All October 2022 Shute Festival Events will be held at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis
CONCERT: MUSIC OF AFGHANISTAN
With VERONICA DOUBLEDAY AND JOHN BAILY
Saturday 1 October, 2022, 7.30pm
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Veronica Doubleday and John Baily have together dedicated their life’s work to the music and people of Afghanistan, actively supporting Afghan music and musicians throughout the last four decades of conflict. Veronica has a unique repertoire of traditional songs in Dari Persian, accompanying herself on the daireh (frame drum), while John is an accomplished player of the Afghan rubab and Herati dutar (types of lute). As a duo, or working with other noted Afghan musicians, they have given concerts all around the world.
Between 1973 and 1977 they lived in Herat, in western Afghanistan, where they studied with local musicians and undertook detailed ethnomusicological research. They are recognised as world experts on Afghan music, and John is Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology and Head of the Afghanistan Music Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London.
This concert of traditional pieces celebrates the re-publication of Veronica’s classic memoir Three Women of Herat, placing a special focus on women’s music. Veronica will explain the context and meaning of each song to bring the remarkable hidden culture of Afghan women to life.
Their music will be followed by a short Q & A. Proceeds from this concert will go to Afghanaid.
With VERONICA DOUBLEDAY AND JOHN BAILY
Saturday 1 October, 2022, 7.30pm
Click here for tickets
Veronica Doubleday and John Baily have together dedicated their life’s work to the music and people of Afghanistan, actively supporting Afghan music and musicians throughout the last four decades of conflict. Veronica has a unique repertoire of traditional songs in Dari Persian, accompanying herself on the daireh (frame drum), while John is an accomplished player of the Afghan rubab and Herati dutar (types of lute). As a duo, or working with other noted Afghan musicians, they have given concerts all around the world.
Between 1973 and 1977 they lived in Herat, in western Afghanistan, where they studied with local musicians and undertook detailed ethnomusicological research. They are recognised as world experts on Afghan music, and John is Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology and Head of the Afghanistan Music Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London.
This concert of traditional pieces celebrates the re-publication of Veronica’s classic memoir Three Women of Herat, placing a special focus on women’s music. Veronica will explain the context and meaning of each song to bring the remarkable hidden culture of Afghan women to life.
Their music will be followed by a short Q & A. Proceeds from this concert will go to Afghanaid.
LIVING ON THE EDGE
With LOUISA ADJOA PARKER AND DAVINA QUINLIVAN
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 10.00-11.00am
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Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer and poet of English-Ghanaian heritage who lives in south west England. Her earlier poetry collections were published by Cinnamon Press, and her latest, How to Wear a Skin, was published by Indigo Dreams. Her debut short story collection, Stay With Me, was published in 2020 by Colenso Books, and a recent poetry pamphlet, She Can Still Sing, was published by Flipped Eye in June 2021. She has a coastal memoir forthcoming with Little Toller Books.
Louisa has written extensively about ethnically diverse history and rural racism. Her poetry and prose has been widely praised. She has been highly commended by the Forward Prize; twice shortlisted by the Bridport Prize; and her grief poem, Kindness, was commended by the National Poetry Competition 2019. She has performed her work in the south west and beyond and has run many writing workshops.
With LOUISA ADJOA PARKER AND DAVINA QUINLIVAN
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 10.00-11.00am
Click here for tickets
Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer and poet of English-Ghanaian heritage who lives in south west England. Her earlier poetry collections were published by Cinnamon Press, and her latest, How to Wear a Skin, was published by Indigo Dreams. Her debut short story collection, Stay With Me, was published in 2020 by Colenso Books, and a recent poetry pamphlet, She Can Still Sing, was published by Flipped Eye in June 2021. She has a coastal memoir forthcoming with Little Toller Books.
Louisa has written extensively about ethnically diverse history and rural racism. Her poetry and prose has been widely praised. She has been highly commended by the Forward Prize; twice shortlisted by the Bridport Prize; and her grief poem, Kindness, was commended by the National Poetry Competition 2019. She has performed her work in the south west and beyond and has run many writing workshops.
Davina Quinlivan is a writer and visiting research fellow at King’s College London. Shalimar is her literary debut. Her writing has been published in The Willowherb Review, Litro, The Clearing and Caught by The River. She is also author of six academic monographs including The Spirit of the Beehive (BFI Film Classics) and Filming the Body in Crisis. Her work has featured as part of programmed, public events with The BFI, The Wallace Collection, The Urban Tree Festival and The Serpentine Gallery. She runs the popular film seminar series F: For Flânerie at The Freud Museum and is part of the teaching ensemble at The New School of the Anthropocene, alongside Marina Warner and Robert MacFarlane. Spiracle Audio will be adapting Shalimar. Davina is currently working on a new project entitled ‘Waterlines’ on rivers and migration.
