AUTUMN 2011 BOOK ‘N AUTHOR WEEK SCHEDULE
Tickets for talks are £6.50 (to include refreshments)
Turkish Delight evening on Friday 21st with Jason Goodwin at £12.00 to include buffet
Available from the Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 424901.
Thursday October 13th at 2.30pm: MARY S LOVELL: THE CHURCHILLS. (an illustrated talk)
Many authors have written books on various members of the Churchill family but none has attempted a biography of the whole family. In her latest book, The Churchills, Mary returns to the 19th and 20th centuries to chart a saga of one of England’s most prominent families - a family at the heart of history - from the Duke of Marlborough to Winston Churchill. In this powerful new work, she charts triumphant political and military campaigns; the construction of great houses; quiet domestic tragedies; disastrous marriages and profoundly happy ones such as that of the towering figure of Winston Churchill - ultimately the 'greatest Briton' - and his beloved Clementine Hosier.
MARY S LOVELL has written universally acclaimed biographies of The Mitford Girls, Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, Jane Digby and Bess of Hardwick - all extraordinary women whose exceptional lives have been brilliantly chronicled by this literary lioness of remarkable talent. Mary herself has had an exceptional career. She practiced as an accountant for 20 years before writing her first book in 1981 at the age of 40, whilst recovering from a broken back; the result of a riding accident. Her keen interest in aviation and as a pilot resulted in the biography of Beryl Markham‘s, Straight on Till Morning, researched and written in under a year, which became an immediate international bestseller.
We are particularly pleased to welcome Mary as our first speaker at this year’s festival. She is retiring the following day and this will be her last public appearance.
Friday October 14th at 2.30pm: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: THE MASTERS OF SITCOM: from Hancock to Steptoe. With images, audio clips and TV excerpts to illustrate the magic that was created by script writers Galton and Simpson.
The book is a celebration and anthology of Britain's greatest comedy writing duo, and draws on their complete archive of more than 600 scripts, including much material that was broadcast but not kept on tape. It is also based on many hours of interviews with Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the creators of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. In a remarkable twist doing research for the book Christopher discovered a long-forgotten film script complete with camera angles and scene-settings written for Tony Hancock by Galton and Simpson in 1961 which was turned down by Hancock. This is Christopher’s second book devoted to the background of our most popular comic talents. He published the first authorised biography of Kenneth Williams Born Brilliant in 2010.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS has more than 25 years’ experience working as a national-newspaper journalist. As a senior sub-editor, he has worked at The Observer in London since 1997, on the News and Political Comment sections; before that, he worked at several award-winning provincial newspapers, including the Western Daily Press in Bristol. His other books include A Real Boy, a memoir about his family's struggle to bring up their profoundly autistic son, David, which serialised in the Daily Mail. It was described by the Sun as "incredibly moving." The book was given the stamp of approval by the National Autistic Society, whose president, Jane Asher, called it "wonderfully honest". On the lighter side, Christopher Stevens wrote an activities handbook for fathers with young children, Things To Do With Dad. He also edited Will Hutton's best-selling compilation of essays, On The Edge, a study of the repercussions of globalisation.
He is 46, and lives in Bristol with his wife, Nicola, and his teenage sons, James and David.
Sunday October 16th at 6.30pm: The Milton Consort in a musical celebration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the St. James Bible.
Monday October 17th at 2.30pm: ALASTAIR HAZELL: THE LAST SLAVE MARKET: Dr. John Kirk and the Struggle to End the African Slave Trade.
John Kirk was the only companion of David Livingstone to emerge untainted from the disastrous, often fatal expedition up the Zambezi River between 1859 and 1863. Three years later, Kirk returned to Africa, to the notorious island of Zanzibar, ancient source of slave trafficking from Africa to the Middle East. Half a century after the abolition of slave trading had been passed into British law, this commerce continued to exist on Africa's east coast, tolerated and even connived at by Britain's empire on the Indian Ocean. But Kirk, appointed as medical officer to the British Consulate in Zanzibar, could do nothing. This extraordinary - and controversial - book brings Kirk's years in Zanzibar to life. The horrors of the overland passage from the interior, and the Zanzibar slave market itself are vividly described. The final bitter conflict with Livingstone, who blamed Kirk for his own disasters, is retold. But it was Kirk's own success in closing down the slave trade on the island which made him internationally famous. Using private diaries and papers, a long forgotten Victorian hero and an extraordinary chapter in British history are revived in detail.
ALASTAIR HAZELL spent his childhood in Malawi during the early 1960s. The country had been founded as a protectorate by Christian missionaries in the early nineteenth century as a bulwark against slave traders, and even in the 1970s, the dhows built by the slavers were still being used to sail across Lake Malawi. Following university Alastair spent ten years living and travelling in East and Central Africa, before taking up a career in financial information in London. In 2002 he retired and decided to research the origins of those inland dhows and the people who built them. The Last Slave Market is his first book and has received glowing reviews in The Spectator and The Economist.
