Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Big literary names coming to festival
Kent’s crown as the Garden of England and the work of worldfamous writer and gardener Vita Sackville-west will be celebrated at the fourth Whitlit festival this year.
In keeping with its greenfingered theme, this year’s festival has a new venue at Whitstable Castle and gardens for its run from Tuesday, May 9, to Sunday, May 14.
Top names appearing at the festival include The Woman in Black author Susan Hill, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin author Louis de Bernieres, co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party Catherine Mayer, and Booker prize shortlisters Michele Roberts and Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Biographer Victoria Glendinning will be discussing the life of Vita Sackville-west, while the current Lord SackvilleWest, Robert, the heir to Knole House, where Vita was brought up, will be discussing the history of the great property in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Vanessa Nicolson, Vita’s granddaughter, will be returning to discuss her latest book, while the head gardener of Vita’s garden at Sissinghurst, Troy Scott Smith, will be making his first literary festival appearance, talking to national garden columnist Francine Raymond.
Other “green” events include talks on parks, gardens and Kent marshes, and a free book debate on Vita Sackville-west’s novel All Passion Spent, chaired by Val Hennessy.
Actor-turned-author John Gordon Sinclair will be talking about his latest book, and Whitstable’s Emma Slade/ Anipemadeki will tell how she went from being a banker to a Buddhist nun in Bhutan. Local crime writers Simon Booker, M.J. Mcgrath and John Tagholm will be discussing how to write the perfect thriller, while Kent poets Nancy Charley, Maggie Butt and Fiona Sinclair will present an evening of poetry.
Festival director Victoria Falconer said: “We want to keep Whitlit fresh and interesting, so are excited about our new venue at Whitstable Castle and hope that our garden theme will be of interest to our green-fingered town.”
For tickets visit whitlit.co.uk