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This year’s festival welcomes a host of talented writers, thinkers and performers to Durham. Here are just some of the highlights from the 2016 programme…

The Gordon Burn Prize Friday 7 October See page 10

Inua Ellams Saturday 8 October See page 20

Juno Dawson and Lisa Williamson Wednesday 12 October See page 5

Michael Morpurgo Friday 14 October See page 4

Laura Bates Saturday 8 October See page 12

James Rebanks Sunday 9 October See page 17

Anthony Horowitz Wednesday 12 October See page 29

Helen Mort Saturday 15 October See page 9

Kamal Kaan Saturday 8 October See page 26

Picador Showcase Tuesday 11 October See page 29

Alan Johnson Thursday 13 October See page 18

Kathryn Williams and Friends Saturday 15 October See page 9

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The Durham Book Festival Big Read: Regeneration by Pat Barker

Join us this October to celebrate Pat Barker’s formative work of First World War fiction, Regeneration. Durham Book Festival 2016 will see the whole of County Durham reading Regeneration, and celebrating Pat Barker’s work and achievements, which include winning the prestigious Booker Prize in 1995 for The Ghost Road, the novel which completes the Regeneration trilogy.

Twenty-five years after its publication and as County Durham commemorates one hundred years since the Battle of the Somme, we will be distributing 3,000 copies of Regeneration to schools, libraries and businesses, and to university staff and students, in the author’s home county of Durham.

As compelling as it is historically detailed, Regeneration raises questions about why the war remains such a captivating subject, and how literature has shaped our view of it. Asked to imagine a ‘war poet’, few people would think of a modern author. Our war poets are those of the First World War, and two of the most famous are among Barker’s main characters. Except we don’t meet them on the front line – we meet them in a psychiatric hospital.

Barker illuminates the lives of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen with a combination of intense historical detail and vividly imagined dialogue and description. Both men were sent to Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh, where they were to be treated for ‘shell shock’ by Dr WHR Rivers. We are given the illusion of witnessing how they met, how Sassoon shaped Owen’s poetry, and how they coped with life in a medical institution.

Barker presents alongside these famous writers the more fictional tale of working class officer Billy Prior and munitions worker Sarah Lumb, whose romance develops in the moments Prior can spend outside Craiglockhart. Central too is Dr Rivers himself. Though opposed to the cruel methods of some of his colleagues, he still has to heal his patients only to return them to military duty.

On the anniversary year of Regeneration’s publication, and during the centenary of the First World War, we consider how poets and novelists have shaped our views of conflict. Why have Sassoon and Owen had such a huge impact on how we remember the war? What is the role of historical fiction in helping us to understand it? Are we still haunted by the trauma with which Barker grapples?

The Big Read in Durham Libraries

We’re inviting library users all over County Durham to get involved with the Big Read again this year. Branch libraries across Durham will be distributing FREE copies of Regeneration to readers and holding book group meetings to discuss its themes. The prison library service will be sharing the book too.

Participating libraries are Durham Clayport, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee, Seaham, Cornforth, Murton, Belmont, Chester-le-Street, Consett, Stanley, Pelton, Newton Hall, Crook, Barnard Castle, and Willington. Get in touch with your nearest branch for more details.

On Tuesday 27 September at 2pm we will be hosting a special free library book group summit meeting at Consett Library and inviting members from all the library book groups to join together for a discussion about Regeneration. There is no need to book for this event.

Drop into Clayport Library to see a specially commissioned artwork by visual artist Yvette Hawkins inspired by her reading of Regeneration and the First World War.

Discover Trench Newspapers

Sunday 9 October, 2.15pm-3.15pm Barker Research Library, Palace Green Library All tickets: £4

This is a chance to see, handle, and discuss wartime magazines and journals from the Palace Green and Newcastle City Library collections. We have gathered together a range of little-seen periodicals to investigate how people wrote about the First World War while it was taking place. You can enjoy astonishingly funny trench newspaper The Growler from the Northumberland Fusiliers, and explore the photographs and illustrations in The War Illustrated. These and other publications offer us a fascinating glimpse into the way the war was pictured and understood as it developed.

With Alastair Fraser, Durham University, and Emily Anderson, Newcastle University

Cloth Books: Visible Mending

Saturday 15 October, 11am-12pm Clayport Library Tickets: £5/£4

Join artist Yvette Hawkins to create a cloth book inspired by Pat Barker’s Regeneration.

The workshop will use techniques including darning, mending and sewing to create a cloth book made of repaired recycled textiles. These mendings create memories in the fabric that cannot be washed away or forgotten – they represent the scars, wounds and histories of the owner and remind us of the conflict and ‘invisible’ mental traumas of war that are written about so vividly in the novel.

The 2016 Big Read is supported by the Booker Prize Foundation. The Booker Prize Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales with the purpose of promoting the art of literature for the public benefit. Since 2002 the Foundation has been responsible for awarding the annual Man Booker Prize, which previously had been established for over 30 years as the Booker Prize. In 2005 the Foundation inaugurated the Man Booker International Prize. The Foundation is grateful for the sponsorship of the Man Group plc for both prizes. The Foundation supports a diverse range of activities which promote and foster literature, and has a special interest in encouraging reading of high quality contemporary fiction.


Live Canon present War Poets

Sunday 9 October, 1pm–2pm Durham Town Hall Tickets: £10/£8

A live performance of several centuries of war poetry, from the Live Canon Ensemble.

This programme features not only well-known poems from the First World War, including by Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, but work from the Crimea, Second World War, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the most extraordinary war poetry by women from every generation.

Live Canon perform from memory – these are not readings – and this is a rare opportunity to hear this collection of poetry performed live.