Louisa Adjoa Parker and Davina Quinlivan will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights about their work, and their lived experience of diversity in rural Britain.
Louisa Adjoa Parker and Davina Quinlivan will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights about their work, and their lived experience of diversity in rural Britain.
FAIRY TELLERS AND FOLK TALES
With NICHOLAS JUBBER AND LISA SCHNEIDAU
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 11.30am-12.30pm
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Nicholas Jubber and Lisa Schneidau will be in conversation with Festival co-director, Bijan Omrani about the history, stories and people behind our fairy and folk tales.
Nicholas Jubber is the author of five non-fiction books, including The Prester Quest (winner of the Dolman Travel Book Award) and Epic Continent (shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book Award). He has travelled around the Middle East, Central Asia, North and East Africa and Europe, and written about his experiences for publications including the Guardian, Daily Mail, Irish Times and BBC Online.
Jubber’s latest book, The Fairy Tellers, explors the lives of seven tellers of traditional tales. It swings from a Neapolitan soldier-of-fortune who compiled Europe’s first integral fairy tale collection, to the woman who wrote ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and a Russian folklorist who became involved in a plot to assassinate the Tsar. Travelling from Kashmir to Scandinavia, this new history of fairy tales offers a fresh, international interpretation of a beloved genre. It has been described as ‘riveting’ by the Financial Times, ‘captivating’ by BBC History and ‘fascinating’ by the New European.
With NICHOLAS JUBBER AND LISA SCHNEIDAU
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 11.30am-12.30pm
Click here for tickets
Nicholas Jubber and Lisa Schneidau will be in conversation with Festival co-director, Bijan Omrani about the history, stories and people behind our fairy and folk tales.
Nicholas Jubber is the author of five non-fiction books, including The Prester Quest (winner of the Dolman Travel Book Award) and Epic Continent (shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book Award). He has travelled around the Middle East, Central Asia, North and East Africa and Europe, and written about his experiences for publications including the Guardian, Daily Mail, Irish Times and BBC Online.
Jubber’s latest book, The Fairy Tellers, explors the lives of seven tellers of traditional tales. It swings from a Neapolitan soldier-of-fortune who compiled Europe’s first integral fairy tale collection, to the woman who wrote ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and a Russian folklorist who became involved in a plot to assassinate the Tsar. Travelling from Kashmir to Scandinavia, this new history of fairy tales offers a fresh, international interpretation of a beloved genre. It has been described as ‘riveting’ by the Financial Times, ‘captivating’ by BBC History and ‘fascinating’ by the New European.
Lisa Schneidau is a, author, storyteller and environmentalist based on Dartmoor. She seeks out, and shares, traditional stories about the land and our complex relationship with it. Lisa’s earlier books include Woodland Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland and Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland. Lisa trained as an ecologist and has worked in British nature conservation for over twenty-five years, in roles as diverse as farm advisor, lobbyist and conservation director.
Lisa Schneidau’s latest work, River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland, takes a dive into the rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands of Britain and Ireland, at a time when our rivers are in real trouble. Expect traditional tales of river gods, monsters and fairy folk, laced with a good dose of human error and a splash of irreverent humour!
Lisa Schneidau’s latest work, River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland, takes a dive into the rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands of Britain and Ireland, at a time when our rivers are in real trouble. Expect traditional tales of river gods, monsters and fairy folk, laced with a good dose of human error and a splash of irreverent humour!
HOPE AND GLORY
With JENDELLA BENSON
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 1.00-2.00pm
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Jendella Benson will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights about her highly acclaimed debut novel, Hope & Glory.
Hope & Glory is a filmic, engaging debut set against the changing landscape of Peckham. It follows Glory as she returns home from LA to find her family falling apart: her father has died, her brother is in prison and her mother is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. As she navigates the return to a life she feels is out of control, Glory must confront the past, including what really happened to her twin sister Hope.
Jendella Benson is Head of Editorial at Black Ballad – the award-winning digital platform for Black British women – and has previously been a columnist for Media Diversified, MTV UK, and Christian Today. She has written for Metro Online and Independent Voices, as well as had her visual work featured in The Guardian, The Metro, The Voice Newspaper, and on London Live. Her short story, Kindling, was published in The Book of Birmingham and her visual work has been exhibited across the UK and internationally, most notably at the House of Commons, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, and at the International Centre of Photography in New York as part of ICP Projected in May 2018.
