Book festival returns with impressive line-up for its 25th anniversary
BIG NAMES ARE COMING TO ESSEX
THE Essex Book Festival is celebrating its 25th edition this year and tickets are now on sale for this fantastic, month-long line-up of authors and events coming to the county throughout June.
It starts in style with a visit from best-selling writer Lionel Shriver who comes to Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford on Friday, May 31 to discuss her new book, Mania. Set in a near future in which the policing of our intellectual discourse and opinions is the norm, Mania examines the dangerous paths culture wars can take us down and how these can affect us on personal level.
The following day, Saturday, June 1, sees the festival’s big launch event, an inclusive occasion which everyone is invited to. This Land is a day of talks, performances, debates, walks and workshops to mark the 25th edition of the festival and the 60th anniversary of the University of Essex.
The big day kicks off with the Radical Essex Procession at 10am from St-Leonard-at-the-Hythe Church, Hythe Hill, Colchester. The procession will go from the church, a key location in the Siege of Colchester in 1648, to the University of Essex in Wivenhoe Park, a place famous for its radical innovation since the 1960s.
The procession will include 500 pennants created as part of the Beach Of Dreams 2021 project, a 500-mile journey that highlighted the hidden gems of the east coast. This event will also mark the launch of Beach Of Dreams 2025, an invitation to walk the coastline of the UK and Ireland in a spirit of collective reflection and climate change action. The guided walk is free so get there a bit before 10 and join the procession.
Once you’re at the University of Essex, there’s a wealth of events based around the theme of This Land taking place during the day including a variety of writing workshops as well as a special opportunity to learn how to make ink from oak galls, and try your hand at calligraphy, printing and book-making techniques.
There are also two exhibitions at the University of Essex, Charters and Radicals looking at Essex’s radical communities and traditions, and Women Life Freedom, a celebration of the women who have resisted the oppressive Iranian regime which also includes performance, video and discussion.
At 4.30pm, at the Essex Business School on campus, there’s a very special launch day event as author, festival patron and university chancellor Sarah Perry discusses her much-anticipated new book, Enlightenment. An intricately crafted exploration of love, religion and the supernatural, it’s about two friends who become obsessed with the ghost of a mysterious 19th century astronomer.
The festival continues throughout June with events in all corners of Essex featuring an incredible range of authors, including Bridget Collins, John Crace, Alan Johnson, AK
Blakemore, Syd Moore, Marion Gibson and Simon Heffer.
There are a series of themed days at the festival too, including Restless Brilliance at the Hylands Estate, Chelmsford, on Sunday, June 16, a partner event to the JA Baker exhibition at Chelmsford Museum (see opposite page) which celebrates writing, nature and wildlife with Mark Cocker, Helen Pilcher and Joanna Glenn.
Look out too for the Midsummer Madness Family Fun Day at Cressing Temple Barns on Saturday, June 23, from noon to 4pm, featuring workshops, storytelling, eco-crafts and a whole host of family-friendly activities.
There’s also the regular crimewriting celebration with the Criminally Good Day in Harwich on Saturday, June 29, which features Nicci French among others, and the History Books at Layer Marney Tower on Sunday, June 30, which looks at writing that brings the past to life.
There are far too many events to list here but you can find all you need to know in the festival brochure, available from Essex libraries now, and at www.essexbookfestival. org.uk where there are also details of how to book tickets.