A Festival of Book Festivals.
Are you sitting comfortably?
The Literary / Book festival season is in full swing – and here you will find a festival of festivals. The most famous festival of all at Hay finished on Sunday 4 June. If you missed Hay, well, hey there, you can catch up by buying the Hay Player for £15 for a year. hayfestival.org/hayplayer
For me, the most interesting conversation of the week was the hour-long chat between former Foreign Secretary David Milliband and Cambridge Professors David Runciman and Helen Thompson about ‘The American Century” – encompassing the life of Henry Kissinger who was born on 27 May 1923 in Germany. To listen for free go to Runciman’s new podcast Past Present Future at: https://shows.acast.com/pastpresentfuture/episodes/6477435ea95f1f00112ceccc/
Other key Hay speakers / conversationalists included Margaret Atwood, Margaret Macmillan, Elif Shafak, Alastair Campbell, Yuval Noah Harari and Neil Gaiman.
It’s a crime
On 22 June I have a ticket to catch cosy crime best selling author Rev Richard Coles at the Winchester Book Festival in the Cathedral. This is an added event to this festival which took place in April. For 2024, go to: https://winchesterbooksfestival.com/
Of special interest to me is the Theakston Old Peculier for crime writing at 20-23 July. Held in Harrogate and curated by multi-award-winning crime novelist Vaseem Khan, this year the line-up includes Val McDermid, Lee Child, Lisa Jewell, Ann Cleeves and Jeffery Deaver. Attendees will see the crowning this year’s winner of the Crime Novel of the Year prize. harrogateinternationalfestivals.com
Note:This week I am in Whitstable with my co-author of Slim Chance and we are going through the manuscript for the very last time.
Cheltenham Literature Festival
From 6-15 October this year, Cheltenham is the longest-running festival of its kind in the world. A packed programme has more than 500 interviews, debates and workshops at venues across the city, from cafes and bars to barbershops and tattoo parlours. The cast list has not been announced yet but there is a “Literature for Schools” programme led by Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate. cheltenhamfestivals.com