With JENDELLA BENSON
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 1.00-2.00pm
Click here for tickets
Jendella Benson will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights about her highly acclaimed debut novel, Hope & Glory.
Hope & Glory is a filmic, engaging debut set against the changing landscape of Peckham. It follows Glory as she returns home from LA to find her family falling apart: her father has died, her brother is in prison and her mother is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. As she navigates the return to a life she feels is out of control, Glory must confront the past, including what really happened to her twin sister Hope.
Jendella Benson is Head of Editorial at Black Ballad – the award-winning digital platform for Black British women – and has previously been a columnist for Media Diversified, MTV UK, and Christian Today. She has written for Metro Online and Independent Voices, as well as had her visual work featured in The Guardian, The Metro, The Voice Newspaper, and on London Live. Her short story, Kindling, was published in The Book of Birmingham and her visual work has been exhibited across the UK and internationally, most notably at the House of Commons, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, and at the International Centre of Photography in New York as part of ICP Projected in May 2018.
BREAKNECK POINT
With T. ORR MONRO
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 2.30-3.30pm
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T. Orr Munro will be in conversation about her debut crime novel Breakneck Point with writer and Lyme Crime director, Paddy Magrane.
Breakneck Point is the first of a series following flawed but formidable CSI and single mother, Ally Dymond. Her commitment to justice has cost Ally her place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast. Only when the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe can Ally put her skills to good use. Yet the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory. And no one wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison. Time is running out to catch a serial killer no one is looking for – no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike. When he does, Ally will be forced to question the true nature of justice like never before.
T. Orr Munro trained and worked as a CSI, before changing her career at 33 to become a police and crime journalist. She was born in Hampshire to an English mother and a Greek/Armenian father but later moved with her family to north Devon, the setting for her debut crime novel, Breakneck Point. Her time as a CSI provided much of the inspiration for the novel, shining a light on what happens behind the crime scene tape
With T. ORR MONRO
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 2.30-3.30pm
Click here for tickets
T. Orr Munro will be in conversation about her debut crime novel Breakneck Point with writer and Lyme Crime director, Paddy Magrane.
Breakneck Point is the first of a series following flawed but formidable CSI and single mother, Ally Dymond. Her commitment to justice has cost Ally her place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast. Only when the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe can Ally put her skills to good use. Yet the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory. And no one wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison. Time is running out to catch a serial killer no one is looking for – no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike. When he does, Ally will be forced to question the true nature of justice like never before.
T. Orr Munro trained and worked as a CSI, before changing her career at 33 to become a police and crime journalist. She was born in Hampshire to an English mother and a Greek/Armenian father but later moved with her family to north Devon, the setting for her debut crime novel, Breakneck Point. Her time as a CSI provided much of the inspiration for the novel, shining a light on what happens behind the crime scene tape
IN SEARCH OF MARY SEACOLE - THE MAKING OF A CULTURAL ICON
With HELEN RAPPAPORT
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 4.00-5.00pm
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In 2003, Helen Rappaport discovered and purchased an 1869 portrait of Mary Seacole that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, sparking a long investigation into Seacole’s life and career. Having been raised in Jamaica and worked in Panama, Mary Seacole came to England in the 1850s and volunteered to help out during the Crimean War. When her services were turned down, she financed her own expedition to Balaclava, where she earned her reputation as a nurse and for her compassion. Popularly known as ‘Mother Seacole’, she was the most famous Black celebrity of her generation – an extraordinary achievement in Victorian Britain. She regularly mixed with illustrious royal and military patrons and they, along with grateful war veterans, helped her recover financially when she faced bankruptcy. However, after her death in 1881, she was largely forgotten for many years.
More recently, her profile has been revived and her reputation lionised, with a statue of her standing outside St Thomas’s Hospital in London. In Search of Mary Seacole is the fruit of almost twenty years of research by Helen Rappaport into her story. The book reveals the truth about Seacole’s personal life and her ‘rivalry’ with Florence Nightingale, along with much more besides. Often the reality proves to be even more remarkable and dramatic than the legend.
Helen Rappaport was born in Bromley, Kent, and studied Russian at Leeds University, before working as a translator and copy editor. She has been a full-time writer for more than twenty-three years, and is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author and historian specialising in the period 1837–1918 in late Imperial and revolutionary Russia and Victorian Britain.
