre Baritone Roderick Williams is accompanied

by Storyhouse’s Ensemble Deva for this wonderfully atmospheric new setting of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poetic masterpiece The Rime of the Ancient Mariner composed by Chester native Howard Skempton. Williams will also perform Skempton’s work Man and Bat, premiered

earlier this year, which is a setting of DH Lawrence’s darkly comic poem of the same name.

Poetry Café

One to One Session with Literary Agent, Lucy Morris

Saturday 11 November | 10am – 1pm

Sunday 12 November | 4pm – 6.30pm

FREE

Monday 13 November | 3pm – 6.30pm

Libraries in Ellesmere Port, Frodsham, Neston, Northwich, Winsford.

One to one Sessions £20

Howard and Roddy will then take part in a discussion about the works to round off an unmissable evening of literature, storytelling and music.

A young woman goes missing. The search for her uncovers secrets which threaten to destroy her family….The Devil’s Violin return to the festival with Stolen, an enchanting blend of words and music. Brimming with dreamlike images that will haunt you long after the performance ends, The Devil’s Violin will take you on an epic journey to The Land Of No Return.

Petals and Claws Sunday 12 - Monday 13 November FREE Various Venues

Meeting Room Chester Literature Festival comes to Cheshire West’s libraries. Enjoy tea and cake as a local poet writes you your very own poem. Drop in, no need to book.

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Have you written a book that should be published?

Lucy Morris works at world famous literary agent Curtis Brown, with a remit to discover new fiction and non-fiction writers. This is rare a chance for writers to get one to one feedback from someone at the heart of the publishing industry. Please book a 15 minute slot and then we’ll ask for an extract of your book beforehand so that everyone gets the most out of the sessions.

Petals and Claws is an exhibition that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Cheshire writer Alan Garner’s The Owl Service which is based on the story of Blodeuwedd, a woman turned into an owl in the medieval Welsh story cycle The Mabinogion. We’re delighted to welcome this collection of cross media art to Storyhouse. Come along to see the storyinspired works of ceramics, dance and video.

Saturday 11 November | 10am – 1pm Children’s clay modelling workshop – make your own clay owl with ceramicist Liz Ellis.

Drop in – Free

Sunday 12 November | The Kitchen | 2.30pm Meadowsweet, Broom and Oak, a performance by Dance Artist Jacqueline McCormick. Free Sunday 12 November | The Kitchen | 3.30pm Artist and photographer David Heke’s atmospheric video will be shown on the drop- down screen.

Monday 13 November | Garret Theatre 1pm -2pm Petals and Claws Adult Dance workshop Monday 13 November | Garret Theatre 4pm – 5pm Petals and Claws Children’s Dance workshop All are welcome to these inclusive dance workshops led by Jacqueline McCormick; no experience necessary. Workshops are FREE but booking essential. Funded by:

Chester Literature Festival

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Martin Figura Doctor Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine

Monday 13 November | 8pm Tickets £10 Garret Theatre

Peter Snow and Ann McMillan Monday 13 November 7.30pm Tickets £12.50 Storyhouse Theatre

War Stories is a fascinating account of ordinary men and women swept up in the turbulence of war. These are the stories –many untold until now –of twenty-eight individuals and three couples who have pushed the boundaries of love, bravery, suffering and terror beyond the imaginable. Told with vivid narrative flair and full of unexpected insights, War Stories moves from tales of spies, escapes and innovation to uplifting acts of humanity, celebrating men and women whose wartime experiences are beyond compare.

Peter Snow is a highly respected journalist, author and broadcaster. He was ITN’s Diplomatic and Defence Correspondent from 1966 to 1979 and presented BBC’s Newsnight from 1980 to 1997. Ann MacMillan was born in Wales, the great granddaughter of David Lloyd George, and grew up in Canada where she worked for CHIN Radio, Global TV News and CTV News. She moved to London in 1976 when she married Peter Snow and worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation until 2013.

Is there a mathematical equation for love and the behaviour of a beating heart? Doctor Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine, is the new stage production from award-winning poet Martin Figura. His previous show, Whistle, telling the story of his extraordinary childhood following his mother’s death at the hand of his father, was an unforgettable hit for those fortunate enough to see it.

way, using sound, images, poetry and a mathematical machine to journey through marriage guidance, a father/son road trip and his Down’s Syndrome daughter’s leaving home for college. Poetic storytelling with searing honesty, wit and fun; utterly engaging.