Suitable for ages 14+

Writing the First World War with Pat Barker and Michael Morpurgo

Friday 14 October, 7pm–8.15pm Durham Cathedral Nave Tickets: £12/£10

Durham Book Festival brings two of Britain’s foremost literary chroniclers of the First World War together for the very first time. Award-winning authors Pat Barker and Michael Morpurgo will together talk about what draws them to the First World War and will also reflect upon their illustrious writing careers.

Pat Barker’s trilogy of novels about the First World War began with Regeneration, and The Ghost Road, the final novel in the series, won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1995. Pat Barker was awarded a CBE in 2000.

Michael Morpurgo is one of the UK’s best-loved authors and storytellers and was appointed Children’s Laureate in 2003. He has written over 130 books, including War Horse, which was adapted for a hugely successful stage production by the National Theatre and then for a film directed by Steven Spielberg. His book Private Peaceful has also been adapted for stage and screen. Michael was awarded an OBE for his writing in 2006.

This event will be live-streamed internationally as part of the International Literature Showcase from the British Council, Arts Council England and Writers’ Centre Norwich.

Chaired by Caroline Beck Suitable for ages 12+

Sponsored by

Goodnight Everyone with Chris Haughton

Tuesday 11 October, 1.30pm–2.45pm Durham Johnston Comprehensive School Tickets: SOLD OUT

Join Chris Haughton, the multi-award-winning picture book maker of A Bit Lost, Oh No, George! and Shh! We Have a Plan, for an interactive session of live drawing and storytelling which is sure to be great fun!

Chris will introduce his brand new picture book, Goodnight Everyone, a future bedtime classic and perfect for children under seven.

Suitable for ages 4–7

A Morning with David Baddiel

Wednesday 12 October, 9.45am–11am Durham Johnston Comprehensive School Tickets: SOLD OUT

Following the success of The Parent Agency and The Person Controller, acclaimed British comedian, novelist and television star David Baddiel unveils a brand new comedy adventure at Durham Book Festival for Schools.

David will talk about and sign copies of his hilarious latest book in the series (title still under wraps!).

Suitable for ages 7–11

What is Normal? with Lisa Williamson and Juno Dawson

Wednesday 12 October, 1.30pm-2.45pm Durham Johnston Comprehensive School Tickets: £4/£10 including coach travel (teachers and adult helpers go free)

We are incredibly excited to bring two of the biggest names in YA to Durham. Lisa and Juno will talk about their work and the importance of diversity and acceptance in modern society.

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson was the bestselling Young Adult hardback of 2015 and the winner of Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2016 in the older fiction category.

Juno Dawson has won multiple awards for her writing including being named ‘Queen of Teen’. Alongside the popular and much-loved collection of fiction, written as James Dawson and including titles Hollow Pike, Cruel Summer and All of the Above, Juno has also written non-fiction including Being a Boy, This Book is Gay and her latest, Mind Your Head, a young person’s guide to mental health. In 2015, Juno announced her intention to undergo gender transition and live as a woman.


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Original commission: Hey Presto! From the picture book by Nadia Shireen, adapted by Laura Lindow and directed by Ruth Johnson

Saturday 8 October, 10.30am–11.30am Gala Theatre Studio Tickets: £7/£5

Roll up, roll up! There’s a brilliant new production in town, from the creators of Man on the Moon, The Worst Princess and My Granny is a Pirate.

Presto and Monty are best friends. Monty is great at singing, eating ice cream and pulling funny faces, while Presto is an incredible magician! When the carnival comes to town, Presto and Monty decide

to join up with their amazing magic act. The show is a huge success, but fame goes to Monty’s head.

Can the friends work out how to work together, before it’s too late?

Join us as we bring all the fun of the fair to the Gala Theatre Studio. Featuring original live music, magic tricks and lots of laughs for children under seven and their families.

A New Writing North production for Durham Book Festival

Don’t miss Hey Presto! as it tours County Durham. For full tour dates across the North of England and all booking details see www.heyprestotour.com

Saturday 24 September, 10am Tanfield Lea Community Centre, DH9 9LZ Tel: 01207 231570

Saturday 1 October, 10am Waterhouses Community Centre, DH7 9AS Tel: 07596 044238

Saturday 1 October, 2.30pm Peterlee Library, SR8 1NT Tel: 03000 269509

Sunday 2 October, 2.30pm Dipton Community Centre, DH9 9DR Tel: 01207 570003

Tuesday 4 October, 2pm Tow Law Community Centre, DL13 4AW Tel: 01388 731444

Thursday 6 October, 2pm Jubilee Hall, West Rainton, DH4 6NU Tel: 07976 238503

Saturday 8 October, 10.30am Gala Theatre Studio, DH1 1WA Tel: 03000 266600

Saturday 8 October 2.30pm Pelton Community Centre, DH2 1DE Tel: 0191 3700726

Monday 10 October, 10am Bishop Auckland Town Hall, DL14 7NP Tel: 03000 269524

Tuesday 11 October, 4pm Locomotion: The NRM at Shildon, DL4 2RE Tel: 01904 685780

Wednesday 19 October, 2pm Crook Library, DL15 9ES Tel: 03000 269002

Wednesday 26 October, 2.30pm Chester-le-Street Library, DH3 3BP Tel: 03000 269512

Thursday 27 October, 10.30am Crown Street Library, Darlington, DL1 1ND Tel: 01325 349610

Thursday 27 October, 2.30pm Trimdon Station Community Centre, TS29 6BS Tel: 01429 882200

Friday 28 October, 10am Greenhills Community Centre, Wheatley Hill, DH6 3JS Tel: 01429 820214

Friday 28 October, 2.30pm Consett Library, DH8 5AT Tel: 03000 269513

Saturday 29 October, 2.30pm Seaham Library, SR7 7JE Tel: 03000 262510

Each year we create a brand new theatre production, which tours throughout County Durham, to reach children and their families across the county.