With HELEN RAPPAPORT
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 4.00-5.00pm
Click here for tickets
In 2003, Helen Rappaport discovered and purchased an 1869 portrait of Mary Seacole that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, sparking a long investigation into Seacole’s life and career. Having been raised in Jamaica and worked in Panama, Mary Seacole came to England in the 1850s and volunteered to help out during the Crimean War. When her services were turned down, she financed her own expedition to Balaclava, where she earned her reputation as a nurse and for her compassion. Popularly known as ‘Mother Seacole’, she was the most famous Black celebrity of her generation – an extraordinary achievement in Victorian Britain. She regularly mixed with illustrious royal and military patrons and they, along with grateful war veterans, helped her recover financially when she faced bankruptcy. However, after her death in 1881, she was largely forgotten for many years.
More recently, her profile has been revived and her reputation lionised, with a statue of her standing outside St Thomas’s Hospital in London. In Search of Mary Seacole is the fruit of almost twenty years of research by Helen Rappaport into her story. The book reveals the truth about Seacole’s personal life and her ‘rivalry’ with Florence Nightingale, along with much more besides. Often the reality proves to be even more remarkable and dramatic than the legend.
Helen Rappaport was born in Bromley, Kent, and studied Russian at Leeds University, before working as a translator and copy editor. She has been a full-time writer for more than twenty-three years, and is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author and historian specialising in the period 1837–1918 in late Imperial and revolutionary Russia and Victorian Britain.
YIDDISH SONG AND KLEZMER MUSIC WORKSHOP
With MERLIN AND POLINA SHEPHERD
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 4.00-6.00pm
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This session will be inclusive, informative and simply fun. East European music is endlessly wide in its style and expression. Some Yiddish songs are rooted in spiritual and liturgical music, particularly the nign – a melody that the Hassidim believe changes consciousness. Others come from the theatre and cinema, describe the diverse lives of Jewish people across Eastern and Central Europe and all the countries they have emigrated to – their history, hopes, memories, politics, celebrations and resistance to oppression. Instrumental music (klezmer) has everything in it too: a huge variety of dance genres designed for all stages of the wedding, instrumental laments and tunes to play for the guest’s journey home…We will dip our toes in this repertoire and learn about the history, style and cultural context along with singing and playing together.
Music lovers of all backgrounds and levels are invited to join as singers, instrumentalists must be above grade 5. No knowledge of the Russian, Ukrainian or Yiddish language is necessary. Taught by ear and with music sheets.
With MERLIN AND POLINA SHEPHERD
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 4.00-6.00pm
Click here for tickets
This session will be inclusive, informative and simply fun. East European music is endlessly wide in its style and expression. Some Yiddish songs are rooted in spiritual and liturgical music, particularly the nign – a melody that the Hassidim believe changes consciousness. Others come from the theatre and cinema, describe the diverse lives of Jewish people across Eastern and Central Europe and all the countries they have emigrated to – their history, hopes, memories, politics, celebrations and resistance to oppression. Instrumental music (klezmer) has everything in it too: a huge variety of dance genres designed for all stages of the wedding, instrumental laments and tunes to play for the guest’s journey home…We will dip our toes in this repertoire and learn about the history, style and cultural context along with singing and playing together.
Music lovers of all backgrounds and levels are invited to join as singers, instrumentalists must be above grade 5. No knowledge of the Russian, Ukrainian or Yiddish language is necessary. Taught by ear and with music sheets.
PROTECTING THE AMAZON AND ITS PEOPLE
With SIR GHILLEAN PRANCE
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 5.30-6.30pm
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Sir Ghillean Prance will be discussing his latest book, The Amazon Forest and its People, which charts the life of seven tribes including the Yanomami. He willl be in conversation with Dr Julia Knights, Deputy Director of the Science Museum in London.
The book ranges from anthropology, botany, trees, to body painting, cassava, hallucinogenic initiation, plant hunting, basket making, fishing, conservation and forest survival. Often it is the indigenous people who suffer from exploitation both direct and indirect, yet they are key to the forest’s very survival. Our future hinges on their survival and that of the Amazon rainforest in which they live and protect. This book, illustrated with a number of Sir Ghillean’s photographs, some taken over 40 years ago, and including quotations from earlier Amazonian explorers, has a human quality which brings the forests of Amazonia alive. It has a strong message about the need to preserve both the Amazon forest and its native peoples.
Sir Ghillean Prance is one of the world’s leading botanists, and one of the most renowned explorers of the Amazon over the last half-century. He was previously a director of the New York Botanical Garden, and later Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is also involved with the Eden Project. On research expeditions to the Amazon over the course of 50 years he discovered over 350 new plant species, and he is the author of a large number of books and scientific works, including the recent That Glorious Forest: Exploring the Plants and Their Indigenous Uses in Amazonia (2014).
