Kentish Express Ashford & District - What's On
A LITERARY TREAT
Book in for some literary healing, as the Folkestone Book Festival unveils its programme for this autumn, featuring everything from humour to history and drama to discovery. Angela Cole flicks through what’s on the way
Organisers of this year’s Folkestone Book Festival hope their line-up this year will beat the winter blues and concentrate on the positive. The festival in November, a highlight of the literary calendar in the county, invites people to come and listen to those who believe in the possibility of change and beating the odds.
In the packed programme, which runs from Friday, November 17 to Sunday, November 26, politics mixes with wellbeing and gripping drama sits alongside history and cookery. Curator Geraldine D’amico said: “Come and meet old friends, make new ones, engage in thoughtprovoking discussions, open a parenthesis in your everyday life to look at things from a different perspective.
“This is a tailor-made festival for the great people of a town which keeps reinventing itself and celebrating creativity.”
Broadcaster and author Peter Snow and his wife, Ann Macmillan, who worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and is the granddaughter of David Lloyd George, will be talking about War Stories: Gripping tales of courage, cunning and compassion On Saturday, November 18.
Also that day comedian and writer Francesca Martinez, who has mild cerebral palsy, will be discussing What The *** Is Normal?! and journalist and political columnist Steve Richards will be back to discuss the rise and rise of political outsiders.
Recently announced leader of the Liberal Democrats, and former UK business secretary Vince Cable talks about his debut novel Open Arms, a gripping international political drama set in Whitehall and the slums of Mumbai. He will be in conversation on Sunday, November 19 at 3pm. On Wednesday, November 22, Sandra Howard, Baroness of Lympne and former 60s model and wife of former Folkestone and Hythe MP and Home Secretary Michael Howard, will be discussing her sixth novel, The Consequences of Love, which is published in September. Juno Dawson, author of six novels for young adults, will be talking about her adult memoir, The Gender Games, in The problem with men and women, from someone who has been both, on Saturday, November 25 at 1.30pm.
Comedian and writer Miles Jupp and food writer Damien Trench will be in conversation with Andy Miller about their careers and what they have – or haven’t – in common on Saturday, November 25 at 7.30pm. There are also political talks, workshops, children’s events, such as Let’s go on a big adventure on Saturday, November 25 and discussions on wellbeing, gardening, cookery and therapy. On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, there will also be a day devoted to Russian history and literature.
This includes former Chatham Grammar School for Girls pupil Helen Rappaport, who is a passionate Victorianist and Russianist, and author of 14 books, will be evoke the contrasting world of the end of the Romanov dynasty and the beginning of the revolution.
‘Come and meet old friends, make new ones, engage in thought-provoking discussions, open a parenthesis in your everyday life to look at things from a different perspective.’