Originally funded by Tilt; Norwich Arts Centre; Writers’ Centre Norwich; Arts Council England; Norfolk County Council.

In this new standalone show, Martin tells the story of his adulthood in his own inimitable

The University At The Festival Monday 13 - Friday 17 November

Tues 14 November | Garret Theatre | 1pm Katherine Wilson on silk

FREE but booking essential Every year, Chester Literature Festival welcomes lecturers from the University of Chester who share their expertise in a series of popular free talks. This November, there is the usual eclectic mix, with subjects ranging from silk to the writing of Ghandi as well as a leading French writer (speaking in English).

Wednesday 15 November | Cinema | 6pm Clara Neary Ghandi Thrusday 16 November | Garret Theatre | 1pm Simon Poole - Bumblebees Like Jazz Friday 17 November | Garret Theatre | 6pm Peter Blair, ‘Flash Fiction Now (and Then …)’

Monday 13 November | Cinema | 6pm Timo Obergoker in conversation with François Cusset

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Chester Literature Festival

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Simon Edge The Hopkins Conundrum

Molly Naylor (True Stories) Live Workshop Theme: Lost and Found

Tuesday 14 November | 6.45pm

Tuesday 14 November | 6pm - 9pm

Tickets £5

FREE but booking essential

Cinema

Meeting Room

A comic novel, some of it set in North Wales, about a before-his-time Victorian poet, nuns and the publishing industry written by a Chester-born author; what could be finer?

The Hopkins Conundrum blends the real stories of Gerald Manley Hopkins and the shipwrecked nuns immortalised in his masterpiece The Wreck Of The Deutschland while casting a wry eye on The Da Vinci Code industry in a highly original mix of fiction, literary biography and satirical commentary.

Workshop for people wanting to tell their story at True Stories Live on Wednesday 15th November. If you are interested in speaking at the True Stories Live event, please send a short synopsis of your story to truestorieslive@gmail.com and book a place on this workshop. (If you would like to watch this lively, moving and unpredictable event where people tell true stories about their lives in front of a warm, supportive audience, book a ticket for the event on 15th November).

Adverse Camber Productions presents Dreaming the Night Field: A Legend of Wales

Lemn Sissay - Something Dark Tuesday 14 November 7.30pm Tickets £15.50 Storyhouse Theatre

Tuesday 14 November | 7.30pm

Lemn Sissay returns to the Chester Literature Festival, this time performing a dramatic full stage reading of his award winning one-man play, Something Dark. Originally directed

by John McGrath (National Theatre of Wales) the play has been performed throughout the world and poetically tells the story of Lemn’s upbringing and his search for his family and true identity. The play will be followed by a Q&A, a chance to hear Lemn at his charismatic best.

Originally commissioned by Contact Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre

Tickets £15.50 Garret Theatre The ancient Celtic legend of The Mabinogion comes to the fore again (after the festival’s Petals and Claws activity) as honour, justice, magic and transformation collide in this spellbinding new storytelling and music performance.

Thrilling, funny, powerful and poetic, Dreaming the Night Field features one of Wales’ most engaging storytellers alongside exquisitely haunting live music. An intoxicating performance making ancient voices and landscapes come alive.

Experience a world that’s bristling with life and filled with animals, people and constellations, caught in stories of creation and destruction.

AGE GUIDANCE Suitable for ages 12+ Running time: 1 hour 50 mins, including a 20 minute interval

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LipService Mr Darcy Loses The Plot Wednesday 15 November | 7.30pm Tickets £20.50 Storyhouse Theatre Award-winning comedy duo LipService, makers of Withering Looks and Inspector Norse celebrate Jane Austen’s life 200 years on.

Molly Naylor (True Stories) Live True Stories Live Wednesday 15 November 8.30pm Tickets £5 Garret Theatre

True Stories Live is a lively, moving and unpredictable event where people tell true stories about their lives in front of a warm, supportive audience. There is no audition process and just a simple set of guidelines to bear in mind (See storyhouse.com/true-stories-live) . All you need is your own experience and a story to tell, inspired by the theme of Lost and Found. Speakers can come from a wide range of different backgrounds. If you perform regularly in another context, you’re welcome. If you haven’t been on a stage since that incident in primary school, you are also very welcome. And if sharing your story isn’t for you, come along and just listen as a member of our lovely audience.

