Charleston Festival

Tickets: £10. "To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the prestigious Man Booker Prize, Victoria Glendinning, former Booker judge and biographer of Leonard Woolf, will chair a book club where members of a literary panel champion their own favourite Booker novel, as well as those that did not make it. ... (lisää)The panel will include writer, presenter, comedian and judge of this year’s Prize, Hardeep Singh Kohli; Kate Mosse, co-founder of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, hugely successful author of Labyrinth (Richard and Judy Book of the Year), Sepulchre, and presenter of Radio 4’s A Good Read."

Tickets £10. "In her unique blend of brio and perceptive wit, Marina Lewycka follows her best-selling, award-winning A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian with a novel that charts the fortunes of an assortment of immigrant workers while strawberry picking in Kent. Daljit Nagra’s Look ... (lisää)We Have Coming to Dover! is a prize-winning collection of poems about assimilation, aspiration and dislocation, rich in humour. Can literary comedy highlight social issues? Marina Lewycka, whose background is Ukrainian, was born in a refugee camp in Germany. Daljit Nagra’s parents came to the UK from the Punjab in the 50s."

Tickets £10. "Alison Light and Celia Robertson. Chaired by Giles Waterfield. Alison Light’s Mrs Woolf and the Servants aired Bloomsbury’s dirty laundry in public and retrieved the lives of women who had been relegated to the margins of history. In Who Was Sophie? Celia Robertson ... (lisää)tells the story of her grandmother’s journey from Joan Adeney Easdale, child protégée and Hogarth Press poet, to anonymous bag lady. Alison Light, whose grandmother was in service, is a cultural historian; Celia Robertson worked as an actress. They discuss the complex truths revealed by their assiduous sleuthing with novelist Giles Waterfield, curator of the NPG Below Stairs exhibition."

Tickets £10. "Jane Austen said that ‘the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in a novel must be intolerably stupid’. But is knowledge of the fundamentals of science more important in the age of climate change and cloning? For the motion: Richard Fortey, palaeontologist and author ... (lisää)of Dry Store Room No.1: The Secret History of the Natural History Museum; Georgina Ferry, science writer and author of Max Perutz And The Secret Life. Against the motion: John Mullan, Professor of English at UCL, journalist and author of Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature; Tracy Chevalier, novelist - The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Burning Bright – and Chair of the Society of Authors. Chairperson: Joan Bakewell, Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts, is a pioneering journalist, cultural commentator and author. The audience decides the outcome by casting a vote. "

Tickets £10. "Does the recent success of two vivid social histories, David Kynaston’s Austerity Britain and Virginia Nicholson’s Singled Out, herald the end of the blockbuster biography? Is the sound bite age more suited to books of personal testimony than to door-stopper, definitive ... (lisää)single lives? Singled Out tells the story of how two million women survived without men after WW1; Austerity Britain describes life for ordinary people post WW11. Their authors discuss the art of letting multiple individual voices illustrate an age. David Kynaston is an historian; Virginia Nicholson’s previous book was Among the Bohemians."

Tickets £10. "Adam Nicolson in conversation with Charles Saumarez Smith. In his account of an Elizabethan golden age, Earls of Paradise, retold through the varying fortunes of the Pembrokes of Wilton – the inspiration for writers and artists including Raleigh, Donne, Inigo Jones, Van Dyck ... (lisää)and Shakespeare – Adam Nicolson explores dreams of rural perfection. His illustrated talk considers whether Elizabethan Britain embodied a more ideal way of living than ours. Adam Nicolson is an award-winning author. Charles Saumarez-Smith, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy, has written about Castle Howard."

Tickets £10. "What drives individuals to experiment with dangerous ways of behaving? In the case of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, the subject of Carole Seymour-Jones’s A Dangerous Liaison, it was free-thinking ideals and Left-Bank intellectualism; in the case of Idina Sackville, ... (lisää)the subject of Frances Osborne’s The Bolter - the inspiration for Nancy Mitford’s character in The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate - it was 1920s high society and Happy Valley mores. They consider the cost of illicit passion and betrayal. Seymour-Jones wrote The Life of Vivienne Eliot. Frances Osborne is a journalist and author."

Tickets £10. "This year is the 30th anniversary of Virago Modern Classics - dedicated to the celebration of women writers and founded by Carmen Callil. Novelist Jonathan Coe freely acknowledges his debt to these rediscovered female authors. They discuss the impact of Virago on writers and readers and ... (lisää)the influence of Rosamond Lehmann on Coe’s new novel, The Rain Before it Falls, a traumatic family saga, set in the second-half of the 20th century. Jonathan Coe’s previous books include the award-winning What a Carve Up and The Rotter’s Club. Carmen Callil is the author of Bad Faith."