In the lead up to the show, we will be running music and craft workshops in towns and villages across the county. Find your local venue at heyprestotour.com

Follow us on social media Facebook.com/HeyPrestoTourTwitter: #heyprestotour


Reader in Residence

Following the success of Andy Miller’s sell-out event at Durham Book Festival 2015, we’re delighted to invite the author of The Year of Reading Dangerously back as our Reader in Residence. Look out for Andy at events throughout the first weekend of the festival, including this first event.

Andy Miller: An Hour of Reading Dangerously: 10 Great Books in 55 minutes

Saturday 8 October, 11.30am–12.30pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £6/£4

At last year’s festival, author Andy Miller delivered his hilarious motivational lecture Read Y’self Fitter to a packed house. He will launch this year’s festival with a whistlestop tour of some of the greatest and most famous books ever written, and one by Dan Brown. Expect some strong opinions, a little audience participation, and a lot of fun.

READER IN

RESIDENCE

Vlogger in Residence

Jen Campbell is the Sunday Times-bestselling author of the Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops series, and The Bookshop Book. She’s also an award-winning poet and short story writer. Her poetry pamphlet The Hungry Ghost Festival is published by The Rialto, and her first children’s book is forthcoming from Thames and Hudson. Jen has worked in the book trade for ten years, and has over 20,000 followers on her YouTube channel, where she talks about all things books. We’re thrilled to have Jen as our Vlogger in Residence. Throughout the festival she will be vlogging about our events and interviewing authors. You can watch her videos on www.durhambookfestival.com or on her YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ jenvcampbell

Reviewers in Residence

Cuckoo Review is an online arts and culture magazine for the North of England, run by New Writing North’s young people’s programme, Cuckoo Young Writers. There, young journalists aged 15-23 cast a critical eye on the latest cultural offerings in the region and beyond. Cuckoo Reviewers will be in residence at this year’s festival, writing about events and interviewing authors.

Their reviews will be published on www.durhambookfestival.com and www.cuckooreview.com

If you’re aged 15-23 and are interested in being a Cuckoo Reviewer, email [email protected] to find out how to take part.

Publisher in Residence

We are proud to host Unbound, the crowd-funded publishing house, as this year’s Publisher in Residence. We have worked with Unbound to programme interesting and innovative events throughout the festival: look out for the Unbound logo.

Songwriter in Residence: Kathryn Williams and Friends

Saturday 15 October, 4pm–5.30pm Gala Theatre Tickets: £10/£8

This year’s major book festival commission brings together a group of leading singer-songwriters with a group of exceptional poets and novelists to collaborate on a special songwriting project, the results of which will be premiered at the festival.

Mercury Prize-nominated Kathryn Williams and musician friends including Michele Stodart from The Magic Numbers and acclaimed singer-songwriter Tom McRae will lead a group of poets and novelists on an intensive three- day songwriting retreat in Durham.

Paul Farley is a Professor of Poetry at Lancaster University and has won both the Whitbread and Forward prizes. Salena Godden is one of Britain’s foremost spoken word artists, who has also appeared as a guest and writer for many BBC radio programmes. Laura Barnett is a freelance journalist whose debut novel, The Versions of Us, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Kirsty Logan is the author of two story collections – A Portable Shelter and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales – and a novel, The Gracekeepers.

At the event, the artists will preview their new work and discuss their collaboration.

Chaired by Claire Malcolm, New Writing North

COMMISSION

Festival Laureate: Helen Mort

Saturday 15 October, 6pm–7pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £8/£6

Each year Durham Book Festival works in partnership with Durham University to invite an acclaimed poet to fulfil the role of Festival Laureate. This year we are delighted to welcome Helen Mort to the festival. At this special event, Helen will premiere a specially commissioned poem, inspired by Durham and the people who live there, as well as reading from her latest poetry collection, No Map Could Show Them. Helen will also be visiting four local secondary schools while she is in Durham, as well as reading for Durham University students.

Helen Mort was born in Sheffield. Her first collection, Division Street, which explored subjects including the Miners’ Strike, was shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the TS Eliot Prize and in 2014 won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize.

Introduced by Professor Stephen Regan, Durham University

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The announcement of the Gordon Burn Prize 2016

Friday 7 October, 8pm-10.30pm, Durham Town Hall Tickets: £10/£8 (includes a Durham Gin and tonic courtesy of Durham Distillery)

Join us for a very special opening to Durham Book Festival as we announce the winner of the Gordon Burn Prize 2016. We will be joined on the evening by some of the shortlisted writers, who will read from their work. The Gordon Burn Prize celebrates a bold, innovative approach to writing, with both fiction and non-fiction represented on the shortlist. The prize has been judged by novelists Jenn Ashworth and William Boyd, journalist and writer Rachel Cooke, and artist and author Harland Miller, all of whom sought writing that embodies the spirit and sensibility of Gordon Burn’s own bold and innovative literary methods. The prize is a partnership between Durham Book Festival, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and the Gordon Burn Trust. Chaired by Peter Guttridge

A Woman on the Edge of Time: A Son’s Search For His Mother by Jeremy Gavron

It’s 1965, and in Primrose Hill, a beautiful young woman has just gassed herself to death, leaving behind a suicide note, two small children, and an about-to- be-published manuscript: The Captive Wife.

Like Sylvia Plath, who died in eerily similar circumstances two years earlier just two streets away, Hannah Gavron was a writer. Bright, sophisticated, and swept up in the progressive politics of the 1960s, Hannah was a promising academic and the wife of a rising entrepreneur. Surrounded by success, she seemed to live a gilded life. But there was another side to Hannah, as Jeremy Gavron’s searching memoir of his mother reveals.

The Lonely City: Adventures in The Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live if we’re not intimately engaged with another human being?

