Full details of 2019's speaker line-up to come shortly. For now, here is a taste of what our 2018 audiences enjoyed.
As a child, pressed into reluctant service on her father’s allotment, Ambra Edwards thought gardening a miserable business, and didn’t really change her mind until she had one of her own. Today she gardens a ramshackle plot just a few miles from Shute. Environmental campaigner and award-winning writer, three times named the Garden Media Guild’s Journalist of the Year, Ambra’s work appears regularly in the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and all the leading garden journals. Ambra has written and contributed to a number of books, of which the last, Head Gardeners, was named Inspirational Garden Book of the Year in 2017. She has recently completed a history of the English garden, published this summer by the National Trust, while a worldwide history is due for publication next year.
Ambra will be asking what makes a great Head Gardener, as she explores the lives, vision and achievement of a cohort of very different gardeners, from the ex-junkie saved by gardening to a woman who cultivates ground elder and patiently trains bindweed up poles.
As a child, pressed into reluctant service on her father’s allotment, Ambra Edwards thought gardening a miserable business, and didn’t really change her mind until she had one of her own. Today she gardens a ramshackle plot just a few miles from Shute. Environmental campaigner and award-winning writer, three times named the Garden Media Guild’s Journalist of the Year, Ambra’s work appears regularly in the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and all the leading garden journals. Ambra has written and contributed to a number of books, of which the last, Head Gardeners, was named Inspirational Garden Book of the Year in 2017. She has recently completed a history of the English garden, published this summer by the National Trust, while a worldwide history is due for publication next year.
Ambra will be asking what makes a great Head Gardener, as she explores the lives, vision and achievement of a cohort of very different gardeners, from the ex-junkie saved by gardening to a woman who cultivates ground elder and patiently trains bindweed up poles.
Stephen Calloway is an art historian, exhibition curator and collector. From 1974-2013 he was a curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum, specialising in nineteenth and early twentieth-century art and design. His particular interests include the history of taste and collecting, interior decoration and the graphic arts from the Pre-Raphaelites to the 1890s. He has curated exhibitions on Aubrey Beardsley (V&A,1998; Moscow, 2014 and Japan 2016), Rex Whistler (Brighton, 2006) and The Cult of Beauty (on the Aesthetic Movement, V&A and Musée d’Orsay, 2011, Tokyo 2013). His books include: Twentieth Century Decoration; Divinely Decadent; Baroque, Baroque and Aubrey Beardsley.
Stephen will describe the short life and brilliant achievement of Aubrey Beardsley and offer insights into curating a major exhibition of the artist’s work for Tate Britain.
Stephen will describe the short life and brilliant achievement of Aubrey Beardsley and offer insights into curating a major exhibition of the artist’s work for Tate Britain.
Lucy Malouf traded in her first career as a Wall Street analyst to marry a chef and become a waitress. While neither of these moves proved successful in the long-run, they were the starting point for a new life as a creative non-fiction writer, with a particular interest in food and travel. Together with her first husband, modern Middle Eastern masterchef, Greg Malouf, Lucy is the co-author of seven award-winning food-travel titles. In addition to her books with Greg, Lucy is in demand as a food editor, working with chefs from around the world to bring their cookbooks to print. She also contributes features and reviews to anthologies, magazines, newspapers and websites.
In 2013, Lucy moved from Melbourne to East Kent. By way of light relief from recipe writing, she recently completed a Masters Degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and is currently working on her first novel – Scoff – a darkly comic crime novel about restaurant reviewing, murder and the murky Margate underworld. Her next cookbook collaboration with Greg will be published in October 2018.
Lucy will be in conversation with Bijan Omrani, discussing her travels around the Middle East, and whether the life of a food writer is as delicious as it sounds.
In 2013, Lucy moved from Melbourne to East Kent. By way of light relief from recipe writing, she recently completed a Masters Degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and is currently working on her first novel – Scoff – a darkly comic crime novel about restaurant reviewing, murder and the murky Margate underworld. Her next cookbook collaboration with Greg will be published in October 2018.
