Cambridge Wordfest
 

 

TTp Group

Cambridge City Council

Cambridgeshire County Council

Heffers

Stradivari Trust

 

 

 

 

 

 
   
programme/sunday
 

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Sunday 29 April  

Jacqueline Wilson OBE

Jacky DaydreamingThe Children's Laureate and the UK's most popular and powerful children's writer will read at cambridge wordfest for the first time with her latest book, Jacky Daydream . The winners of the Jacqueline Wilson Design a Book Jacket competition will also be announced.

The Guildhall 11 am - 12 pm
£6

Brian Thompson - Life Matters

Clever GirlAuthor of the funny, dark and spellbinding Keeping Mum (Winner of the Costa Prize for Biography 2007), Brian Thompson will be reading from the next volume of his memoirs Clever Girl. Brian grew up in Cambridge and his memoirs of 1940's and 50's Britain are amongst the best you will ever read.

Introduced by Rowan Pelling.

McCrum Lecture Theatre 11 am - 12 pm
£6/£5

PD James - Novel Experiences

The LighthouseEnjoy an hour in the company of one of the greatest literary crime-writers, PD James. Discussing her writing and reading from the new Adam Dalgleish mystery, The Lighthouse, the prolific and compulsively readable PD James will tantalise your Sunday morning.

ADC Theatre 11 am - 12 pm
£8/£6

 

Michael Bywater - Big Babies

Writer, critic, broadcaster and author of the critically acclaimed Lost Worlds Michael Bywater is here to give you his personal take on the lost art of being a grown-up. Reading from and discussing his latest book Big Babies Michael Bywater is sure to intrigue and entertain.

Introduced by Rowan Pelling.

McCrum Lecture Theatre 12.30 - 1.30 pm
£6/£5

Graham Swift - Novel Experiences

After his rapturous reception at wordfest 2005, Graham Swift returns with his new book, Tomorrow. His eighth novel, Tomorrow is a magical exploration of coupledom, parenthood and selfhood, and a unique meditation on the mystery of happiness.

Introduced by Nigel Cutting, Head of City Council Arts & Entertainment.

ADC Theatre 12.30 - 1.30 pm
£8/£6

Benedict Allen - Life Matters

Into the AbyssCome and spend an hour in the company of this extraordinary man who tried to cross the Bering Straits between Siberia and Alaska , single-handed and with nothing except a dog team. Into the Abyss: Explorers on the Edge of Survival, combines Allen's own life and death experience in the arctic with the adventures of history's greatest explorers.

Introduced by Robert Macfarlane, author of Mountains of the Mind and Professor of English at Emmanuel College.

McCrum Lecture Theatre 2 - 3 pm
£6/£5

David Lodge - The Year of Henry James

Year of Henry JamesOne of our most eminent literary figures, David Lodge is as enlightening a critic as he is a novelist. He will read from and discuss the title piece of The Year of Henry James, a memoir of the experience of writing his novel Author, Author . In conversation with Dame Gillian Beer.

ADC Theatre 2 - 3 pm
£8/£6

 

Dragonology

Prepare to be bamboozled and bewitched. Dugald Steer transports you to the world of the Secret and Ancient Society of Dragonologists, talking all about dragon's and telling how twelve-year-old Daniel Cook and his sister Beatrice begin their dragonological apprentice under the eccentric Dr. Ernest Drake.

ADC Theatre 3.30 - 4.30 pm
£5

Gautam Malkani and Mohsin Hamid - Novel Experiences

LondonstaniA unique event with two striking and contrasting voices. Gautam Malkani's electrifying debut, Londonstani and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid's devastating novel, explore the pervasive dilemma of being Pakistani in the west.

Introduced by Hari Kunzru, author of the Impressionist and Transmission.

McCrum Lecture Theatre 3.30 - 4.30 pm
£6/£5

Clive Stafford-Smith - Life Matters

Bad MenA remarkable man with a remarkable story to tell. Clive Stafford Smith talks about Bad Men, his devastating book focussing on the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo. The book shines a bright, unblinking light into the darkest corners of illegality that are being justified by governments in the name of the War on Terror.

Introduced by Andrew Furlow, Marketing Director Icon books.

ADC Theatre 5 - 6 pm
£8/£6

Jacob Polley, Helen Farish & Ruth Padel - Pause for Poetry

The Poem and the JourneyA feast of poetry with 3 prize-winning poets on the menu - all short-listed for the T S Eliot Award. Jacob Polley, this year's Trinity College visiting fellow, will read from 'Little Gods'.  Helen Farish Forward Poetry Prizewinner will be reading from her debut collection 'Intimates'.  Ruth Padel, chair of The Poetry Society, great great granddaughter of Darwin and a past winner of the National Poetry Competition will be reading new poems and from her collections The Voodoo Shop and The Soho Leopard. Enjoy.

Introduced by Andre Mangeot, Poet.

McCrum Lecture Theatre 5 - 6 pm
£6/£5

Matt Harvey & Dean Parkin - Flights of Fancy and Other Diversions

The Hole in the Sum of my PartsTwo hugely entertaining poets who won't take the obvious route from A to B.

In The Hole in the Sum of My Parts (2005), Matt Harvey searches for love in lonely hearts ads, shops for curtains, and encounters tea bags, gigabytes and religious conversions. A BBC Radio 4 regular, his poems appeal to all ages, backgrounds and body-types.

The poems in Irresistible to Women showcase Dean Parkin's offbeat, tender and funny stories of communication breakdowns. Expect hot dogs, unstoppable trucks, exploding pigeons and more...

The Poetry TrustIn partnership with The Poetry Trust.
www.thepoetrytrust.org

McCrum Lecture Theatre 6.30 - 7.30 pm
£6/£5

Sarah Waters & AL Kennedy - Novel Experiences

The Night WatchTwo stunningly good story tellers, Sarah Waters and AL Kennedy, in conversation about their latest novels, both set in post war Britain.

The hugely popular Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet, both adapted for television, have made Sarah Waters a household literary name.

AL Kennedy, (Paradis, Everything you Need) has been hailed as one of Britain 's most iconoclastic and fiercely independent talents.

Introduced by Cathy Moore, Festival Director

ADC Theatre 6.30 - 7.30pm
£8/£6

It'll Be All Write On The Night - Literary Quiz

From PD James to Rhona Cameron, Honore de Balzac to Helen Fielding, William Shakespeare to David Hare. The annual opportunity to flex your literary muscles at the legendary Wordfest Literary Quiz. Come in teams of up to 8 and book early, this event is always a sell-out. Written and presented by Sean Moore and Adrian Frost.

Michaelhouse Cafe 8 - 10 pm
£6