When Olivia Laing moved to New York in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Fascinated by the experience, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives – from Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks to Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules – Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone.

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

In Moshfegh’s novel, the Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s carer in his squalid home and her day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison.

Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city.

When the charismatic Rebecca Saint John arrives as the new counsellor at the prison, Eileen is enchanted and unable to resist what appears to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

Anatomy of a Soldier by Harry Parker

Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops in a war zone. On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence, from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes’s family waiting for him to return home. We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do: shoes and boots, a helmet, a trove of dollars, a drone, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.

Anatomy of a Soldier is a novel about one man’s journey of survival and the experiences of those around him.

All That Man Is by David Szalay

Nine men. Each of them at a different stage in life, each of them away from home, and each of them is striving – in the suburbs of Prague, beside a Belgian motorway, in a cheap Cypriot hotel – to understand just what it means to be alive, here and now. Tracing an arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, All That Man Is brings these separate lives together to show men as they are. And as the years chase them down, the stakes become bewilderingly high in this piercing portrayal of 21st century manhood.

And the Sun Shines Now by Adrian Tempany

On 15 April 1989, 96 people were fatally injured on a football terrace at an FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield. The Hillsborough disaster was broadcast live on the BBC; it left millions of people traumatised, and English football in ruins.

And the Sun Shines Now is a book about what arrived in the wake of the most controversial tragedy in the post-war era of Britain’s history. The Taylor Report. Italia 90. Gazza’s tears. Sky. The Premier League. And the transformation of a game that once connected club to community to individual into a global business so rapacious the true fans have been forgotten, disenfranchised.

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Nikesh Shukla, Coco Khan and Miss L: The Good Immigrant

Saturday 8 October, 7pm-8pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £6/£4

Durham Book Festival is proud to present this extraordinary state of the nation collection, from 21 diverse and exciting British BAME voices. The collection was crowd-funded by Unbound in just three days, with widespread support, including a £5,000 pledge from JK Rowling.

In The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla gathers together 21 emerging writers for a series of essays about race and immigration. Poignant, weary, polemic, sometimes humorous, sometimes angry, the collection explores why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay, what it means to be mixed race, and where your place is in the world if you’re unwelcome in the place you call home.

For this event Nikesh Shukla, who was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award for his novel Coconut Unlimited, is joined by contributors Miss L, the creator of Casting Call Woe, and writer and editor Coco Khan.

Chaired by Rachael Kerr

Owen Jones: The Politics of Hope

Tuesday 11 October, 7.30pm-8.30pm Gala Theatre Tickets: £12

How we can build societies run in the interests of working people, not run as a racket for the mean and the greedy at the top? By looking at some alternatives across the world, we can end the inevitability of widening inequalities and injustice.

The popular Guardian columnist and author of Chavs and The Establishment shines some light on a positive way forward.

FRINGE EVENT

Laura Bates: Girl Up

Saturday 8 October, 10.30am–11.30am Durham Town Hall Tickets: £10/£8

They told you to be beautiful, to wear longer skirts, to avoid going out late. They told you to use enough make-up to look presentable, but not enough to be slutty. They told you ‘see it as a compliment’. They warned that taking control meant being bossy, a ballbreaker. Laura Bates is here to say something different. Girl Up exposes the issues surrounding, among other things, media representation, body image, sex and relationships, and social media.

Laura Bates is a freelance journalist, founder of the Everyday Sexism project and an award-winning campaigner – we’re delighted to welcome her back to the Durham Book Festival.

Chaired by Joanna Ellis

Lynsey Hanley and Mike Savage: The Experience of Class

Saturday 8 October, 12pm–1pm Durham Town Hall Tickets: £8/£6

With issues of inequality and wealth at the forefront of public debate, the subject of class has re-emerged as a topic of public attention. In Social Class in the 21st Century, Mike Savage and the team of sociologists responsible for The Great British Class Survey report their definitive findings and draw out a new landscape of class.

In Respectable: The Experience of Class, Lynsey Hanley writes about how the class system in Britain remains as firmly entrenched now as it was 50 years ago, and skilfully weaves together her personal experiences of leaving her working class childhood for middle class adulthood, with wider observations about social mobility.

Chaired by Professor John Tomaney

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Through the Weather Glass

Saturday 8 October, 11am-4pm Clayport Library Free drop-in event

What if we can’t solve climate change? What if, instead of staring at our reflections in the weather glass, we travelled through everything we know about climate change and participated in the world beyond?

This interactive installation combines a bike-generator, an animated film and a large set of willow wings. Participants are invited to pedal their own way through the weather glass and to craft some poetry wings to help Icarus fly!

Lucy Burnett’s hybrid novel Through the Weather Glass tells a fantastic version of the author’s struggles to understand environmental change through the persona of Icarus during a 2,500 mile cycle to the Greek island where Icarus fell.

TippingPoint: Climate Change and the Stories We Tell

Sunday 9 October, 11am-12pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £6/£4

We hear many stories about climate change - from scientists, economists and environmentalists. But what can the worlds of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and drama contribute to how we understand and respond to this complex issue?

This event will explore the power of narrative in helping us come to terms with climate change.

Professor Harriet Bulkeley and Professor Louise Bracken from Durham University, will be joined by authors Justina Hart and Sarah Thomas, winners of Weatherfronts commissions, as part of the TippingPoint/Free Word project, Weatherfronts, which connects the arts and climate science worlds.

Chaired by Professor Janet Stewart, Durham University

In association with TippingPoint, Free Word and ESRC

COMMISSION

Sebastian Barry, Lucy Popescu and Tim Finch: A Country of Refuge

Sunday 9 October, 4.30pm–5.30pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £8/£6

Most of the refugee stories we read about in the media are negative. But the reality for those fleeing persecution is more often about the emotional scars of torture and the struggles of building a new life.