Tickets £10. "The Levellers of the 17th century, whose demands for democracy and the end of parliamentary corruption culminated in the Putney Debates, represent a turning point in British history. Are their radical ideas still as important today? Antonia Fraser’s many highly acclaimed books include ... (lisää)Cromwell: Our Chief of Men. Tristram Hunt is a historian, lecturer, broadcaster and author of Building Jerusalem. Geoffrey Robertson QC is a human rights lawyer, who appeared for the defence in the Oz and Gay News trials and has also acted in well-known libel and civil liberties cases."

Tickets £14. "Sylvia Plath’s position as a cultural icon and highly influential writer is unassailable. This event, including poetry, slides, films and a specially commissioned song, presents fascinating new material about Plath as a painter and a reader. Plath’s work is read by the celebrated ... (lisää)actress, Diana Quick; Sally Bayley, co-editor of Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath’s Art of the Visual, gives an illustrated talk and shows Suzie Hanna’s animation, The Girl Who Would Be God; award-winning playwright Elisabeth Gray introduces her film inspired by Plath’s work and Jack Harris sings the Plath Lullaby."

Tickets £10. "How does one cope after leaving the best club in London after 51 years? Since resigning from Parliament, Tony Benn’s energy for campaigns and controversies has not wavered. In the latest (8th) volume of his diaries, he weaves the personal and the political into a warm and revelatory ... (lisää)whole. Tony Benn – a one-man antidote to the cynicism of modern politics – talks about his long political career, his passions (including triple-cheese pizzas, coca-cola and baked beans) and ideals."

Tickets £10. "Can one escape one’s past and what are the perils of forgetting? Linda Grant’s The Clothes on Their Backs is about a young girl coming to terms with her dislocated and shameful family history. Emily Perkins’ Novel About My Wife is about flight and trying to forge a ... (lisää)new life. Linda Grant’s fiction includes the Orange Prize winning When I Lived in Modern Times. She also writes on fashion – which plays a significant part in her new novel. Emily Perkins, who lives in New Zealand, is the author of an award-winning collection of short stories and two novels."

Tickets £10. "Mark Cocker and Polly Devlin. Chaired by Andrew McNeillie. How can one account for the surge of interest in natural history? Mark Cocker’s Crow Country and Polly Devlin’s A Year in the Life of an English Meadow were both instant successes. Crow Country ... (lisää)is a paean to Cocker’s corvine obsession; Polly Devlin’s book is a tribute to an almost lost way of life. They discuss their passions with Andrew McNeillie, poet and editor of Archipelago, a journal dedicated to the British landscape. Mark Cocker is one of our foremost writers on nature. Polly Devlin is a well-known author and broadcaster. Andrew McNeillie co-edited Virginia Woolf’s Diaries."

Tickets £10. "Catherine O’Flynn’s hugely successful novel, What Was Lost, won the Costa First Novel Award. A modern mystery, based in a shopping mall, it blends humour and pathos in the haunting story of a girl detective and her disappearance. The world famous crime writer, Agatha Christie ... (lisää)- the subject of Laura Thompson’s acclaimed biography - became a mystery in her own right when she vanished in mid-life. The authors discuss the contrasts between classic and contemporary crime writing. Catherine O’Flynn’s job in a record store influenced her debut novel. Laura Thompson’s previous biography was of Nancy Mitford."

Tickets £12. "Salman Rushdie in conversation with Erica Wagner. In his new novel, Salman Rushdie, winner of the Booker of Bookers, transports readers to the 16th century Mughal Court, where a visitor from the Florentine world of Machiavelli wins the attention of the Emperor. This vintage Rushdie ... (lisää)tale of stories within stories, where nothing is as it first seems (or is it?), sets up symmetries between East and West – the hedonistic Mughal capital and the equally sensual Florentine city. Salman Rushdie is the author of nine novels, including Midnight’s Children and The Moor’s Last Sigh. Erica Wagner is the Literary Editor of The Times and author of the novel Seizure."

Tickets £10. "Rosemary Hill in conversation with Simon Jenkins. Rosemary Hill’s biography of the Victorian architect and designer, Pugin, the central figure of the Victorian Gothic revival, reveals a complex figure who, despite his remarkable life and great achievements - Big Ben, much of the ... (lisää)Houses of Parliament, 22 churches and 3 cathedrals - died young, disillusioned and insane. She discusses Pugin’s world-view and legacy with Simon Jenkins, former editor of The Times, columnist and author of England’s Thousand Best Churches and England’s Thousand Best Houses. Rosemary Hill is a writer and architectural historian."