With SIR GHILLEAN PRANCE
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 5.30-6.30pm
Click here for tickets
Sir Ghillean Prance will be discussing his latest book, The Amazon Forest and its People, which charts the life of seven tribes including the Yanomami. He willl be in conversation with Dr Julia Knights, Deputy Director of the Science Museum in London.
The book ranges from anthropology, botany, trees, to body painting, cassava, hallucinogenic initiation, plant hunting, basket making, fishing, conservation and forest survival. Often it is the indigenous people who suffer from exploitation both direct and indirect, yet they are key to the forest’s very survival. Our future hinges on their survival and that of the Amazon rainforest in which they live and protect. This book, illustrated with a number of Sir Ghillean’s photographs, some taken over 40 years ago, and including quotations from earlier Amazonian explorers, has a human quality which brings the forests of Amazonia alive. It has a strong message about the need to preserve both the Amazon forest and its native peoples.
Sir Ghillean Prance is one of the world’s leading botanists, and one of the most renowned explorers of the Amazon over the last half-century. He was previously a director of the New York Botanical Garden, and later Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is also involved with the Eden Project. On research expeditions to the Amazon over the course of 50 years he discovered over 350 new plant species, and he is the author of a large number of books and scientific works, including the recent That Glorious Forest: Exploring the Plants and Their Indigenous Uses in Amazonia (2014).
CONCERT: SONGS OF THE SHTETL AND STEPPES
With MERLIN AND POLINA SHEPHERD
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 7.30pm
Click here for tickets
Clarinettist and composer Merlin Shepherd is an innovative force in the klezmer renaissance and Polina Shepherd a virtuosic vocalist, pianist and composer. They both base their musical expression in East European Jewish culture – klezmer music and Yiddish song. They join together for a special concert at Shute Festival.
With decades spent on studying and absorbing the music of their roots in detail and lovingly maintaining the style, they also draw influences from linked cultures: Turkish, Slavic, Greek, Romanian… Their original style weaves a sound that, so like music from these countries themselves, moves the listener physically, emotionally and spiritually. Their performance incorporates improvisation, freedom and spontaneity – so every concert is unique.
With MERLIN AND POLINA SHEPHERD
Saturday 8 October, 2022, 7.30pm
Click here for tickets
Clarinettist and composer Merlin Shepherd is an innovative force in the klezmer renaissance and Polina Shepherd a virtuosic vocalist, pianist and composer. They both base their musical expression in East European Jewish culture – klezmer music and Yiddish song. They join together for a special concert at Shute Festival.
With decades spent on studying and absorbing the music of their roots in detail and lovingly maintaining the style, they also draw influences from linked cultures: Turkish, Slavic, Greek, Romanian… Their original style weaves a sound that, so like music from these countries themselves, moves the listener physically, emotionally and spiritually. Their performance incorporates improvisation, freedom and spontaneity – so every concert is unique.
HOW TO LEAVE YOUR PSYCHOPATH
With MADDY ANHOLT
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 11.30am-12.30pm
Click here for tickets
Her debut book, How to Leave Your Psychopath was published by Bluebird, Pan Macmillan. It is a candid account of the complex, subtle nature of coercive control and abusive relationships, which Maddy understands from all-too-personal experience, and is the essential handbook for escaping them.
Maddy Anholt is an author, speaker, actor and Ambassador for Women’s Aid. As an actor, she has appeared in sitcoms for BBC Three, BBC One, ITV and Channel 4. She’s had four sell-out solo comedies and written and starred in a comedy for BBC Radio 4.
Maddy Anholt will be in conversation with psychotherapist and writer Paddy Magrane.
With MADDY ANHOLT
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 11.30am-12.30pm
Click here for tickets
Her debut book, How to Leave Your Psychopath was published by Bluebird, Pan Macmillan. It is a candid account of the complex, subtle nature of coercive control and abusive relationships, which Maddy understands from all-too-personal experience, and is the essential handbook for escaping them.
Maddy Anholt is an author, speaker, actor and Ambassador for Women’s Aid. As an actor, she has appeared in sitcoms for BBC Three, BBC One, ITV and Channel 4. She’s had four sell-out solo comedies and written and starred in a comedy for BBC Radio 4.
Maddy Anholt will be in conversation with psychotherapist and writer Paddy Magrane.
YOUNG BLOOMSBURY
With NINO STRACHEY
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 1.00-2.00pm
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Nino Strachey is a writer and historian who worked as Head of Research for the National Trust. After starting her career with the Landmark Trust, she worked as a curator for the National Trust and English Heritage, researching the homes of scientists (Darwin), politicians (Churchill) and authors (Woolf). Her first book, Rooms of their Own, explored the homes of three writers linked to the Bloomsbury Group, revealing changing attitudes towards sexuality and gender in the 1920s and 30s. Nino was the last member of the Strachey family to grow up at Sutton Court in Somerset, home of the Stracheys for over 300 years. She lives in West London surrounded by the displaced portraits of her Strachey relations.