A County of Refuge is a collection of new writings on asylum seekers, which intends to directly challenge the negative coverage given to those leaving their homes and families behind to seek a safe haven on these shores.

Contributors to this anthology include award-winning writer Sebastian Barry, whose novel The Secret Scripture won the Costa Book of the Year; writer and critic Lucy Popescu, formerly director of English PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee; and Tim Finch, author and coordinator of the National Refugee Welcome Board.

Chaired by Rachael Kerr

Where Does The Power Lie in The Media?

Saturday 8 October, 1.30pm-2.30pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £8 (includes a copy of The Northern Correspondent – RRP £5)

This event explores where the power currently lies in the media we consume, particularly in the North of England. Northern Correspondent editor Ian Wylie presents a newly commissioned essay and will be joined by a panel of journalists to discuss who speaks out for the North of England in traditional and new media, as well as looking at the changing face of journalism in the 21st century.

Helen Pidd is North of England editor for The Guardian and is based in Manchester; Peter Barron was editor of The Northern Echo for 17 years; and Rachel Hamada is journalist-director for The Ferret, an in-depth investigative journalism platform for Scotland and beyond.

COMMISSION

Who Runs The North East? (And does it matter?)

Saturday 8 October, 6pm-7pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

Professor Fred Robinson of Durham University and Professor Keith Shaw of Northumbria University talk about democracy and accountability in the North East. Who are the people running the region’s institutions and how representative are they? This event marks the start of a new research study on governance and will undoubtedly raise more questions than answers. Fred and Keith want to encourage audience discussion and lively debate to help inform their research. A must-see for those who want to change the world, or at least the North East!

Durham Moot is a forum for discussing the political, social and cultural issues facing the North East


The Royal Literary Fund Talk

Hunter Davies: The Co-Op’s Got Bananas! A Memoir of Growing Up In the Post-War North

Saturday 8 October, 3pm-4pm Durham Town Hall Tickets: £8/£6

Despite struggles with money and rationing, life could still be sweet for a young boy – playing football, saving up for films, being captivated by BBC radio’s Dick Barton. Chocolate might be scarce and bananas a dream, but you could still have fun. This work offers a picture of the original Austerity Britain, capturing a hard life laced with glorious moments of colour and emotion.

Hunter Davies was born in Scotland, raised in Carlisle, educated at Durham University and lives in London and Cumbria. He writes for the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, among others. He has authored over 50 books.

Chaired by Michael Chaplin

The Royal Literary Fund was set up in 1790 to help professional authors. Past beneficiaries have included Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence and Dylan Thomas. Last year it helped 200 writers, though not all of them are quite so famous yet. 1n 1999 a Fellowship scheme was established to place writers in universities to help students with their writing skills. Since it began it has placed 450 writers in posts at 120 higher education institutions across the UK.

Chris Mullin: Hinterland

Saturday 8 October, 4.30pm-5.30pm Durham Town Hall Tickets: £10/£8

Durham Book Festival favourite Chris Mullin returns to introduce his memoirs, Hinterland. All serious politicians are supposed to possess a hinterland, but not all do. Chris Mullin was one who certainly did. By the time he entered parliament he had reported from the wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and was the author of three novels, including the now classic A Very British Coup. Chris’s three volumes of diaries have been widely acclaimed as the best account of the Blair years and his memoirs promise to be just as insightful.

Cathy Rentzenbrink and Decca Aitkenhead: Love and Loss


Two moving, personal stories about love, loss, and trauma.

In The Last Act of Love, Cathy Rentzenbrink writes about the summer of 1990, when her much-loved brother Matty was knocked down by a car. His family willed him to survive, not yet knowing that there are some fates worse than death.

Standing on a beautiful Jamaican beach, Decca Aitkenhead watched as her partner drowned, having swum out to save their son from the same fate. In All At Sea, Decca writes movingly about how her family’s life changed forever.

Decca Aitkenhead is an award-winning journalist for The Guardian, and has written for many national newspapers and magazines. Cathy Rentzenbrink is books editor at The Bookseller.

Chaired by Caroline Beck

James Rebanks: The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District

Sunday 9 October, 2.30pm-3.30pm Durham Town Hall Tickets: £8/£6

James Rebanks’ life is not his own creation. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, his family have been rooted in and around the Lake District for generations. These modern dispatches from an ancient landscape tell the story of an attachment to place, describing a little-noticed existence that has profoundly shaped history. This book describes a shepherd’s year, offering a unique account of a fundamental connection with the land.

James Rebanks is the Herdwick Shepherd and is behind the popular Twitter account @herdyshepherd1. His family have farmed the same area for 600 years.


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An Evening with Alan Johnson

Thursday 13 October, 7.30pm-9pm Gala Theatre Tickets: £12/£10

We’re delighted to welcome one of our best- loved politicians back to Durham Book Festival this year. Alan Johnson is a Labour Party MP who served as Home Secretary and filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in the Brown and Blair governments. The third volume of Alan’s memoirs, The Long and Winding Road, takes us to the corridors of Westminster and lifts the lid on the life of a hard-working constituency MP. Following in the bestselling tradition of This Boy and Please, Mister Postman, Alan’s honesty and authenticity shine though the book. Prepare to hear about Westminster as you’ve never done before.


Richard Hines: No Way But Gentlenesse

Saturday 15 October, 3pm-4pm, Palace Green Library Tickets: £8/£6

Born and raised in a South Yorkshire mining village, Richard Hines remembers listening out for the colliery siren at the end of shifts, and praying for his father’s safe return. Having failed the 11+ and seemingly destined to work in the pits, Richard felt unable to compete with his older brother, Barry. A boyhood encounter with a nest of kestrels changed Richard’s life and his experiences training them inspired Barry Hines’s classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave. Richard later trained the kestrels that soared into cinematic history in Ken Loach’s classic film, Kes. Richard Hines spent most of his career as a documentary filmmaker before becoming a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.

