The Oundle Festival of Literature runs a programme of all year round events aimed at exciting, informing, entertaining and educating a wide variety of people through talks, discussions and workshops by award-winning and local authors and poets. Kid Lit Week in March offers schools the chance to see their favourite authors and inspire their pupils.
Where? St. Peter's Church, Oundle, Northhamptonshire
When? Various, throughout the year.
Who? Sonia Purnell - Belinda Bauer - Simon Guerrier & Marek Kukula - Jane Hawking -
Sonia Purnell - Nov 18th, 2016 - Read More
Belinda Bauer -6th December, 2016 - Read More
Simon Gurrier & Marek Kukula - January, 2017
Jane Hawking - TBA
Festival Website: Oundle Festival of Literature
Twitter? @OundleLitFest
Festival Director? Helen Shair
Who has appeared at past festivals and events? Emma Bridgewater Prof Nicholas Orme Simon Toyne Prof Elleke Boehmer Prof Sir Michael Marmot Bee Rowlatt Alison Weir Tony Little Harry Mount Stephen Cooper Charles Spencer Stephen Bates Suzanne Fagence Cooper Prof Jules Pretty
Tickets available from the Oundle Box Office, 4 New Street, Oundle.
Open hours: 10.00am – 4.00pm Mon to Fri: Tel 01832 274734, online at www.oundlefestival.org.uk
Any queries call Helen on 07743988181 or email [email protected]
email: [email protected]
First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill
Friday 18th November, 7.45pm at St Peter’s Church, Oundle, PE8 4AL
Without Churchill’s inspiring leadership Britain could not have survived its darkest hour and repelled the Nazi menace. Without his wife Clementine, however, he might never have become Prime Minister. By his own admission, the Second World War would have been ‘impossible without her’.
Clementine was Winston’s emotional rock and his most trusted confidante; not only was she involved in some of the most crucial decisions of war, but she exerted an influence over her husband and the Government that would appear scandalous to modern eyes. Yet her ability to charm Britain’s allies and her humanitarian efforts on the Home Front earned her deep respect, both behind closed doors in Whitehall and among the population at large.
That Clementine should become Britain’s ‘First Lady’ was by no means pre-ordained. Born into impecunious aristocracy, her childhood was far from gilded. Her mother was a serial adulteress and gambler, who spent many years uprooting her children to escape the clutches of their erstwhile father, and by the time Clementine entered polite society she had become the target of cruel snobbery and rumours about her parentage.
In Winston, however, she discovered a partner as emotionally insecure as herself, and in his career she found her mission. Her dedication to his cause may have had tragic consequences for their children, but theirs was a marriage that changed the course of history.
Now, acclaimed biographer Sonia Purnell explores the peculiar dynamics of this fascinating union. From the personal and political upheavals of the Great War, through the Churchills’ ‘wilderness years’ in the 1930s, to Clementine’s desperate efforts to preserve her husband’s health during the struggle against Hitler, Sonia presents the inspiring but often ignored story of one of the most important women in modern history.
“Engrossing. . . Clementine Churchill became her husband’s essential confidante and adviser, vetting his speeches, smoothing over his faux pas, dealing with his constituents. . . Purnell’s book is the first formal biography of a woman who has heretofore been relegated to the sidelines.” –The New York Times
'Compellingly readable... the heroic saga of a warrior queen who wanted power but only got it by playing subtle diplomatic games as her husband's éminence grise during two world wars.' - The Independent
SONIA PURNELL started work at The Economist Intelligence Unit, edited a weekly financial magazine when only twenty-five, and then went on to a senior position on the Daily Telegraph's City pages before reporting on the EU from Brussels. On her return to London she assumed the position of Whitehall Correspondent, before moving to the Daily Mail, where she was Whitehall Editor. Her first book, Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition was a candid and widely acclaimed portrait of London Mayor Boris Johnson, informed by her time working alongside him in Brussels. Just Boris was long listed for the Orwell Prize. She now writes and broadcasts as a freelancer and lives in London with her husband and two sons.
Tickets £8 (£6), £1 off early bird tickets bought before 11th November, available from the Oundle Box Office, 4 New Street, Oundle.
Open hours: 10.00am – 4.00pm Mon to Fri: Tel 01832 274734, online at www.oundlefestival.org.uk
Any queries call Helen on 07743988181 or email [email protected]
Tuesday 6th December, 7.45 – 8.45pm, at St Peter’s Church, Oundle, PE8 4AL
Come and hear about the highly anticipated and extraordinary new crime novel from Belinda Bauer, twice winner of Crime Novelist of the Year. The Beautiful Dead is Belinda’s seventh book.
Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging and increasing pressures at home, she’ll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience. Her career is built on the bones of the dead; her one aim to secure that perfect shot of the body bag. And luckily for Eve, there is a serial killer at work in London…
The killer needs death too. He sees beauty in death and revels in watching his victims take their final breath. For the killer, the line between artist and executioner is irrevocably blurred. He even advertises his macabre public performances, inviting the public to see his ‘show’.
When he contacts Eve and offers her unpresented access to his plans, she welcomes the chance to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realizes that the killer has two obsessions.
One is public murder.
And the other one is her . . .
‘An intricate plot, extremely moving in some places - Bauer's ability to get under the skins of her characters is second to none’ – Guardian
‘One of the most individual of crime writers . . . Bauer is streets ahead of most of her rivals’ - Independent
Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing her debut, Blacklands which earned her the British Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger award for the best crime novel of 2010. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work in 2013. Her fourth novel Rubbernecker was voted 2014 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
Tickets £8 (£6), £1 off early bird tickets bought before 29th November, available from the Oundle Box Office, 4 New Street, Oundle.
Open hours: 10.00am – 4.00pm Mon to Fri: Tel 01832 274734, online at www.oundlefestival.org.uk
Any queries call Helen on 07743988181 or email [email protected]
If you are involved in this festival you can update or change details via the organisers page . Authors can list here.