14 hot tickets for Cardiff Book Festival 2018
The third Cardiff Book Festival returns next weekend and there are plenty of highlights, including crime, sport and celebrations of women and working class writers. Here are our picks...
Britain’s most trusted Beauty writer Sali Hughes is back home in Wales to headline Friday night. In conversation with the Guardian’s Jude Rogers, Sali will be looking at what’s hype and what’s holy in the beauty industry, and those iconic products that we all love. She’ll also be talking about her project Beauty Banks, set up to tackle hygiene poverty.
■ (Tiger Bay stage, 8pm, Friday, September 7)
2. Adventurer Will Millard on his new memoir
The star of the BBC’s My Year with the Tribe talks about how fishing helped him overcome post-traumatic stress disorder and brought him back from mental health struggles after a series of expeditions that nearly cost him his life.
■ (Tiger Bay stage, 6.45pm, Saturday, September 8)
3. Dealing with dementia
Robyn Hollingworth on her hilarious and heartbreaking account of looking after her dad once his dementia diagnosis meant a move from London back to Pontypool to care for him. ■ (Tiger Bay stage, 4pm, Sunday, September 9)
4. From Russia with Love
Lifting the lid on the good, the bad and the ugly side of being a foreign correspondent with the BBC’s former Russia Correspondent Angus Roxburgh and writer and broadcaster Trevor Fishlock.
■ (Tiger Bay stage, 1.30pm, Sunday, September 9)
5. Taking the political temperature
It’s a cliche to say a week is a long time in politics but it’s never been more true than it is now. Try to make sense of it all with Roger Awan-Scully whose book asks if it’s The End for British Party Politics and Steve Howell, the man on the inside of Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 election campaign, with his book Game Changer- Eight Weeks That Transformed British Politics.
■ (Tiger Bay stage, 11.15am, Saturday, September 8)
6. Something for the kids
There’s plenty to keep younger readers entertained. From creating your own comic with illustrator Huw Aaron (Splott Stage,
9.30am, Saturday 8th September 2018), to Eloise Williams’ new book Seaglass (Cathays Stage, 10.15am, Saturday 8th September 2018), a salty, windswept ghost story about friendship and family. And better known for his award-winning fiction for grown ups, Cynan Jones will be talking about his new book for 8 -12 year olds, Three Tales
■ (Splott Stage, 11.30am, Saturday , September 8)
7. The end of the world as we know it?
Ever find yourself wondering if you’re watching the news or scenes from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale? And has our addiction to the internet and social media gone too far? Join Man Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Water Cure, Sophie Mackintosh and Dan Tyte, author of The Offline Project, for an hour of deliciously dark dystopian discussion.
■ (Splott Stage, 7pm, Saturday, September 8)
8. Does class matter when it comes to the publishing industry?
Are enough working class writers being published? Yomi Adegoke, coauthor of the new inspirational black girl bible Slay in your Lane, writer and academic Lisa Blower, and Grits and Sheepshagger author Niall Griffiths tackle this question head on
■ (Splott Stage, 4.30pm, Saturday, September 8)
* And closing the festival on Sunday, Welsh writers including Ben Gwalchmai and Durre Shahwar talk about Know Your Place, an anthology of writing examining class, homophobia, locality, race, and Welsh working class identities
■ (Splott Stage, 6.15pm, Sunday, September 9)
9. Cooking up a storm with the Avant Garde Vegan
In need of vegan-spiration or some va-va-voom for your vegan rec- ipe ideas? Then let Avant Garde Vegan, world famous Cardiff-born and trained chef Gaz Oakley and Sarah Philpott, the author of the cookbook The Occasional Vegan inspire you!
(Tiger Bay stage, 8pm, Saturday, September 8)
10. Super-sleuth Saturday at the festival
If solving mysteries is your thing, international best-selling author Christopher Brookmyre teams up with his wife Dr. Marisa Haetzman for The Royal Literary Fund Talk, to discuss their new novel The Way of All Flesh, the first in a series that introduces a new duo of investigators, set in 19th Century Edinburgh.
(Tiger Bay stage, 1.45pm, Saturday, September 8)
And Welsh authors B.E Jones and Sunday Times best-seller Amy Lloyd will be asking if we’re entering a new golden age of crime- writing
(Tiger Bay stage, 12.30pm, Saturday, September 8)
11. Women who changed the world
In the year that celebrates the 100th anniversary of women gaining the vote, biographers Lyndall Gordon and Angela V. John discuss their books championing the women who made a difference in an event sponsored by Chwarae Teg. Discussing Gordon’s book about five women writers who changed the world of literature, including greats like Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf, and John’s book on the wonderful Welsh women who changed society for the better.
■ (Tiger Bay stage, 3pm, Saturday, September 8)
There’s also a special Read Women panel where rare-book dealer and The New Yorker writer A.N Devers and writer and Bristol Women’s Literature Festival founder Sian Norris uncover the fantastic female literary voices lost to history, until now.
■ (Tiger Bay stage, 10am, Saturday , September 8)
12. Brexit Brainstorming with Will
Hutton
20 years since on from The State We’re In, his analysis of what was wrong with British society and how to fix it, Will Hutton is back to tackle Brexit. He’ll be discussing his new book Saving Britain with ITV Wales’ Brexit Correspondent Carole Green. ■ (Tiger Bay stage, 5.30pm, Saturday, September 8)
13. Fantastic Fiction. Meet best-selling author Nikesh Shukla
The engine behind the gigantic success of the award winning anthology The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla discusses his latest novel with BBC Wales’ Steve Duffy. The One Who Wrote Destiny, is a big-hearted, charming carousel of a novel about three generations of the same family, riven by feuds and falling-outs, united by fates and fortunes.
(Tiger Bay stage, 2.45pm, Sunday, September 9)
14. Calling all budding writers!
Finally, if you harbour desires to write your own book then there are authors, agents, publishers and editors on hand with advice.
Cardiff-born literary agent Cathryn Summerhayes from Curtis Brown will be hosting a pitching session (Splott Stage, 6.15pm, Friday, September 7), where aspiring writers can pitch their future bestsellers over Twitter and in person.
There are writing classes with bestselling author Holly Müller (Tiger Bay Stage, 11am, Friday, September 7) and book-blogger Rachel Carney (Cathays Stage, 11.30am, Saturday, September 8), and specialist industry knowledge from Richard Skinner, the Head Tutor of the Faber Academy (Splott Stage, 3.45pm, Sunday, September 9) and publishing advice from Accent Press’ Hazel Cushion
■ (Tiger Bay Stage, 12.15pm, Friday, September 7)
Cardiff Book Festival takes place from Friday, September 7, until Sunday, September 9, at Jurys Inn, Park Place, Cardiff.