Tuesday October 18th at 11.30am: TRACY BORMAN: MATILDA: Wife of the Conqueror
Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, was the first woman to be crowned Queen of England and formally recognised as such by her subjects. Beyond this, though, little is known of her life. No contemporary images of her remain, and in a period where all evidence is fragmentary and questionable, the chroniclers of the age left us only the faintest clues as to her life. So who was this spectral queen?
In this first major biography, Tracy Borman elegantly sifts through the shards of evidence to uncover an extraordinary story. In a dangerous, brutal world of conquest and rebellion, fragile alliances and bitter familial rivalries, Matilda possessed all the attributes required for a woman to thrive. She was born of impeccable lineage, and possessed of a loving and pious nature; she was a paragon of fidelity and motherhood. But strength, intelligence and ambition were also prerequisites to survive in such an environment. This side of her character, coupled with a fiercely independent nature, made Matilda essential to William’s rule, giving her unparalleled influence over the king. While this would provide an inspiring template for future indomitable queens, it led eventually to treachery, revolt and the fracturing of a dynasty.
Characterised by Tracy Borman’s graceful storytelling, Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror takes us from the courts of Flanders and Normandy to the opulence of royal life in England. Alive with intrigue, rumour and betrayal, it illuminates for the first time the life of an exceptional, brave and complex queen pivotal to the history of England.
TRACY BORMAN studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997. She went on to a successful career in heritage and has worked for a range of historic properties and national heritage organisations, including the National Archives and English Heritage. She is now Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust and also works part-time for Historic Royal Palaces.
Tracy has regularly appeared on television and radio, and has featured in a range of magazine and newspaper articles. She is a regular contributor to history magazines, including articles in BBC History Magazine on the history of beauty and eighteenth-century ‘It’ Girls’. In addition, she also gives public talks and lectures on a wide range of subjects.
Tuesday October 18th at 2.00pm: DR ANNA KEAY: The Crown Jewels. An illustrated talk
Based on original research this new book by historian, writer and presenter ANNA KEAY provides a dazzling mix of art and photography with entirely new views and spectacular details of the Crown Jewels. Individual pieces, gems, and carefully selected groups of objects the royal jewels are seen here as never before. The book is a definitive record of a most remarkable collection.
The priceless objects in the collection were created to be the physical embodiment of English sovereignty, and their story is that of the English monarchy itself—from the spoon used to pour out the holy oil of St. Thomas Becket at the coronation to the crown that King Edward VIII took into exile after he abdicated in 1936. In addition to the specially taken photographs of the jewels there are paintings and photographs of monarchs wearing the regalia, coronation ceremonies, and royal events during which items from the collection are used.
The Crown Jewels are visited at the Tower of London where they are kept by more than two million people each year.
ANNA KEAY worked as a curator for Historic Royal Palaces which looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Banqueting House in Whitehall from 1996 to 2002. Since 2002 she has been Properties Presentation Director of English Heritage for curating and presenting to the public 420 historic sites across England, from Stonehenge to Kenwood House.
In 2008 she presented with Dan Snow and Laurence Westgaph The History Channel’s 50 Things You Need to Know About British History and in 2006 was co-presenter of the acclaimed Channel 5 series The Buildings that Shaped Britain which charted the architectural history of the British Isles.
Aside from numerous other publications her previous books are The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power and The Elizabethan Tower of London
Wednesday October 19th at 2.30pm: JANE ROBINSON in an illustrated talk about her latest book A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH: A History of the WI
Another fascinating book concentrating on some of history’s most spirited women this is a celebration of the Women's Institute. Everyone knows that they make jam, starred naked in a calendar and slow handclapped Tony Blair, but this book explains more about their history and traditions. 215,000 women in the UK belong to the WI; founded in 1915 their members have included suffragettes, academics and social crusaders.
JANE ROBINSON read English Language and Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, before spending ten years in the antiquarian book trade in London. She is now a full-time writer and lecturer, specialising in social history through women’s eyes. A Force to be Reckoned With is her eighth book.
Wednesday October 19th at 7.30pm: Rohan McCullough in My Darling Clemmie, a one-woman theatrical depiction of the life of Clementine Churchill written by Hugh Whitemore.
Thursday October 20th at 2.00pm: ALISON WEIR with her thirteenth work of non-fiction MARY BOLEYN: The Great and Infamous Whore and a specially prepared DVD of images to illustrate her talk.
This is the first full-scale, in-depth biography of Henry VIII’s famous mistress and the sister of Anne, his second queen. Like so many of Alison’s book this one is no exception in that her intensive research has uncovered many truths and historical misconceptions about Mary. It explodes much of the mythology that surrounds one of the most misunderstood figures of the Tudor age.
ALISON WEIR is one of Britain’s most popular historians and historical novelists, and the author of sixteen books. She has recently founded her own historical tours company, Alison Weir Tours Ltd (www.alisonweirtours.com). Alison says: ‘I want to make history come alive, and one of the best ways of doing this is to take people to the places where it actually happened and share my knowledge and enjoyment of them on these tours’.