Kes is screened as part of the Durham Book Festival on 10 October. For details, see P31.

Introduced by Dr Alex Barber, Durham University

Kathryn Williams: Hypoxia


In 2013 Durham Book Festival commissioned acclaimed musician Kathryn Williams to write a sequence of songs inspired by Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar to mark its 50th anniversary. Over the next two years, this commission grew into an album, Hypoxia, produced by Ed Harcourt.

The album received rave reviews and was described by the Scottish Herald as ‘a collection of rare eloquence and spectacular beauty by which few listeners will remain unmoved’. Kathryn returns to Durham to perform the entire album, accompanied by band members Michele Stodart, Jon Thorn and Andy Bruce. Please join us for what will be a truly memorable evening.

Introduced by Andy Miller

Knee Deep

Saturday 15 October 7.15pm-8.15pm Empty Shop HQ Tickets: £5/£4

Poet Jasmine Simms and theatre director Tess Denman-Cleaver curate readings by local young poets who are challenging the way poetry is performed, exploring what it means to write for performance rather than the printed page. Knee Deep presents poets from Durham University and young writers from County Durham performing poetry that explores the sea, and our relationship to it.

This event is a collaboration between Cuckoo Young Writers and Tender Buttons.


Matt Miller: Sticking

Sunday 9 October, 1.30pm-2.30pm Gala Theatre Studio Tickets: £6/£4

A solo spoken word theatre show about moving away from home for the first time. Are we stuck with who we are or can we dive into the unknown and become someone else? Drawing on the artist’s experience of his first three months at university, Sticking combines poetry, music and upfront storytelling to create a show which will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever felt lost in their own skin.

Directed by international theatre artist Peader Kirk and written and performed by BBC Radio 3 Verb New Voice Matt Miller.

Sticking was commissioned by Contact and has been developed through the North East Artist Development Scheme, with thanks to Gala Theatre. Supported by Arts Council England.

Natalie Diddams: Thesmo

Saturday 15 October, 5pm-6pm Empty Shop HQ Tickets: £6/£4

A funny fusion of stand-up, sketch, lecture and performance that celebrates and interrogates the disruptive power of women doing comedy. Created by theatre-maker/comedy-lover/academic Natalie Diddams and performed by real-life funny women, Thesmo will take you through the gender politics of comedy (and the comedy of gender politics) of the past 2,500 years.

You can follow Natalie’s process on www.thesmoblog.wordpress.com

Carmen Marcus: The Book of Godless Verse

Saturday 8 October, 3.30pm-4.30pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

In 2015 Carmen Marcus was named a BBC Radio 3 Verb New Voice for her project The Book of Godless Verse. As a lapsed Catholic, Carmen wanted to find a way to witness the everyday moments of human experience, the daily hurts and triumphs, that prayer just didn’t fit.

In this special event, she will be performing her Radio 3 commissioned work, Breaking Up with Jesus, as well as a brand new performance commissioned by Durham Book Festival, A Stranger’s Case, about shared experiences of leaving behind or fleeing home.

For this work Carmen will be reaching out to you and others through social media to share your own experiences of leaving. Please follow www.facebook.com/BookofGodlessVerse

COMMISSION

The Book of Godless Verse is supported by Arts Council England

Inua Ellams and Fuel presentAn Evening with an Immigrant

Saturday 8 October, 4.30pm-6pm Gala Theatre Studio Tickets: £8/£6

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England in 1996 aged 12, then moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London and starting work as a writer and graphic designer.

Part of this story was documented in his hilarious autobiographical Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning play The 14th Tale, but much of it is untold. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, Inua will tell his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, directing an arts festival at his college in Dublin, performing solo shows at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.

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Melissa Lee Houghton and Bobby Parker: Poetry and Mental Health


This event brings together two poets who have been affected by mental health issues and used their experiences to inform their writing. They will both read from their poetry and will talk about how their experiences have shaped their work.

Melissa Lee Houghton is a Next Generation poet. Her three poetry collections are published by Penned in the Margins, and her newest collection, Sunshine, has had a poem shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem this year. She was recently awarded a Northern Writers’ Award for fiction and her short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Bobby Parker’s publications include the critically acclaimed books Ghost Town Music and Comberton. His poetry, artwork and photography have appeared in various magazines in print and online. His poetry collection Blue Movie was published by Nine Arches Press in 2014.

Northern: Greyscale issue 5 launch

Saturday 8 OctoberExhibition opens 7.30pm Readings from 9pm Empty Shop HQ Free

Newcastle-based poetry collective Greyscale launch issue 5 of their self-titled limited edition zine. Inspired by the North, northern identity and the God of the River Tyne, the launch event takes the form of an homage to 1965 Morden Tower events, made famous by Ginsberg.

Featuring Greyscale editors SR Telford and EF English, Papaya Press’s Lauren Vevers and other contributing writers, the event will be a relaxed evening of poetry.


FRINGE EVENT

Poetry Periscope

Friday 16 September- Sunday 16 October Palace Green Library Free

A joint project by The Poetry Society, the European Literature Festival, Czech Centre London and Piána na ulici (Pianos on the Street), Poetry Periscope includes recordings of poems from 30 European cultures, placing poetry grandees such as Titos Patrikios (Greece) and Friederike Mayröcker (Austria) alongside upcoming names such as Irish-language poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Poems are each available in their original language and a recorded English translation.