Nino Strachey’s relative Lytton was the first of many Stracheys to make their way to Bloomsbury. In the early 20th Century a new generation stepped forward to invigorate the Bloomsbury Group – creative young people who tantalised the original ‘Bloomsberries’ with their captivating looks and provocative ideas. Celebrating identities that would not be embraced for another 100 years, Nino Strachey explores changing attitudes towards sexuality and gender in the 1920s and 30s, revealing an aspect of Bloomsbury not yet explored.
Nino Strachey will be in conversation with Festival co-director Bijan Omrani.
With NINO STRACHEY
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 1.00-2.00pm
Click here for tickets
Nino Strachey is a writer and historian who worked as Head of Research for the National Trust. After starting her career with the Landmark Trust, she worked as a curator for the National Trust and English Heritage, researching the homes of scientists (Darwin), politicians (Churchill) and authors (Woolf). Her first book, Rooms of their Own, explored the homes of three writers linked to the Bloomsbury Group, revealing changing attitudes towards sexuality and gender in the 1920s and 30s. Nino was the last member of the Strachey family to grow up at Sutton Court in Somerset, home of the Stracheys for over 300 years. She lives in West London surrounded by the displaced portraits of her Strachey relations.
Nino Strachey’s relative Lytton was the first of many Stracheys to make their way to Bloomsbury. In the early 20th Century a new generation stepped forward to invigorate the Bloomsbury Group – creative young people who tantalised the original ‘Bloomsberries’ with their captivating looks and provocative ideas. Celebrating identities that would not be embraced for another 100 years, Nino Strachey explores changing attitudes towards sexuality and gender in the 1920s and 30s, revealing an aspect of Bloomsbury not yet explored.
Nino Strachey will be in conversation with Festival co-director Bijan Omrani.
REAL FARMING: UNDERNEATH THE ARCHERS
With GRAHAM HARVEY AND MARTIN HESP
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 2.30-3.30pm
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Graham Harvey will be in conversation with Western Morning News columnist Martin Hesp about real farming, ecological agriculture, and what needs to be done to transform our food production.
A townie by birth, Graham Harvey has had a life-long interest in farming. After university he joined Farmers Weekly as a news reporter. Later as a freelance he wrote on farming and the countryside for a range of publications including the Daily Mail, New Scientist, and Country Life. For four years he was Old Muckspreader in Private Eye. His first book, The Killing of the Countryside, was published by Cape and won the BP Natural World Book Prize for environmental writing. Other books include The Forgiveness of Nature (Cape), We Want Real Food (Constable Robinson) and Grass-Fed Nation (Icon Books).
In the mid-1980s he joined the script-writing team of the long-running radio series The Archers, since when he’s written more than 600 episodes. For 20 years he was the show’s Agricultural Story Editor, a sort of Farm Minister for Ambridge. For TV he’s written episodes of The Bill and the space adventure series Jupiter Moon. But he keeps returning to farming and rural themes. Stage plays include The Shearing Gang, The Process (about Fritz Haber, the inventor of nitrate fertilizer) and The Darkness of the Sun, the story of writer Henry Williamson. In 2018 his one-woman show No Finer Life was performed to audiences across the UK. In 2019 his co-written musical The Shearing Gang played to enthusiastic audiences in Cornwall. In 2008 Graham co-founded what is now Britain’s leading conference in ecological agriculture, the Oxford Real Farming Conference.
With GRAHAM HARVEY AND MARTIN HESP
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 2.30-3.30pm
Click here for tickets
Graham Harvey will be in conversation with Western Morning News columnist Martin Hesp about real farming, ecological agriculture, and what needs to be done to transform our food production.
A townie by birth, Graham Harvey has had a life-long interest in farming. After university he joined Farmers Weekly as a news reporter. Later as a freelance he wrote on farming and the countryside for a range of publications including the Daily Mail, New Scientist, and Country Life. For four years he was Old Muckspreader in Private Eye. His first book, The Killing of the Countryside, was published by Cape and won the BP Natural World Book Prize for environmental writing. Other books include The Forgiveness of Nature (Cape), We Want Real Food (Constable Robinson) and Grass-Fed Nation (Icon Books).
