2016 Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival Line-Up

Following David “Bumble” Lloyd’s popular event at last year’s festival, first-class retired cricketer Mike Brearley OBE will make an appearance, as will award-winning foreign correspondent Luke Harding and barrister and former Liberty director, Shami Chakrabati.

As well as the critically acclaimed authors’ events, this year’s festival will include all the usual activities, such as the marquee on the green, where attendees get a rare chance to have their books signed by the authors after their events. There will also be a wide selection of refreshments and live music throughout the four-day festival and a special Roald Dahl tent filled with fun activities to keep children entertained.

Now moving into its eighth year, the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival continues to grow and consistently attracts big names from the literary world and attendees from across the globe. Festival Chairman Malcolm Elliott said “It is very satisfying to see another year brimming with fantastic talent from such a broad spectrum of different interests and disciplines. Every year we look forward to welcoming the buzz that the festival brings to our seaside town and I am sure that with this line-up 2016’s festival will be no exception.”

Dame Hilary Mantel DBE, Honorary Festival President, said : “One of the wonders of our festival is that it’s walkable; our guests can shuttle between venues in minutes, our visitors crowd into our shops and cafes and, though it’s late in the summer season, the town takes on a holiday air. We keep it small, we keep it local, but it’s the opposite of parochial; no festival is more ambitious in reaching through time and space. 

 
“This year we will meet Victorian child murderers, Russian revolutionaries, great cricketers and a Scottish Makar. We will have a ringside seat at Downing Street debacles. We will create poetry, ponder the meaning of liberty and follow the footsteps of forgotten explorers.”

The programme for 2016 includes:
The opening event for the 8th annual festival will welcome historian Helen Rappaport who will be in discussion about her most recent release Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917 which tells the story of the first year of the Russian Revolution through eye-witness accounts.

At lunchtime, Britain’s most famous Mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy OBE will discuss his most recent release What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge which takes readers on a thought-provoking expedition to the furthest boundaries of modern science.

Returning to the festival for another year, will be double Man Booker Prize winner, author of Wolf Hall and the festival’s long-standing Honorary President, Dame Hilary Mantel DBE. Hilary will be performing a reading of her short story In a Right State, followed by a conversation about writing short stories.

Later on, investigative journalist Tom Bower will dissect one of the 21st century’s most divisive politicians, Tony Blair. Whilst in discussion with the Observer’s Rachel Cooke, Bower will discuss his biography of Blair Broken Vows: Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power, tracing Blair’s career to date from an historic election to post Iraq-war demise. 
The festival’s first day will round off with bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Deborah Moggach, who will be in discussion about her most recent novel, Something to Hide, a witty and wise novel about the unexpected twists that later life can bring.

Friday will welcome Devon-based author and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Jenny Balfour-Paul who will deliver a visually rich and inspiring talk around her book Deeper than Indigo which traces the journey of forgotten Victorian explorer, Thomas Machell from his ancestral home in England to the Middle East and Asia. 

Cultural historian and writer Alexandra Harris will be in discussion about her latest book Weatherland: Writers & Artists Under English Skies in which she turns her attention to the weather playing the inspiring role it’s played in our art and literature. 

On Friday afternoon Juliet Nicolson, granddaughter of the infamous diplomat Harold Nicolson and poet Vita Sackville-West, will be in conversation with Rachel Cooke about her family memoir A House Full of Daughters which traces 200 years and seven intriguing generations of her family tree. 
Following Nicolson will be esteemed first-class retired cricketer Mike Brearley OBE, who will be in conversation about the 30th anniversary re-release of his seminal treatise on leadership and motivation, The Art of Captaincy: What Sport Teaches Us About Leadership.

An analysis of another well-known British politician will take place towards the end of the festival’s second day with historian and BBC journalist Peter Snowdon. Snowdon will be offering his critique of the first five years of Cameron’s premiership, Cameron at 10: The Inside Story 2010-2015 and his thoughts on the EU referendum.

Rounding off the Friday line-up and returning to the festival for her second visit is Scotland’s poet laureate and author of Red Dust Road, Trumpet, Fiere and The Adoption Papers, the multi-award winning Jackie Kay MBE. In a special evening event at the atmospheric St Peter’s Church, Kay will discuss and read her work with Observer writer Rachel Cooke.

Appearing on the Saturday morning will be bestselling social historian and author Just my Type, To the Letter and On the Map, Simon Garfield. He will be in discussion about A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt, a collection of brilliant and incredible funny diaries kept by a kept by a Buckinghamshire bookseller between 1910 to 1986.

Following Garfield will be Harry Parker & Peter Hannington in the festival’s ‘New Voices’ event, where they will discuss their experiences of combat, conflict and the aftermath of war in their acclaimed debut novels; Anatomy of a Solider and A Dying Breed.

Saturday afternoon will welcome, award-winning foreign affairs correspondent Luke Harding and barrister and former director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabati. Chakrabati will discuss her book On Liberty which details her time at the helm of the charity and draws on her campaigning experience to argue that our civil liberties aren’t disposable – but in fact matter more than ever. Harding will give a talk on his excellent and timely new book, A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litivenko and Russia’s War with the West.

Former journalist and editor Kate Summerscale (right) will be in conversation with Erica Wagner about her latest book The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer which traces the shocking story of two young brothers who became an overnight sensation when they were found to have murdered their moth

er.
Closing the penultimate day will be multi award winning novelist and author of the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon, who will be in discussionabout The Pier Falls, a collection of short stories demonstrating Haddon’s sinister imagination. 

On the fourth and final day of the festival, Helen Pearson will introduce her book, The Life Project, which documents the world’s longest-running study of human development, running from 1946 and encompassing five generations of children. Respected British Philosopher A.C. Grayling will join the Sunday line-up to discuss his latest release, The Age of Genius, which examines scientific developments throughout the 17th Century where intellectual thought moved from observation to evidence-based investigation.

Sunday will also welcome critically acclaimed author Artemis Cooper presenting her biography of novelist, actress and model, the late Elizabeth Jane Howard. Cooper will be in discussion about Howard’s colourful life on and off the page with Honorary Festival President Hilary Mantel, a good friend and admirer of Howard’s work.
Throughout the festival there will also be also be two workshops including Prose Fiction: Keeping it Real with Devon-based award winning author Virginia Baily and Poetry Workshop: Let your imagination flow with Professor Andy Brown, lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. These will take place on the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. 

Tickets for Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival will be available from 25th July.  For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.budlitfest.org.uk . Tickets can be booked in person or by phone from The Tourist Information Centre: 01395 445 275. 
Follow the festival on Twitter @BudleighLitFest.