Thursday October 20th at 6.30pm: Camel enthusiast JOHN HARE: The Mysteries of Lop Nur and the Wild Camels of the Gobi. (An illustrated talk)
John Hare managed to obtain permission to enter China’s nuclear test area, which had been prohibited to foreigners for over fifty years. In 1993, he was invited by the Russian Academy of Sciences to join the joint Russian-Mongolian scientific expedition to the Gobi desert to assess environmental degradation and the survival of endangered species. In 1995 and 1996 he became the first foreigner to cross the Gashun Gobi from north to south and to reach the ancient city of Lou Lan from the east. He discovered an abandoned outpost of Lou Lan called Tu-ying and mummified figures with striking Caucasian features with cloth and felt dating from 1000BC, which may all be linked to Celts who came to western China during successive waves of migration.
In 1997, HARE founded the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, a UK registered charity where Dr. Jane Goodall DBE is the Life Patron. He subsequently obtained Chinese government approval for the establishment of the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve in Xinjiang Province, China (the former Chinese nuclear test site). At 155,000 square kilometres it is one of the largest in the world. Further expeditions to the area were made in 1997, 2004 and 2005 – all on domestic camels.
In 2001/2002 Hare crossed the Sahara Desert from Lake Chad to Tripoli, a three and a half months journey of 1500 miles to raise awareness for the wild Bactrian camel. This route had not been followed in its entirety by a foreigner for almost 100 years. In 2006 John Hare made the first complete circumambulation with camel of Lake Turkana (Rudolph) in Kenya. He has recently returned from the Gobi in China where he went over sand dunes some 400 metres high!
Friday October 21st at 11.00am: An illustrated talk by PROFESSOR PHILIP HOWSE: GIANT SILK MOTHS: Colour, Mimicry & Camouflage
The most spectacular wild silk moths live in tropical and subtropical forests and include the elegant moon moths with delicate pale green wings and long tails, the huge atlas moths with snake patterns embroidered on the edges of their wings, and the “bulls-eye” moths with brightly-coloured eye-spots resembling the eyes of owls.
The interplay of wing colours and design, behaviour, and ecology in the evolution of these magnificent insects is explored. There are many previously unrecognised examples of mimicry of other animals. Images of owl eyes, bird wings, claws, teeth, heads of reptiles, birds, rodents, cats etc., that all appear to be designed to frighten short-sighted insect-eating birds, can be found embedded in the wing patterns.
Some varieties of silk are obtained from the giant silk moths, but most silk comes from the common silk-worm, a close relative of the Saturniidae, domesticated over 7000 years ago in China. This insect had a major impact on the development of world trade, starting along the Silk Road and ultimately changing the economies and landscape of many parts of Europe.
The grandeur and the fascinating natural history of silk moths will enthral scientists, artists and photographers alike, and all those interested in wildlife.
PROFESSOR PHILIP HOWSE OBE is an acknowledged expert on insect behaviour and ecology. Now retired and living in Burton Bradstock Giant Silk Moths is the second book he has published after Butterflies: Messages from Psyche, which recently won the Bronze Medal in the category ‘Environment, Ecology, Nature’ of the Independent Publishers Book Awards in New York.
Friday October 21st at 6.30pm: An evening of Turkish Delight – a Turkish buffet followed by a talk by JASON GOODWIN – scholar of the Ottoman empire and author of AN EVIL EYE, the latest of the Yashim detective series.
Increasingly drawn to 19th century Istanbul life and Turkish cooking we are hosting a buffet of delicious Turkish food to be followed by a talk by Jason on what draws him to the city where East meets West. An accomplished travel writer he has in the past few years turned his considerable skills to writing detective novels set in Istanbul in the early 1800s. His first in the series The Janissary Tree introduced Yashim, the Turkish slipper wearing debonair detective which became a best seller and won the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America in 2007. This was followed by The Snake Stone and The Bellini Card. These have been translated into more than 40 languages. An Evil Eye is the latest in the series. A review of the book in the Independent says, ‘Historical novels may be sometimes lightly regarded, but this one is full of the virtues of that genre, bringing to life an immeasurably different world’ and ‘The bare outlines are enlivened by Goodwin's skilful use of colour and detail, especially Yashim's recipes, which set the reader drooling.’
JASON GOODWIN studied Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Fifteen years ago, following the success of The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea, he made a six-month pilgrimage across Eastern Europe to Istanbul, a journey recounted in On Foot to the Golden Horn, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize in 1993.
Intrigued by the enduring influence of the Ottoman Turks on Eastern Europe, Jason went on to research and write Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire. Jan Morris called it ‘a high-octane work of art’, and the New York Times praised its ‘dazzling beauty ... The rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing’.
He is married to Kate, his companion on the walk to Istanbul. They live in Dorset with their four children. See www.jasongoodwin.info for more information.
Tickets
Tickets for talks are £6.50 (to include refreshments)
Turkish Delight evening on Friday 21st with Jason Goodwin at £12.00 to include buffet
Available from the Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 424901.
More
The Book n Author Week also encompasses two special musical and theatrical events.