Henley Literary Festival goes online this autumn
Speakers on fiction, sport, entertainment, politics and history, plus two F1 legends
GRAHAM Norton, Joanna Trollope, Damon Hill, Nadiya Hussain and Michael Morpurgo are among the speakers announced for September-October’s Henley Literary Festival.
I know book club members in my neck of the woods – from Goring, Streatley, Basildon and thereabouts – enjoy heading up to the town each year, but this autumn it is going online and with more than 40 events for adults and children covering fiction, sport, entertainment, politics, history it should reach a wider audience, delivered right to wherever you are.
From September 26 to October 4, there will be between three and five events every day, with speakers also including Countdown star Susie Dent and former England rugby international James Haskell.
The writers behind several of 2020’s most-talked-about books will be appearing, including I Am Not Your Baby Mother author Candice Brathwaite, Sunday Times foreign correspondent Christina Lamb with Our Bodies Their Battlefield, Rainbow Milk debut novelist Paul Mendez and Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’s Florence Given.
Free events for children include Rob Biddulph with his record-breaking lockdown sensation Draw With Rob, David Baddiel and a Judith Kerr storytelling with Laura and Russell Brand, as well as schools events with Chris Riddell, Leila Rasheed and Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell. History talks include Andrew Marr, Greg Jenner, Kavita Puri and Peter
Snow, columnists include Daniel Finkelstein, Polly Toynbee, Craig Brown and Bryony Gordon, while from the world of entertainment there is Oscar-winning songwriter Don Black, Fern Britton and Jeremy Vine. Also on the line-up are Giovana Fletcher, Cloud Atlas novelist David Mitchell, National Poetry Day Ambassador Nikita Gill, fashion expert Erica Davies and The Salt Path author Raynor Winn.
In addition there will be pop-up events before and after, starting with Nadiya Hussain on September 3 and international bestsellers Lynda La Plante and Jodi Picoult, former US Ambassador Kim Darroch, Kate Humble and F1 legends Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert.
The full line-up of events and booking information can be found at henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk or by calling (01491) 575948.