INFORMATION. Ticket Prices. Booking. The Fiction Festival is grateful for support from. Raffle Prize

Transcription

1 Programme

2 INFORMATION All events take place at The Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King s Lynn PE30 5DQ The Fiction Festival presents some of the best contemporary writers in a congenial and informal setting. The authors read and discuss their work and will be available to chat and sign your purchases from the festival s well-stocked book stall. You are welcome to join them and the festival organisers for lunch at restaurants near the festival venue - details given at the morning events. Ticket Prices All events 8.50 Bargain Season Ticket Concessions for students Booking By post with stamped addressed envelope to Hawkins Ryan Solicitors 19 Tuesday Market Place King s Lynn PE30 1JW By telephone (office hours) In person at the above address, by website or at the door on the day Please make cheques payable to The Fiction Festival Raffle Prize The festival closes with the raffle draw for our unique prize - a book handwritten by all the writers in the festival Please arrive in good time to be seated. Readings will commence promptly at listed start time Doors will open around 30 minutes in advance We cannot guarantee that all the writers will take part in the plenary sessions All seats are unreserved Events and writers are correct at time of printing The organisers reserve the right to make changes without notice Please tell us if you have changed your address or wish to join the mailing list The Fiction Festival is grateful for support from Hawkins Ryan Solicitors Programme and website advertisers Monthly Draw Club members You can contribute to help fund future literature festivals. Join the Monthly Draw Club this weekend. Subscriptions only 5 per month with valuable literary and cash prizes to be won, and you ll receive one discounted festival weekend pass each year

3 THE WEEKEND S EVENTS Friday 11th March 7.30pm Saturday 12th March 8.00pm Patricia Duncker D J Taylor in conversation Sophie Hannah Piers Paul Read in conversation with John Lucas Saturday 12th March 11.00am Sunday 13th March 11.00am Discussion The progress of the novel over the last twenty years. What replaced the Hampstead novel? The writers Chaired by John Lucas Simon Mawer Jonathan Smith in conversation with Christopher Bigsby Saturday 12th March 3.00pm Sunday 13th March 3.00pm Daisy Waugh James Wilson in conversation with Chris West Discussion Arthur Miller at 100 The writers will assess his standing Chaired by Christopher Bigsby

4 PATRICIA DUNCKER Patricia Duncker was born in 1951 in Jamaica and was educated at Bedales School, read English at Newnham College, Cambridge and did her doctorate at St Hugh s, Oxford. She is the author of six novels, the latest of which, Sophie and the Sybil, was published in She is an academic, having been Professor of Creative Writing at UEA and Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of Manchester. She has received a number of awards and been shortlisted for various prizes. In Sophie and the Sybil, the Sybil is George Eliot who is visiting Berlin in the 1870s. The story involves a publishing house owned by the Duncker Brothers. Eliot is shown as both fascinating and grotesque. Patricia has previously appeared at our Festival in 2003 and D J TAYLOR Born in 1960, the author of twelve novels and eight other books, D J Taylor lives in Norwich and is a regular feature at our Festival. Educated at Norwich School and Oxford, he is a distinguished novelist, critic, journalist and biographer notably of Thackeray (1999) and Orwell: The Life, for which he won the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award. His numerous novels include English Settlement, winner of the Grinzane Cavour prize, Trespass (1998) and Derby Day (2011) both longlisted for The Booker Prize. His latest book is a history of literary life in England since 1918, The Prose Factory (2016), which has already been described as the book he was born to write. It explores the myriad influences of English literary life in the last 100 years, and the way they shaped our interests. DAISY WAUGH Daisy Waugh was born in 1967, the daughter of Auberon and Teresa Waugh and granddaughter of Evelyn Waugh. Her mother, Teresa, took part in our Festival last year. Daisy Waugh was educated at Taunton School, and published her first novel at the age of twenty-one. She has so far published nine books, her latest being Last Dance with Valentino (2011) and Honeyville (2014). She has presented Channel 4 s Travelog. She is also a broadcaster on the radio. She wrote an anonymous column in The Sunday Times called Country/City Mole and has been a restaurant critic and agony aunt for The Independent. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

