Burnham Market Book Festival

This book festival is the brain-child of  two Norfolk residents: Kate Bennett, an ex-solicitor “I switched career to pursue my dream of running a book-shop for ‘real’ book lovers” and Rosalind English, who writes weighty legal tomes but who also loves great British literature. 

The inaugural 2009 festival featured Kate Adie, AC Grayling, Jenny Agutter, Richard Mabey and was apparently a run-away success so much so that the organisers have now commited to running the event annually.

What?  A weekend feast of literary superlatives in an intimate atmosphere.

2010 will discuss subjects as diverse as Antarctic exploration, military strategy in Afghanistan, piracy, and war-time thrift in the kitchen, alongside Christianity and psychological thriller writing.. 

What Makes the Festival Unique?  Top-name authors combined with the stunning beauty of this coastal area.

Who? In 2010 - Simon Jenkins, Sara Wheeler, Nicci French,General Sir Richard Dannatt, Ben Macintyre and Jane Fearnley Whittingstall.  Interviewers include Erica Wagner, literary editor of The Times and Francine Stock, radio and TV presenter (left) 

When is it?  1st-3rd October 2010

Where?  Burnham Market, North West Norfolk.

Held in the The Hoste Arms in Burnham Market.  A favourite haunt of well known writers, playwrights, poets and leading commentators.

How much?  £10, or reduced rates with annual membership

Festival Website:  www.whitehousebooks.co.uk  

Telephone for Enquiries?   01328 730 270

Previous festivals:  First event in 2009 – now an annual event

2010 Draft Programme (check offical site for final details nearer festiva date)

Friday 1st October

6:30 pm Festival Opening at the Hoste Arms with drinks and canapes

Event 1: 7:00 – 8:00 pm

Times Columnist Ben MacIntyre, author of Agent Zigzag, talks to military historian Allan Mallinson about his latest book Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II, a thrilling account of the greatest and most successful wartime deception ever attempted.

Saturday  2nd October

Event 2: 10:30 – 11:30 am     

Travel writer Sara Wheeler talks to Erica Wagner about her explorations in some of the most inhospitable regions in the world – Antartica, Lapland and the Arctic, which she has chronicled in her latest book Magnetic North.

Event 3: 12:00 – 1:00pm

Chairman of the National Trust Simon Jenkins talks to Francine Stock about new ways of presenting Country Houses, drawn from his current role as Chairman of the National Trust and the research behind his compendious work England's Thousand Best Houses.

Event 4: 2:00 – 3:00 pm

Adrian Tinniswood, historian and educationalist, has written widely on social and architectural history and his latest, Barbary Pirates, is an extraordinary record of the European renegades and Islamic sea-rovers who terrorised the Mediterranean and beyond throughout the seventeenth century.

Event 5: 3:30 – 4:30 pm

Best selling crime fiction writer Sophie Hannah and the husband and wife writing team Nicci French, authors of a series of highly successful psychological thrillers, lay bare some of the mysteries of thriller writing with Francine Stock

Event 6: 5:00 – 6:00pm

Blake Morrison, poet and author of the bestselling memoir And When Did You Last See Your Father? talks to Erica Wagner about his latest novel The Last Weekend, a sinister tale of friendship and betrayal set on the East Anglian coast

Event 7: 6:30 – 7:30pm

Oxford Professor of Church History Diarmaid MacCulloch talks about his monumental work A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, which was adapted for a highly acclaimed BBC television series broadcast in 2009 and 2010

Sunday 3rd October

Event 8: 10:30 – 11:30 am     

Jane Fearnley Whittingstall was born as WWII broke out, experiencing rationing first hand, but remembers eating delicious food conjured from limited ingredients together with what could be grown in the garden or gathered in field and hedgerow. She discusses her latest book The Ministry of Food with Henrietta Bredin

Event 9: 12:00 – 1:00 pm       

General Sir Richard Dannatt, former Chief of General Staff, talks to Allan Mallinson about his fascinating reflection on a life of military service Leading from the Front, offering amongst other things his characteristically frank analysis of whether Britain’s defence strategy is fit to respond to the threats we will face in the 21st century.

Event 10: 2:00 – 3:00 pm

Rachel Polonsky, author of Molotov’s Magic Lantern, talks to David Hart about the challenges of encapturing the Russian landscape and history, and the fallout that followed in the Orlando Figes affair

Event 11: 3:30 – 4:30 pm

Words and music: Two Norfolk musical stars: Kit Hesketh-Harvey, writer and performer with the musical comedy act Kit and the Widow,  and opera translator and librettist Amanda Holden, author of The Penguin Guide to Opera, discuss the intricate business of fitting words to notes. Chairing the panel is opera journalist Henrietta Bredin.

A note about the Interviewers

Erica Wagner is an American author and critic, living in London. She is the literary editor of The Times and author of several books, including a collection of short stories, Gravity, and Ariel’s Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday Letters. Her latest work is the novel Seizure. She also reviews regularly for The New York Times.

Henrietta Bredin writes on opera and theatre for the Spectator, on assorted subjects for The Lady, and is herself author of two children’s books. She worked at English National Opera for ten years, editing programme guides and co-founding the Contemporary Opera Studio.

Francine Stock  is a radio and TV presenter and novelist She was one of the original presenters of BBC Radio 4's flagship arts programmes, Front Row. Francine regularly interviews and chairs panels at the Hay Festival.

Allan Mallinson is a former officer in the British Army. He is best known for writing a series of novels chronicling the (fictional) life of Matthew Hervey, an officer serving in the (fictional) British 6th Light Dragoons from the late Napoleonic Wars through subsequent colonial conflicts in India, North America and South Africa.