Lucy will be in conversation with Bijan Omrani, discussing her travels around the Middle East, and whether the life of a food writer is as delicious as it sounds.
William Ryan is an Irish writer who worked as a lawyer in the City before taking up writing historical fiction full-time. His Captain Korolev novels, The Holy Thief, The Bloody Meadow and The Twelfth Department are set in 1930s Moscow and have been shortlisted for the Irish Fiction Award, the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award, the CWA’s New Blood and Historical Daggers and twice for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award. His latest novel The Constant Soldier was shortlisted for the CWA’s Steel Dagger and the HWA Gold Crown and was described by the Daily Mail as 'subtle, suspenseful and superb'.
In 2007, a retired American military Intelligence officer donated an extraordinary collection of photographs to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The photographs were taken between June 1944 and January 1945 and belonged to Karl Hoecker, adjutant to Richard Baer, the last commander of Auschwitz. William will show some of the Hoecker photographs and explain how he used them and other photographs to write The Constant Soldier, a work of fiction that is, at the same time, firmly rooted in history. The novel explores the small steps ordinary people took in Nazi Germany that ended with great evil.
In 2007, a retired American military Intelligence officer donated an extraordinary collection of photographs to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The photographs were taken between June 1944 and January 1945 and belonged to Karl Hoecker, adjutant to Richard Baer, the last commander of Auschwitz. William will show some of the Hoecker photographs and explain how he used them and other photographs to write The Constant Soldier, a work of fiction that is, at the same time, firmly rooted in history. The novel explores the small steps ordinary people took in Nazi Germany that ended with great evil.
Rachael Boast was born in Suffolk in 1975 and is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Void Studies (Picador, 2016). She is co-editor of The Echoing Gallery: Bristol Poets and Art in the City (Redcliffe Press, 2013) and also co-edited The Caught Habits of Language (Donut Press, 2018)
Rachael will read from Pilgrim's Flower and Void Studies and talk about the poems.
Photo: copyright © Adrian Pope
Rachael will read from Pilgrim's Flower and Void Studies and talk about the poems.
Photo: copyright © Adrian Pope
Adam Hart-Davis is a freelance writer and lecturer – former presenter on television of Local Heroes, Tomorrow’s World, What the Romans (and others) Did for Us, How London was Built and many other series. He has collected awards for both television and radio, as well as four medals and 14 honorary doctorates. He has written about 35 books. He spends a lot of time hacking at green wood, making chairs, tables, bowls and spoons, and is trying to learn how to draw, and paint in water colours. He is a member of many associations, including the Association of Pole-lathe Turners and the British Toilet Association. Adam lectures on diverse subjects, from toilets and history, to 'Are we alone in the universe?' and has given more than 100 talks to audiences ranging from The Royal Society, The Royal Institution and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to schools, small local history groups and the captive audiences on cruise ships.
He will be speaking about his new book, Very Heath Robinson, which celebrates the work and life of William Heath Robinson, one of the few artists to have given their name to the English language, a phrase that describes ‘any absurdly ingenious and impracticable device’.
He will be speaking about his new book, Very Heath Robinson, which celebrates the work and life of William Heath Robinson, one of the few artists to have given their name to the English language, a phrase that describes ‘any absurdly ingenious and impracticable device’.
Always fascinated by plants and the natural world, Anne Swithinbank grew up in North Kent and trained at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. After working as Foreman Propagator for Epsom and Ewell Parks Department and then Glasshouse Supervisor at RHS Wisley, she went freelance to tackle small landscaping projects, pruning and consultancy for private clients. Writing and broadcasting work gradually took over and she is best known for being a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time since 1994. Anne has written and contributed to many books, notably The Conservatory Gardener and The Greenhouse Gardener, and writes regularly for several magazines. Her garden in Colyford is best described as ‘a dynamic, wildlife friendly and very fragrant workshop of a place’.