In the mid-1980s he joined the script-writing team of the long-running radio series The Archers, since when he’s written more than 600 episodes. For 20 years he was the show’s Agricultural Story Editor, a sort of Farm Minister for Ambridge. For TV he’s written episodes of The Bill and the space adventure series Jupiter Moon. But he keeps returning to farming and rural themes. Stage plays include The Shearing Gang, The Process (about Fritz Haber, the inventor of nitrate fertilizer) and The Darkness of the Sun, the story of writer Henry Williamson. In 2018 his one-woman show No Finer Life was performed to audiences across the UK. In 2019 his co-written musical The Shearing Gang played to enthusiastic audiences in Cornwall. In 2008 Graham co-founded what is now Britain’s leading conference in ecological agriculture, the Oxford Real Farming Conference.
I YOU WE THEM: EXPOSING THE ‘DESK KILLERS’
With DAN GRETTON
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 4.00-5.00pm
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I You We Them - a Washington Post Book of the Year and Spectator Book of the Year - is an unprecedented study of the ‘desk killers’ who have ordered and directed some of the worst atrocities of the modern era. From the capitals of Empire to the offices of Nazi Germany to the boardrooms of oil corporations today, Gretton shines a light on the shadowy figures who ‘use paper or a phone or a computer to kill, instead of a gun’. For more than twenty years he has interviewed survivors and perpetrators, and pored over archives and thousands of pages of testimony. His remarkable insight into the psychology of the desk killers is deepened by the intimate journey he travels with his readers.
Dan Gretton is a writer and activist. In 1983 he co-founded the pioneering political arts organisation Platform, in Cambridge, where he studied English literature. As well as working with Platform over many years on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporations, he has also developed radical initiatives in adult education.
Dan Gretton will be in conversation with barrister and Festival co-director Samantha Knights.
With DAN GRETTON
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 4.00-5.00pm
Click here for tickets
I You We Them - a Washington Post Book of the Year and Spectator Book of the Year - is an unprecedented study of the ‘desk killers’ who have ordered and directed some of the worst atrocities of the modern era. From the capitals of Empire to the offices of Nazi Germany to the boardrooms of oil corporations today, Gretton shines a light on the shadowy figures who ‘use paper or a phone or a computer to kill, instead of a gun’. For more than twenty years he has interviewed survivors and perpetrators, and pored over archives and thousands of pages of testimony. His remarkable insight into the psychology of the desk killers is deepened by the intimate journey he travels with his readers.
Dan Gretton is a writer and activist. In 1983 he co-founded the pioneering political arts organisation Platform, in Cambridge, where he studied English literature. As well as working with Platform over many years on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporations, he has also developed radical initiatives in adult education.
Dan Gretton will be in conversation with barrister and Festival co-director Samantha Knights.
LOVE & REVOLUTION IN GEORGIA
With JO AND MIKE SEAMAN
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 5.30-6.30pm
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Jo will talk about her book Roses Down the Barrel of a Gun, Georgia: Love and Revolution. She will reflect on the dramatic events leading to Georgia’s Rose Revolution of 2003, on the importance of cultural relations, as well as talking about the fascinating mountain country of Georgia. Mike Seaman will give observations on political events of the time, some of which have resonance with the current situation in Ukraine.
Jo Seaman (a former Charmouth resident) was the British Council Director in Georgia from 2001 to 2005; she worked for the British Council, the UK’s principal cultural relations organisation, for almost 30 years. Her career took her over Africa, Asia and the former Soviet Union, Egypt, Georgia, Pakistan and Jamaica. Mike Seaman, Jo’s husband, is a former British diplomat with over twenty years of overseas postings, including Bosnia, Afghanistan, Jamaica and Georgia, where Mike was Senior Political Officer with the British Embassy. The recent consultancy assignments include various Eastern European countries including Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, as well as the UK.
Jo and Mike Seaman will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights.
With JO AND MIKE SEAMAN
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 5.30-6.30pm
Click here for tickets
Jo will talk about her book Roses Down the Barrel of a Gun, Georgia: Love and Revolution. She will reflect on the dramatic events leading to Georgia’s Rose Revolution of 2003, on the importance of cultural relations, as well as talking about the fascinating mountain country of Georgia. Mike Seaman will give observations on political events of the time, some of which have resonance with the current situation in Ukraine.
Jo Seaman (a former Charmouth resident) was the British Council Director in Georgia from 2001 to 2005; she worked for the British Council, the UK’s principal cultural relations organisation, for almost 30 years. Her career took her over Africa, Asia and the former Soviet Union, Egypt, Georgia, Pakistan and Jamaica. Mike Seaman, Jo’s husband, is a former British diplomat with over twenty years of overseas postings, including Bosnia, Afghanistan, Jamaica and Georgia, where Mike was Senior Political Officer with the British Embassy. The recent consultancy assignments include various Eastern European countries including Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, as well as the UK.
