Get yourself booked for Boswell Festival
The Boswell Book Festival has announced a bumper programme packed with big names.
Highlights will include charasmatic star Nigel Havers talking about his life and Kirsty Wark interviewing Vogue editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman.
Don’t miss Alex Norton, of Taggart, on a life which has taken him from the Gorbals to Hollywood.
And there will be the Royal Drawing School with art classes for young and old alike.
Festival director Caroline Knox said: “No wonder this is our biggest ever festival spread over six venues at beautiful Dumfries House including a newly added marquee and the Great Steward’s Dining Room.
The rich choice on offer reflects our pride at being the world’s only festival of biography and memoir inspired by the father of modern biography and proud Ayrshireman, James Boswell.”
Centenaries will be a major theme of the event with talks on the Russian Revolution, Dumfries House 10th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of Laura Ingalls Wilder who created the bestselling Little House on the Prairie books.
Best selling author Simon Sebag Montefiore will tell the intimate story of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. Country house authority Jeremy Musson will discuss Robert Adam’s early classic masterpieces including Dumfries House to celebrate the mansion’s 10th anniversary since it was rescued by Prince Charles.
He will illustrate his talk using superb photography from his new book, Robert Adam: Country House Design, Decoration and the Art of Elegance.
The 150th anniversary of the birth of the pioneer girl Laura Ingalls Wilder will be marked with illustrated panels on show at the Children’s Festival.
Other stars of the literary show will include politician and author Alan Johnson, Private Eye’s Richard Ingrams and statesman Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
George Dunne and Dave Fellows, two veteran survivors from WW2 Bomber Command will tell their war time experiences.
Award winning Philippe Sands, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non- fiction recounts his deeply moving work East West Street on the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity
And journalist Bella Bathurst whose account of gradually becoming deaf for 10 years – and then hearing again – will recount the challenges of a soundless world.
The fesival will take place from May 12 to 14 at Dumfries House.
For more details, visit www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk or telephone: 01563 554900.