If you are interested in speaking at the True Stories Live event, please send a short synopsis of your story to truestorieslive@gmail.com.

(Molly Naylor is leading a fun and FREE workshop on Tuesday 14 November at Storyhouse from 6 - 9pm for those who would like to tell a story and who need support in finding and shaping it. Please book a ticket to reserve your workshop place.)

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Jane Austen sits writing, her quill scurrying across the vellum. She is dreaming up Darcy a proud, lip curling, handsome creation in very tight pants. But then a door squeaks, a visitor approaches and Jane must abandon her work.

Now left to his own devices, Darcy embroiders his own storyline whilst his creator stitches her quilt. When Jane returns she finds the plot has moved on and Darcy is dancing to a very different tune.

LipService explore the world of women writers, squeezing in their writing amongst the domestic hustle and bustle of taking tea, choosing chintz and the odd attack of the vapours...

“The Laurel and Hardy of literary deconstruction” The Guardian

Pam Ayres on the Radio (BBC Radio 4 Extra Recording) Thursday 16 November | 7.30pm Tickets £8 Garret Theatre Join the inimitable Pam Ayres in conversation with Paul Blezard at this exclusive event that will be recorded for BBC Radio 4 Extra. Pam will delve into the BBC archives as she looks back over 40 years of her wonderful career, telling the stories behind the poems.

Storyhouse Book Club | Garret Bar Wednesday 15 November 7pm – 8pm The Storyhouse Book Club discusses Ali Smith’s Autumn. Everyone welcome, every month.

Chester Literature Festival

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Poetry Pub Crawl with Molly Naylor and Gavin Osborn

Ben Fogle

Kate Kirby

English: A Story of Marmite, Queuing and Weather

Hurrah For Gin

Thursday 16 November | 7.30pm

Thursday 16 November | 8.30pm

Tickets £20

Tickets £12.50

Meet at Storyhouse

Storyhouse Theatre

Back and as popular as ever, it’s the Chester Literature Festival Poetry Pub Crawl. Poet and performer Molly Naylor and songster Gavin Osborn will lead a select merry band around Chester’s fine establishments, ending up at our very own Garret Bar.

What makes the English English? Is it their eccentricity, their passionate love (or, indeed, hatred) of Marmite – or is it something less easily defined?

Friday 17 November | 8.30pm Tickets £12.50, price includes a G&T! Garret Theatre

With bitter-sweet song, moving poetry and barrels of laughter this is always a wonderful evening and is always very popular, so book early!

Come and meet the archetypal Englishman – lover of labradors and Land Rovers yet holder of two passports – who applauds all things quintessentially English while also paying tribute to the history, culture and ideas adopted with such gusto that they have become part of the fabric of the country.

Ben’s trademark warmth and wit will make this is a light-hearted yet touching tribute to all things English.

Clair Whitefield

Katie Kirby writes the immensely popular and hugely funny blog Hurrah For Gin. With her famous stick men drawings she has given a generation of frazzled parents an honest and hilarious account of the highs and lows of family life. Katie will talk about her blog and about her new book, The Daily Struggles of Archie Adams (Aged 2 ¼) and of course, there will be gin! Every ticket includes a free gin and tonic, with the gin kindly supplied by Sipsmiths.

Stephen McGann Flesh and Blood: A History of My Family in Seven Maladies

Chopping Chillies

Saturday 18 November | 2pm Friday 17 November | 6.45pm Tickets £12.50 Tickets £8 Storyhouse Theatre Cinema From Kerala to Camden, Chopping Chillies is an epic, mystical tale of love, loss and soul-food.

conjoins the spirit of India with the heart of Britain. Directed by Olivier Award-winner Guy Masterson.

A cobbler and a cook concoct a delicious transcontinental tale as tragedy and chance entwine. Katie dreams of curries and chapattis; Ajna, of holy souls and reincarnation...

A delightful, poetic, magical show that

“An extraordinary, humbling story of love, family, loss, new beginnings and unexpected friendships. FIVE STARS!” Edinburgh Guide, 2016

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Stephen McGann, Doctor Turner in the BBC hit-drama series Call the Midwife, comes to the festival to talk about his new book which delves into his family tree.

