The festival once known as Cambridge Winter Wordfest and the seasonal sister of the spring event Cambridge Literary Festival (formely Cambridge Wordfest) held in April.
The original Cambridge Wordfest was conceived and launched in 2003 by Cathy Moore with support from Cambridgeshire County Council and a small but dedicated band of friends and volunteers.
When? November 30th, 2014
Where? Cambridge at the historic ADC Theatre and the University's McCrum and Babbage lecture theatresWho?
Festival Website: www.cambridgewordfest.co.uk
Social Media? @camlitfest
2013 -Novelists Ali Smith ( pictured) Margaret Drabble, Lionel Shriver, Jonathan Coe and Sarah Dunant; explorer Ranulph Fiennes; historians David Reynolds and Peter Stanford; politician and writer Douglas Hurd; this year’s Orwell Prize winner A.T. Williams; UK Sports Writer of the Year David Walsh; memoirist Damian Barr; film critic Barry Norman; Downton Abbey experts Jessica Fellowes and Liz Trubridge; chroniclers of the roaring ‘20s Sarah Churchwell and Judith Mackrell; Melissa Bennand Alison Wolf discussing the resurgence of feminism; and John Sutherland helping us all to feel well read. Plus, theres a special pre-festival event with legendary novelist Donna Tartt.
2012- Taking place in the ADC Theatre and the historic Cambridge Union, the festival will play host to a conversation between bestselling authors Kate Mosse and Joanne Harris, an hour in the company of one of our most innovative performance poets John Hegley, and the latest work from Orange Prize-winner Rose Tremain (left).
The politics of the day will be addressed in an intergenerational exchange between Tony and Melissa Benn, a session with BBC political editor Nick Robinson and an event with former Home and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The festival will also focus on economics, with commentary from Conservative politician and former editor of the Times Literary Supplement Ferdinand Mount, a collaboration between Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky and his son Edward, and a panel on banking and finance.
If that wasn’t enough, there’ll be appearances by restauranter and food writer, Antonio Carluccio, Newsnight’s Gavin Esler, former science editor of The Times Mark Henderson and deputy chair of the Labour Party Tom Watson and Journalist of the Year 2009 Martin Hickman with their News Corporation exposé, Dial M for Murdoch.
In 2011- Claire Tomalin with her major new biography of Charles Dickens published for the 200th anniversary of his birth; Ali Smith returns with her inventive and moving new novel There but for the; Peter Popham joins us to talk about his vividly written portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi, the international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression; and Diana Athill discusses her life and work and her latest publication Instead of a Book.
In 2010 - Creator of Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin (left), with a new Tale set in Barbery Lane, San Francisco. Armistead is in the UK for the first time in four years to promote his latest novel Mary Ann in Autumn.
Jeanette Winterson in this 25th Anniversary year of the publication of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Award-winning biographer Hilary Spurling on the Nobel prize-winning novelist and author of The Good Earth,Pearl Buck.
Intense and acclaimed actor, director, writer and playwright, Steven Berkoff will be discussing his remarkable memoir, Diary of a Juvenile Delinquent.
Best-selling author Kate Mosse (Labyrinth, Sepulchre) pays her first visit to Cambridge Wordfest to talk about her latest novel Winter Ghosts, a haunting ghost story set in France in 1928.
Journalist, best-selling novelist and Cambridge resident Allison Pearson will discuss her much awaited second novel I Think I Love You. Allison will be in conversation with Natasha Walter about adolescent love, David Cassidy and teenage girls.
A reading by the five shortlisted authors for the BBC National Short Story Award. The award which is celebrating its 5th year is due to be announced the day after the readings.
If you are involved in this festival you can update or change details via the organisers page . Authors can list here.