5 JAMES WILSON James Wilson was born in 1948 and educated at Worcester College, Oxford. He is a distinguished historian who turned to writing fiction set in the past in 2001, when he published The Dark Clue which is based in the life of J M W Turner. The Bastard Boy was set on the eve of the American Revolution. His fifth and most recent novel, The Summer of Broken Stories, set in England in the 1950s, is a powerful book which captures the atmosphere of the era and deals with intriguing themes of rejection by society of the non-conformist, friendship and betrayal. He has written plays, radio and television documentaries, and received a Myers Outstanding Book Award in 2000 for The Earth Shall Weep, a native American history. SOPHIE HANNAH Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 32 languages. In 2014, she published a new mystery novel, The Monogram Murders, starring Hercule Poirot. It was written with the blessing of the Agatha Christie estate and was a bestseller in more than fifteen countries. In 2013, Sophie s novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, were adapted for television and shown in 2011 and Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 TS Eliot Award. Her latest and 14th, novel, The Narrow Bed, was published in February this year. She is 43 and lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. PIERS PAUL READ Piers Paul Read was born in 1941, in Beaconsfield. He left Ampleforth at the age of sixteen to study in Paris. He studied History at Cambridge. Read has lived in the United States, France and North Yorkshire, settling in London in 1980 with his wife. His first novel, Game in Heaven with Tussy Marx, was published in In 1973, Read was chosen by the Uruguayan survivors of an air crash to write an account of their ordeal, published the following year as Alive, The Story of the Andes Survivors. It sold five million copies worldwide. Many titles followed, not least the brilliant The Free Frenchman (1986). At the request of Merula Guinness, the actor s widow, Read wrote Alec Guinness, The Authorised Biography (2003). His latest outstanding novel is Scarpia, (2015) in which he reimagines the notorious villain from Puccini s opera, Tosca. The work is more evidence of why he continues to be one of the country s most highly regarded novelists. His return to our Festival, since 1999, is long overdue.

6 SIMON MAWER Simon Mawer was born in 1948 and spent his childhood in Britain, Cyprus and Malta. He is author of two non-fiction books and ten novels, the first of which, Chimera, he had published at the age of 40. Later books include Mendel s Dwarf, The Fall (2003, winner of the Boardman Tasker Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize) and Swimming to Ithaca (2006). The Glass Room, published by Little, Brown in 2009, was on the Booker shortlist and is considered by some the best novel in English, this century. His current novel is the gripping and flawlessly constructed Cold War story, Tightrope (2015). Simon Mawer lives in Italy and we welcome him back to King s Lynn - he was last at our festival in JONATHAN SMITH Jonathan Smith was born in 1942 and has published seven novels - some with historical settings, some contemporary - and two acclaimed memoirs. He has also written more than twenty radio plays, as well as the screenplay for Summer in February, the 2012 film based on one of his novels. His first book, Wilfred and Eileen (1976), was a four part serial on BBC TV, and his memoir of his life in teaching, The Learning Game (2002), was described by Matthew Parris as 'the only book I have read on teaching which is not boring. His former pupils of English at Tonbridge include musician Kit Hesketh-Harvey, novelist Vikram Seth, and poet Christopher Reid (King s Lynn Poetry Festival, 2015). The Following Game (2013) is a much-admired biographical work following his son, Ed s, career in cricket and in the public eye. Last year saw the publication of his latest novel, The Churchill Secret: KBO, which has been adapted for television, due to be broadcast on ITV early this year. CHRIS WEST Chris West is a novelist and self-help writer. He teaches writing and small business marketing. Among his novels are four set in contemporary China, where he travelled as a student. The first, Death of a Blue Lantern, was nominated for Best First Novel at the World Mystery Convention. His latest, Hello Europe!, is a history of the continent through the eyes of the Eurovision Song Contest.

7 JOHN LUCAS John Lucas, academic, poet, novelist and man of letters, was born in 1937 and has been Research Professor at Nottingham Trent University since In 1994 he started The Shoestring Press, which continues to flourish. He has also written a book on the history of whistling and several books about cricket, the latest being The Awkward Squad: Rebels in English Cricket (2015). CHRISTOPHER BIGSBY Christopher Bigsby, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, is an award winning academic, novelist and biographer. He is Professor of American Studies at UEA (and Director of the Arthur Miller Centre there) and author of more than 40 books, including the biography of Arthur Miller, published between 2008 and 2011 in two volumes and the definitive work, Arthur Miller: A Critical Study (2005). Bigsby was the presenter of Kaleidoscope on BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and is a regular broadcaster. He is a regular contributor to our festival and we welcome him back to chair our Arthur Miller event. Picture credits: Kate Cowdrey (Jonathan Smith), Connie Bello (Simon Mawer), Jürgen Bauer (James Wilson) and thanks to those uncredited.

8 Stuart House Hotel Bar Restaurant OPEN TO NON RESIDENTS Cosy Bar CAMRA - Good Beer Guide listed Quiet but central location Quality Accommodation 15% DISCOUNT on rooms for Literature festival visitors (Mention this advert/program) Superb Restaurant and Bar Meals Beer Garden 35 Goodwins Road, King s Lynn. PE30 5QX reception@stuarthousehotel.co.uk Tel King s Lynn Literature Festivals continue to welcome your support You can contribute to help fund future literature festivals. Join the Monthly Draw Club this weekend. Subscriptions only 5 per month. Valuable literary and cash prizes to be won monthly and you ll receive one discounted festival weekend pass each year. Hand your completed standing order form to any of the organisers before you leave. Funds generated by the Monthly Draw Club will be used exclusively We look forward to welcoming you to the Poetry Festival, 30th Sept - 2nd Oct