Flesh and Blood is the story of the McGann family as told through seven maladies that have afflicted Stephen’s relatives over the last century and a half, and which have helped mould him.

As he has said: “My family’s story is intimately related to the progress of this nation, because of the relationship between social history, public health and physical medical health.

Until the welfare state, my family subsisted.

After the welfare state, they thrived. I feel, in my family, the burden of the legacy of history very keenly”.

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Hollie McNish Artist in Residence

Hollie McNish - Plum Saturday 18 November 8pm Tickets £10 Garret Theatre

Friday 17 - Sunday 19 November Hollie McNish is so excited to be Artist in Residence at Storyhouse for the Literature Festival’s weekend.

As well as her Saturday night gig, she’ll be filling the building from top to toe with her poetry and thoughts for you to enjoy throughout the weekend.

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With Benjamin Zephaniah stating ‘I can’t take my ears off her’, Kate Tempest describing her poetry as ‘welcoming, galvanising and beautiful’ and fans ranging from Robin Ince, Pink, Tim Minchen and Marian Keyes to most of the UK’s midwives, Hollie McNish is a poet whose readings are not to be missed. She is an Arts Foundation Fellow in Spoken Word, has garnered over seven million YouTube views for her online poetry performances and was the first poet to record at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios.

Here, she will be joining us to perform poems, read from and chat honestly and openly from her new collection, Plum, as well as performing some favourites from previous books.

Plum is a new collection of poems which charts Hollie’s journey from childhood to attempted adulthood. Expect strong language as she talks about fruit and flesh, school discos, guilt, sex, politics, death, transformers and a lot of friendship.

Books will be available to purchase at the event. There will be a book signing afterwards.

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Jeremy Vine

Laura Barnett and Kathryn Williams

What I Learnt

Greatest Hits

Saturday 18 November | 7.30pm Tickets £12.50

Saturday 18 November | 2.30pm Storyhouse Theatre Tickets £8 Garret Theatre Laura Barnett, bestselling author of The Versions of Us, and Mercury-nominated singer Kathryn Williams come together to present a special cocktail of story and song.

Laura’s new novel, Greatest Hits, tells the story of an acclaimed but now reclusive singersongwriter with each chapter named after a song title.

In a unique collaboration, Kathryn breathed life into Laura’s fictional songs and turned them into an album that was released alongside the book. Listen to Laura talking about her novel and Kathryn singing the atmospheric songs created using Laura’s lyrics.

Martin Fitzgerald Ruth and Martin’s Album Club Saturday 18 November | 5.30pm

In the age of Brexit and Donald Trump, is the world now being run by Radio 2 listeners? If you listen to Radio 4, Brexit was a shock. If you are a Radio 2 listener it wouldn’t have surprised you at all.

Jeremy Vine has been presenting his BBC Radio 2 show since 2003 and calculates that he has taken more than 25,000 calls on topical subjects - both big issues and small ones: from life and love to lollipop ladies and poisonous plants. A memoir punctuated by vivid anecdotes, laugh-out-loud moments and tips learnt via Eggheads and Strictly Come Dancing, Jeremy Vine explains what it’s like to hit a button and hear - totally unvarnished and unspun - the voices of socalled ordinary people. And why they are not so ordinary after all.

Tickets £5 Garret Theatre This is an event for anyone who has ever tried to persuade a friend to listen to some music that will change their life. Martin Fitzgerald is the writer behind the blog Ruth and Martin’s Album Club and now a book which is a distillation of the blog.

The concept behind the Ruth and Martin’s Album Club blog is simple: make people listen to a classic album they’ve never heard before.

Make them listen to it twice more. Get them to explain why they never bothered with

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it before. Then ask them to review it. Ruth and Martin’s Album Club has featured some remarkable guests: Ian Rankin on Madonna’s Madonna. Chris Addison on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. JK Rowling on the Violent Femmes’ Violent Femmes. Bonnie Greer on The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Anita Rani on The Strokes’ Is This It. Richard Osman on Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure.

Martin will be in conversation with his BBC Radio Wales’s Adam Walton.

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New Voices Chester

Simon Savidge Blogging Workshop

Jane Harris Sugar Money in conversation with Simon Savidge

Lines of Retreat

Sunday 19 November | 1pm

Sunday 19 November | 1pm

Sunday 19 November | 5.30pm

Sunday 19 November | 8.30pm

Free

Tickets £10

Tickets £5

Tickets £8

Garret Theatre

Meeting Room

Garret Theatre

Garret Theatre

Storyhouse is proud to showcase local authors’ work and our New Voices event is a wonderful opportunity to come along and hear a group of authors speak about their latest publications.

