Essex Book Festival is thrilled to announce its spectacular extended summer programme, combining digital and in-person events with a WORDS MATTER theme at its core.
Events include: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT ESSEX GIRLS| REWRITING THE ARCHIVE | POLAND TODAY: WOMEN, CENSORSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS | IN MY STEPS: RADICAL WALKS IN ESSEX | ESSEX BOOK CAMP | MASKED| SHE HEALS | LIBRARY LOVE LETTERS | CRIMINALLY GOOD DAY | ESSEX WRITERS HOUSE | POETRY IN LOCKDOWN
With Authors, Artists & Speakers: MONIQUE ROFFEY| MAT OSMAN | CLAIRE FULLER | ALEXANDRA WILSON | ALISON WEIR| IAIN DALE | SAMANTHA LEE HOWE | BEN OKRI | MARINA WARNER | GAVIN ESLER | ELIZABETH HAYNES | CRAIG BROWN | PATRICK VERNON | CHRISTINE PENHALL | DAVID OMAND | SARAH PERRY | JUSTIN SOMPER | LIZ TRENROW |AGNIESZKA DALE | SYLWIA CHUTNIK | LEAH CROSS| GEORGINA HARDING | BARRY FORSHAW | SARAH PERRY | SYD MOORE | SADIE HASLER | GLENYS NEWTON | MAJID ADIN | JOHN TARROW | DELAINE LE BAS | LOUISE HARE | DR HILARY JONES | DORIAN KELLY |JAMES CANTON | HARTLE O’HARE | KEN WORPOLE | GILLIAN DARLEY | ABIGAIL DEAN | TAMMYE HUF | NAOMI ISHIGURO | A.K. BLAKEMORE | KEN WORPOLE | ALEC MARSH | FRANCES FYFIELD | NIGEL SIMEONE | PERRIAM GERALDINE | SOPHIE HERXHEIMER | JAMES CANTON | TOM KING | NICOLA WERENOWSKA | LILY HUNTER GREEN | ESSEX STEAMETTES | SALLY GARDNER | LYDIA CORRY | ROB RAMSDEN | INBAL LEITNER | DEBORAH CHANCELLOR | ROSE ROBBINS | MARJOKE HENRICHS | NEIL D’ARCY JONES | JOSIE DOM | ANGENITA HARDY BOWERS | MADDY GLENN
Spanning across three months from 6 June to 29 August, the Festival will be welcoming over 200 speakers to take part in 100 events in 40 venues across the Essex, including a new international digital twinning with Emerging Writers Festival, a kindred festival in Melbourne, and the inaugural Essex Book Camp hosted at Cressing Temple Barns, home to the World’s oldest solid oak beam barn and erstwhile stronghold of the mysterious Knights Templar.
The festival opens with its WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT ESSEX GIRLS, a digital event featuring three fabulously talented, feisty and fearless women of Essex: Sarah Perry, Syd Moore, Sadie Hasler. Join them in a candid and comic discussion as they dismantle the Essex stereotypes and reshape expectations.
Set to entertain, challenge and inspire, this year’s programme combines a series of author events tackling issues such as race, gender, and the politics of borders, running in tandem with eight intriguing artist led walks fresh off the press for 2021: In My Steps: Radical Walks in Essex; author talks galore featuring the likes of beloved Costa Book of the Year Winner Monique Roffey, barrister, activist and debut author Alexandra Wilson, rock star-turned-author Mat Osman of Suede fame, and much loved historian Alison Weir. All shining a light on the extraordinary creativity of Essex.
Meanwhile, this year’s first ever Essex Book Camp and festival finale, will be packed with a huge array of events, including bookish conversations and debates with Dr Hilary Jones, novelist Georgina Harding and others; family writing workshops, storytelling, dance, circus, live music, inventive eco-crafts, plus complimentary drop-in family yoga sessions to help festival goers relax into the scenic landscape of Cressing Temple Barns’ rural idyll. In other words, an August Bank Holiday paradise for book lovers and others alike!
With events taking place in venues and locations as diverse as Jaywick Martello Tower; Clacton Library; the UK’s most extraordinary house, Talliston House & Gardens; Harlow Museum; The Witches Trail, which extends from Manningtree to Mistley; Layer Marney Tower, one of Henry VIII’s favourite Tudor palaces; Hadleigh Country Park; Canvey Heights, one of the UK’s lowest flying mountains; and HMP/YOI Chelmsford, expect the unexpected: this is an odyssey not to be missed.
Ros Green, Festival Director of Essex Book Festival, said: “We are so excited about this year’s extended hybrid Essex Book Festival, which will be taking place online and in person in 40+ venues across Essex, June 6th – 29th August. Not just because it’s actually happening – a huge hurrah to that – but because of all the great new things in the mix. Whether that’s the inspired digital twinning between our Southend-based Pop Up Essex Writers House and kindred spirit Melbourne-based Emerging Writers Festival; something we would never have considered pre-pandemic. Our fascinatingly feisty launch event: We Need To Talk About Essex Girls, featuring 3 leading Essex Girls: Sarah Perry, Syd Moore and Sadie Hasler. Get those Essex Girls jokes at the ready. Or a walk or two on the wild side with our new series of In My Steps: Radical Walks in Essex led by the likes of Ken Worpole, James Canton and Gillian Darley. Watch out for those low-flying mountains on Canvey Island! It really is all to play for in 2021, so come and join in the fun.”
Visit https://essexbookfestival.org.uk/ for more information and tickets.