Tickets £10. "A.L. Kennedy and Lorrie Moore. Chaired by Di Speirs. A.L. Kennedy, whose work is distinctive for its dark humour and linguistic brilliance, is the winner of the Costa Book of the Year for her novel, Day, about the impact of war on an ordinary soldier. She is also an award-winning ... (lisää)short story writer. Lorrie Moore is one of America’s greatest authors. Her ferociously funny stories ‘pack more wit and tragic-power into a single paragraph than most novels manage over fifteen chapters’ – Helen Simpson. Moore’s novels include Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? They read from and discuss their work with Di Speirs, Radio 4 producer and judge of the BBC National Short Story Award."

Tickets £10. "Helen Dunmore’s novel, Counting the Stars, tells the story of the poet Catullus’ tormented relationship with his secret mistress, Clodia – the subject of his most passionate verse – set against the backdrop of Julius Caesar’s Rome. Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip, set ... (lisää)on a strife-riddled tropical island in New Guinea where a single white man re-tells Dickens’ Great Expectations to the rapt inhabitants, is a haunting tour-de-force which has become an international best-seller. Helen Dunmore was the first winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, Lloyd Jones, who lives in New Zealand, is a prolific writer."

Tickets £10. "Diana Athill and Katherine Whitehorn. Chaired by Lynne Truss. Diana Athill’s Somewhere Towards the End is a candid and amusing book about getting old, including the decline of sexual desire. Katherine Whitehorn’s Selective Memory is equally honest and unflinching ... (lisää)about her career, long marriage and grief at the loss of her husband. Diana Athill is a distinguished editor and has written five volumes of memoirs; Katherine Whitehorn is a ground-breaking journalist and author. They discuss the pleasures and pains of looking back, together with Lynne Truss, novelist and best-selling author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves."

Tickets £12. "Michael Billington and Christopher Hampton. Chaired by William Nicholson. Michael Billington, drama critic of the Guardian since 1971 and author of biographies of Harold Pinter and Peggy Ashcroft, believes British theatre is a microcosm of the outside world. Christopher ... (lisää)Hampton is one of our most lauded playwrights and screenwriters. His dramas include The Philanthropist, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Embers, and his screen-plays include Atonement and Carrington. He has also directed and written lyrics for musicals and operas. They discuss the interplay between the performing arts and society with William Nicholson, playwright (Shadowlands) and screen-writer (Elizabeth: the Golden Age)."

Tickets £10. "Some intimate relationships transcend boundaries. Jane Dunn’s Read My Heart is the love story of Dorothy Osborne and Sir William Temple, whose families were opposed during the Civil War, and who, after their marriage, jointly occupied a pivotal role in C17th social and political ... (lisää)life. Frances Wilson’s The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth sheds light on the complex literary and bohemian relationship between the poet and his sister, who was also his muse. Jane Dunn’s previous books were Elizabeth and Mary and Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell: A Very Close Conspiracy. Frances Wilson’s previous book was The Courtesan’s Revenge."

Tickets £10. "She has filmed David Beckham sleeping and made grown men cry. Now artist Sam Taylor-Wood has just finished directing a short film, Love You More, with a script by Patrick Marber. Inspired by the Buzzcocks single of the same name, the film is a tender love-story set in the heady ... (lisää)punk days of 1978. Sam Taylor-Wood takes photographs and makes films that examine our shared social and psychological experiences. Patrick Marber is a playwright (Dealer’s Choice, Closer and Don Juan in Soho) and screenwriter (Notes on a Scandal). He is currently adapting Ian McEwan’s Saturday for the screen. They discuss their creative collaboration."

Tickets £10. "Grayson Perry and Jane Stevenson. Chaired by Frances Spalding. Edward Burra is a painter who does not fit neatly into conventional art histories, so it is hardly surprising that he appeals to Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, best known for his ceramics, with their incongruous ... (lisää)juxtaposition of decoration and form, and his transvestite alter ego, Claire. Jane Stevenson, Burra’s biographer, rehabilitated his life and a large body of highly original, modernist work. They discuss why this appealing artist, unafraid of bad taste and drawn to scenes of city life, has been unfairly neglected. With Frances Spalding, biographer and art historian."

Tickets £14. "A unique, first performance by Eileen Atkins of the work of the poet, Stevie Smith. One of our most admired theatrical Dames, Eileen Atkins has long been fascinated by Stevie Smith. They grew up in the same part of North London – where Stevie Smith remained throughout her life. She ... (lisää)is one of the great contradictory originals of 20th century poetry, writing of dark matters with reckless abandon – ‘not waving but drowning’ – and light ones with a deep, sardonic edge. Eileen Atkins, recently seen on the small screen in Cranford, and in the theatre in Bond’s The Sea, has won innumerable awards for her acting. She has a strong association with the work of Virginia Woolf, including playing in A Room of One’s Own and Vita and Virginia and adapting Mrs Dalloway for T.V."