Anne will be speaking about scent in the garden.
Anne will be speaking about scent in the garden.
Esther Freud's first novel, Hideous Kinky, was published in 1992, shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993, after the publication of her second novel, Peerless Flats, she was named by Granta as one of the Best of Young Novelists under 40. She has since written seven novels, including The Sea House, Love Falls, Lucky Break and, most recently, Mr Mac & Me. She also writes stories, articles and travel pieces for newspapers and magazines, and teaches creative writing. in her own local group and at the Faber Academy.
Esther will talk about her life as a writer and the difference between writing a play, as she has just done – Stitchers, appearing at the Jermyn St Theatre in June – and novels.
Esther will talk about her life as a writer and the difference between writing a play, as she has just done – Stitchers, appearing at the Jermyn St Theatre in June – and novels.
Martin Barber is a retired senior UN official. He served as Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) at UN Headquarters from 2000 until 2005. Previously, he was Chief of Policy in the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). From 1996 to 1998, he was Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1989 to 1996, he worked with the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan, serving as UN Humanitarian Coordinator in 1995-6. From 1975 to 1982, he served with UNHCR in Laos and Thailand. Between 1982 and 1989, he was Director of the British Refugee Council. From 2010 to 2013, he served as Senior Adviser in the Office for Coordination of Foreign Aid in the Government of the United Arab Emirates. He is now a consultant and analyst on humanitarian issues. He holds a doctorate in South-East Asian Sociology from the University of Hull. Martin is the author of Blinded by Humanity: inside the UN’s Humanitarian Operations, 2015. Commenting on the book, Lord Malloch Brown has said: 'Every humanitarian, and new recruit to the UN, would benefit from reading it.'
Martin will be speaking about humanitarian aid in the 21st century - and why it's vital to support local responders.
Martin will be speaking about humanitarian aid in the 21st century - and why it's vital to support local responders.
Richard Edmonds is a freelance geologist who ‘got’ rocks, fossils and, a little later, geomorphology, the processes that create the landscape, from our fabulous coastline and hinterland.
His talk – 220 million years to just 170 years ago: the making of the landscape – will look at the formation of the Triassic rocks that underlie East Devon to the Great Bindon Landslide of 1939, exploring how and why the landscape is the way it is today.
His talk – 220 million years to just 170 years ago: the making of the landscape – will look at the formation of the Triassic rocks that underlie East Devon to the Great Bindon Landslide of 1939, exploring how and why the landscape is the way it is today.
Renee Edwards has worked on hundreds of films since the '90s, and spent over fifteen years editing landmark current affairs series, Panorama, Dispatches and Unreported World. The tragic events of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, kickstarted her directing career. Leicester born, and half African American, Renee has family members who were displaced by the flooding. She felt compelled to make a film about the aftermath. This film became the feature documentary One Note at a Time, a ten year labour of love, made by an enormous, generous team, in front and behind the camera, who wanted to tell this story. Renee will be showing the film at the festival.
This multi-award-winning feature documentary pays homage to the musicians who courageously returned to New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and a health care charity which fought to keep them alive, against the odds.
This multi-award-winning feature documentary pays homage to the musicians who courageously returned to New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and a health care charity which fought to keep them alive, against the odds.
Named after the most prominent note in the scale of an Indian raga, Vadi is Ricky Romain, Ramut Gonzalez and Steve Scott. Ricky has been studying,performing and teaching sitar since 1972. Ramut has been studying with Ricky for 7 years. He plays sitar, cajon and a slide guitar of his own design. Steve has been studying with Ricky for 18 months on bass guitar. Sometimes exquisitely tender, sometimes fiery and exuberant, Vadi play a number of different ragas, each signifying different moods and emotions. Other strong influences include folk, funk and Hendrix, with a strong emphasis on improvisation.