Celebrating Poetry from the North

Saturday 15 October, 4.30pm-5.30pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £6/£4

Established in 1968 the Northern Poetry Library, based in Morpeth, is the largest collection of contemporary poetry outside London and contains the work of all major poets writing in English since the end of the Second World War. And now a new project has put this special library in the spotlight as six North East poets have been appointed as poets in residence at the NPL: Degna Stone, Lisa Matthews, Linda France, Jo Colley, John Challis and Carolyn Jess-Cooke. At this special event they will read a poem from the NPL collection, a poem from their new collection, Among Woods and Water, and their own work commissioned as part of the project. An exhibition, The Best Words in the Best Order: Poetry in Durham and the North East, will be on display at Palace Green Library from 20 November-26 February 2017. Find out more about the NPL at www.northernpoetrylibrary.org.uk

Introduced by Professor Stephen Regan, Durham University

Supported by Northumberland County Council and Arts Council England

Attila The Stockbroker: Arguments Yard

Sunday 16 October 4pm-5pm, Empty Shop HQ Tickets: £10 (only available from peoplesbookshop.co.uk)

Attila the Stockbroker celebrates his 35th year of being Attila with the launch of a new book. Arguments Yard is not your average autobiography and Attila is not

‘just’ a performance poet, he’s also a trilingual singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist, with his own band Barnstormer, as well as a political activist. And like his political hero Tony Benn, Attila the Stockbroker keeps diaries.

Join us at Empty Shop to hear the man himself read from sections of Arguments Yard and perform some of the many poems and songs he has created over the years.

In association with the People’s Bookshop, Durham

FRINGE EVENT

© Phyllis Christopher

Book by phone on 03000 266 600 durhambookfestival.com

PaperscissorsbookContemporary Craft Tour 2016

A stunning exhibition that showcases the best of contemporary paper-cut and artist’s books. From exquisite hand-cut paper to the latest laser-cut techniques; ambitious sculptural paper works, installation and intimate book works. The tour visits community, library and arts venues in County Durham from 7 October-19 November. Full details at www.highlightsnorth.co.uk

Exhibition events

Storytelling performances by Jackass Youth Theatre

Saturday 8 October, 10.30am Crook Library, DL15 9ES Saturday 15 October, 4.30pm St Thomas’s Church Hall, DL13 2UE Tickets: FREE but please book

Email: [email protected] or call 01388 765002

Vanity Fear

Saturday 15 October, 10am-4pm, St Thomas’s Church Hall, Stanhope, DL13 2UE £25 per person, 2 free places for 16-19 year-olds. Please book

A book-altering workshop with Linda Toigo www.lindatoigo.com

Cut, Fold, Construct

Saturday 19 November, 10am-4pm, The Witham, Barnard Castle, DL12 8LY £25 per person, 2 free places for 16-19 year-olds. Please book

Paper sculpture workshop with Andy Singleton www.andysingleton.co.uk

Papaya Press: Zine-making workshop

Saturday 8 October, 3pm-5pm, Empty Shop HQFREE drop-in event

A workshop focusing on the cut-up and collage techniques of zine making from North East-based independent press Papaya on the theme of identity and the North. Participants will be provided with prompts to write short poems for incorporation into mini-zines and will have a chance to share their work at that evening’s Greyscale zine launch (see P23).


Silent Book Disco


Readers, put your books in the corner and find your dancing feet at our Silent Book Disco. Our friends at Forum Books in Corbridge have curated a brilliantly bookish playlist for headphones, so join us in Empty Shop for a drink and a dance as we say farewell to Durham Book Festival 2016.

facebook.com/DurhamBookFestival @durhambookfest #dbf16

For more information visit

D U R H A M M A R R I O T T R O Y A L C O U N T Y . C O . U K / C H R I S T M A S O R C A L L 0 1 9 1 3 7 5 3 6 0 4

This year we shine a spotlight on the Durham town of Ferryhill by celebrating the centenary of local author and journalist Sid Chaplin’s birth and hosting the reading of a play by his son, Michael Chaplin, set in Sid’s hometown.

A Sid Chaplin Centenary Walk

with Michael Chaplin

Saturday 24 September, 11am-12.30pm Leaves from Ferryhill Library Tickets: £6/£4

Born in Shildon in 1916, Sid Chaplin made the extraordinary journey from ill-educated pitman to celebrated man of letters, producing a stream of widely praised novels, short stories and essays about his native North East. In this centenary year his son – playwright and screenwriter Michael Chaplin – has edited a new collection of his early work from the 1940s when he was a belt-fitter at Dean and Chapter Colliery in Ferryhill. 100 years and four days after his father’s birth, Michael will lead a walk around Ferryhill to tell Sid’s inspiring story and read from the collection. Other elements to this unique event will be announced later.

The Ferryhill Philosophers

Sunday 9 October, 4.30pm-6pm Durham Town Hall Tickets: £10/£8

Durham Book Festival presents a special live performance of Michael Chaplin’s radio play Lies, Damn Lies and Conversational Implicature at Durham Town Hall.

The Ferryhill Philosophers dramas by Michael Chaplin have become a regular feature of the BBC Radio 4 schedules, focusing on the entertaining and thought-provoking collision between moral philosophy and life in the small Durham town of Ferryhill. The plays feature the unlikely partnership of retired pitman Joe Snowball, played by Alun Armstrong, and Durham University philosophy don Lady Hermione Pink, played by Deborah Findlay, as they wrestle with a series of ticklish moral dilemmas.

In this session Michael Chaplin and director Marilyn Imrie will describe how the plays came about before a live performance with the help music from the Ferryhill Town Band.

‘Brain food for grown-ups. This is simply gold-star radio in every sense – writing, performances and production.’ Radio Times

FRINGE EVENT


George Monbiot and Ewan McLennan: Breaking the Spell of Loneliness

Wednesday 12 October, 7pm-8.30pm The Miners’ Hall, Durham Tickets: £12/£8

Last year, author and journalist George Monbiot wrote an article for The Guardian on the personal and social effects of loneliness which quickly went viral. He approached folk singer and songwriter Ewan McLennan and suggested a musical collaboration. Breaking the Spell of Loneliness will be a new album of original songs with notes from George that describe the stories and themes behind the songs.