Jo and Mike Seaman will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights.
CONCERT: FOLK MUSIC WITH THE SOUTH COUNTRY
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 7.30pm
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Join The South Country in their musical exploration of English folk tunes. Drawing on diverse influences, local musicians Thomas Gold, Alex Ennis, Andrea Green and Fiona Cormack, move between the boundaries of arrangement and composition, classical and traditional approaches. The instrumental quartet of violin, viola, piano and accordion perform a varied and imaginative programme inspired by the landscape and folk culture of England: from lyrical waltzes and slow airs, through to rousing reels and driving polkas.
Sunday 9 October, 2022, 7.30pm
Click here for tickets
Join The South Country in their musical exploration of English folk tunes. Drawing on diverse influences, local musicians Thomas Gold, Alex Ennis, Andrea Green and Fiona Cormack, move between the boundaries of arrangement and composition, classical and traditional approaches. The instrumental quartet of violin, viola, piano and accordion perform a varied and imaginative programme inspired by the landscape and folk culture of England: from lyrical waltzes and slow airs, through to rousing reels and driving polkas.
THE LAST COLONY: A TALE OF RACE, EXILE AND JUSTICE FROM CHAGOS TO THE HAGUE
With PHILIPPE SANDS QC
Tuesday 11 October, 2022, 7.00pm
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Philippe Sands will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights QC, discussing his new book The Last Colony. Taking us on a disturbing journey across international law, The Last Colony illuminates the continuing horrors of colonial rule, the devastating impact of Britain's racist grip on its last colony in Africa, and the struggle for justice in the face of a crime against humanity. It is a tale about the making of modern international law and one woman's fight for justice, a courtroom drama and a personal journey that ends with a historic ruling.
In the 1960s, a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean (then part of the British-controlled territory of Mauritius), create a new colony (the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’) and deport the entire local population. One of those inhabitants was Liseby Elysé, twenty years old, newly married, expecting her first child. One suitcase, no pets, the British ordered, expelling her from the only home she had ever known.
For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos. Over the past decade Philippe Sands has been intimately involved in the cases. In 2018 Chagos and colonialism finally reached the World Court in The Hague. As Mauritius and the entire African continent challenged British and American lawlessness, fourteen international judges faced a landmark decision: would they rule that Britain illegally detached Chagos from Mauritius? Would they open the door to Liseby Elysé and her fellow Chagossians returning home – or exile them forever?
Philippe Sands QC is a best-selling author, a professor of Law at UCL and an international lawyer. He has been involved in many of the most important international cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, Guantanamo and the Rohingya. He is the author of Lawless World, Torture Team, East West Street, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction, and Sunday Times bestselling The Ratline. He is a contributor to the Financial Times, Guardian, New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair, and makes regular appearances on radio and television. He is also President of English PEN and a member of the board of the Hay Festival.
With PHILIPPE SANDS QC
Tuesday 11 October, 2022, 7.00pm
Click here for tickets
Philippe Sands will be in conversation with Festival co-director Samantha Knights QC, discussing his new book The Last Colony. Taking us on a disturbing journey across international law, The Last Colony illuminates the continuing horrors of colonial rule, the devastating impact of Britain's racist grip on its last colony in Africa, and the struggle for justice in the face of a crime against humanity. It is a tale about the making of modern international law and one woman's fight for justice, a courtroom drama and a personal journey that ends with a historic ruling.
In the 1960s, a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean (then part of the British-controlled territory of Mauritius), create a new colony (the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’) and deport the entire local population. One of those inhabitants was Liseby Elysé, twenty years old, newly married, expecting her first child. One suitcase, no pets, the British ordered, expelling her from the only home she had ever known.
For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos. Over the past decade Philippe Sands has been intimately involved in the cases. In 2018 Chagos and colonialism finally reached the World Court in The Hague. As Mauritius and the entire African continent challenged British and American lawlessness, fourteen international judges faced a landmark decision: would they rule that Britain illegally detached Chagos from Mauritius? Would they open the door to Liseby Elysé and her fellow Chagossians returning home – or exile them forever?
Philippe Sands QC is a best-selling author, a professor of Law at UCL and an international lawyer. He has been involved in many of the most important international cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, Guantanamo and the Rohingya. He is the author of Lawless World, Torture Team, East West Street, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction, and Sunday Times bestselling The Ratline. He is a contributor to the Financial Times, Guardian, New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair, and makes regular appearances on radio and television. He is also President of English PEN and a member of the board of the Hay Festival.