Is writing a blog different to other writing?

Learn from someone who has built an audience and is one of the most respected literary bloggers in the country. Over 2 packed hours, Simon Savidge will share the experience he has gained from writing the popular blog, Savidge Reads.

A new novel by Jane Harris is well worth the wait. Her first novel, The Observations was nominated for the Orange Prize and her second, Gillespie And I, published four years later was another hit. Sugar Money is set to become as well loved as her previous works. Based on a little-known true story, Sugar Money is a heart-breaking trip into our troubled colonial past, and a stunning act of literary ventriloquism, as we follow two slave brothers sent on a dangerous mission from Martinique to Grenada to recover the fortytwo slaves their French master claims were stolen by English invaders.

A warm, intimate and unique event to wrap up the festival. For the days of the Chester Literature Festival, a group of artists including best-selling author Laura Barnett and singer Kathryn Williams have been holed up in a house, creating brand new songs and written works.

If you have a completed book to promote and sell, look online at storyhouse.com to see how to take part in this unique event.

Simon is the co-founder of The Green Carnation Prize (for LGBT writing) now in association with Foyles. In 2013 he also became one of the judges on the inaugural panel of The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize and he is judging the Costa Debut Novel for 2017.

Simon Savidge writes the influential blog Savidge Reads.

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This artistic retreat will put people together who wouldn’t normally collaborate to try out new ways of working. The only certainty is that they will come along and tell us about their experiences and perform the new works of poetry, prose or song that have emerged from this unique retreat.

Filled with brand new stories, brand new music and old fashioned smiles, this will absolutely be a night to remember.

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How to book Online: storyhouse.com By phone: 01244 409 113 In person: at Storyhouse Address: Hunter Street, Chester, CH1 2AR Company no 05541255 Charity no 1121007

Access: FREE Essential Companion tickets for those with a disability or access requirements.

Visit storyhouse.com/booking for more information

Mon - Sat 8am - 11pm Sun 9.30am - 11pm Bank holidays 9.30am - 11pm

Access Anyone who requires a companion – including guide dogs – to accompany them to events at Storyhouse can bring a personal assistant at no charge. See booking info above or book online by joining our Access Register.

To join the Access Register, please contact Allan Foy (01244 409 113 / allan.foy@storyhouse.com), who can also answer any queries, concerns or f eedback regarding your visit to Storyhouse.

The whole building is accessible via a lift, with wheelchair access to all areas.

Wheelchair spaces are available in the Theatre (at Stalls, Circle and Gallery levels), Studio and Cinema

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Assistance Dogs welcome Ramp access at ground floor levels The café and bar areas are on the ground floor, and are accessible with no stairs Accessible toilets are available on every floor with a Changing Place toilet on the ground floor Baby changing facilities are provided in all accessible toilets Low level counter at the café Portable induction loop Large format print available on request Disabled parking and drop-offs The nearest car park is Market which has 8 disabled spaces – 200 metres from nearest exit There is free on street parking /car park for blue badge holders on Hamilton Place and Goss Street (4 hours max) – c.300 metres away The best place for drop-offs is Northgate Street – 20 metres away

Eat

Drink

Whether it’s a freshly-made lunch, a delicious meal, a snack whilst you’re working or a drink to take into the cinema or theatre; Storyhouse has a wide range of eat-in and take away options.

Storyhouse’s bars – The Kitchen on the ground floor and the Garret Bar in the copper box – are open until 11pm every night.

The Kitchen is Chester’s newest and most exciting restaurant, serving fresh, vibrant food from the Levant. Food is served everyday from 8am until 9.30pm (except Sundays 9.30am - 9pm).

You can grab take-away fresh food and drink to enjoy in the cafe, library, cinema and theatre, and drinks bought in Storyhouse can be safely taken into both the theatre and cinema to enjoy during the event.

Chester Literature Festival

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12 – 19 November 2017

Key partners:

Funded by:

Sponsored by:

storyhouse.com/liteature @StoryhouseLive #ChesterLitFest

Principal Sponsor:

Festival bookseller :

Supported by:

Produced by