Singing a cappella and accompanying himself on guitar and banjo, Ewan will perform each of the songs alongside commentary and discussion from George. Expect a unique and one-off interplay of songs and stories that will be both poignant and rousing.

In association with the People’s Bookshop, Durham

FRINGE EVENT

Charles Fernyhough: The Voices Within


In The Voices Within acclaimed author and Durham University Professor Charles Fernyhough eavesdrops on the voices in our heads: the kindly ones, the guiding ones, the voices of conscience and memory, and the sometimes terrible, sometimes beneficent voices of those who hear others speaking when there is no one around.

For this fascinating event, Charles will be joined by his Durham University colleagues Dr Angela Woods and Dr Marco Bernini, who will talk about their research in Hearing the Voice, a large interdisciplinary project on the experience of voice-hearing based at Durham.

Palace Green Library will host a Hearing the Voice exhibition starting in November 2016.

Kamal Kaan: As the Cloud Takes its Last Breath

Saturday 8 October, at 10, 30 and 50 minutes past the hour between 11am-1pm and 2pm-4pm St Chad’s College Chapel Free

Durham Book Festival invites you to take some time out of your busy lives and to step into the tranquil surroundings of St Chad’s Chapel. In the quiet of the chapel you will put on a pair of headphones and experience eight minutes of mindfulness. Inspired by the poem Like This by Rumi, audio drama As The Cloud Takes Its Last Breath is a meditative journey to take you out of the overwhelming battle of the everyday, to encourage you to take a momentary breath. And pause…

Kamal Kaan is a Bradford-based writer and actor. He was named as a BBC Radio 3 Verb New Voice in 2015, and As the Cloud takes its Last Breath was premiered at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. Kamal is currently part of the Emerging Writers Group at the Bush Theatre, London, and is under commission by BBC Radio 4.

Written by Kamal Kaan Music composed by Mark Melville Words spoken by Alexandra Mathie

COMMISSION

Sally Bayley: The Private Life of the Diary

Saturday 8 October, 11am–12pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

Diaries keep secrets. They harbour our fantasies and histories, from the extraordinary to the mundane. They record our lives as we live them… or perhaps as we choose to remember them.

The Private Life of the Diary tells the story of the diary as a form of cultural survival. Sally Bayley traces its history from Samuel Pepys through to Virginia Woolf, who recorded everything, from her personal confessions about her irritation with her servants to her memories of Armistice Day and the solar eclipse of 1927.

Drawing on the author’s own memoirs and a host of the world’s most famous diarists, this book is a celebration of the importance of writing and self-reflection as a means of forging identity. Sally Bayley is a Lecturer in English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

Chaired by John Mitchinson

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The Best in New Fiction: Picador Showcase

Tuesday 11 October, 6.15pm-7.15pm Gala Theatre Studio Tickets: £6/£4 (ticket price includes a Durham Gin and tonic courtesy of Durham Distillery)

Join us for a drink after work and meet some of the most exciting new voices in fiction. Hear the authors read from their brilliant debut novels and learn more about their journeys to publication.

Megan Bradbury’s Everyone is Watching looks at the men and women who have defined New York, as seen through the eyes of Walt Whitman and Robert Mapplethorpe amongst others, while Hannah Kohler’s The Outside Lands is the story of people caught in the slipstream of history and takes the reader from 1960s California to Vietnam. Megan and Hannah will be joined by acclaimed US author Garth Greenwell, who will introduce What Belongs to You, the story of an American ex-pat struggling with his own complicated inheritance while navigating a foreign culture.

Chaired by Cathy Rentzenbrink

An Evening with Anthony Horowitz

Wednesday 12 October, 7.30pm-8.30pm Gala Theatre Tickets: £10/£8

Anthony Horowitz is an internationally bestselling author who has written over 40 books including the teen spy series Alex Rider, which is estimated to have sold 19 million copies worldwide.

Anthony’s recent books include two new Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty, and most recently the James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis. Anthony is also responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most successful television series, including Midsomer Murders and BAFTA award-winning drama series Foyle’s War.

Anthony comes to Durham Book Festival for the first time to talk about his fascinating career and to introduce a brand-new book, Magpie Murders, a classic crime novel with more than one twist!

Chaired by Professor Simon James, Durham University


Kit de Waal: My Name is Leon

Sunday 9 October, 12.30pm-1.30pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £6/£4/£2 for New Writing North book group members

Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are threatening to give Jake to strangers. Since Jake is white and Leon is not.

As Leon struggles to cope with his anger, certain things can still make him smile – like Curly Wurlys, riding his bike fast downhill, and stealing enough coins so that one day he can rescue Jake and his mum.

Evoking the Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a heart-breaking story of identity, love and loss; and finding our way home.

Kit de Waal won the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize in 2014 and the SI Leeds Literary Reader’s Choice Prize 2014. My Name is Leon is her first novel.


BOOK GROUP CHOICE

Richard T Kelly and Sean O’Brien: Secrets and Lies

Sunday 9 October, 3.30pm-4.30pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

Join two of the North East’s most acclaimed writers, Richard T Kelly and Sean O’Brien, as they read from and discuss their new novels.

Richard T Kelly’s The Knives makes riveting drama out of the big political arguments of our time. An ex-soldier from a modest background, Home Secretary David Blaylock has a life story that the public respects. Privately though, he carries pain and remorse. A solitary figure in a high-pressure world, Blaylock is never sure whom he can trust. Constantly in his mind is the danger of an attack on Britain’s streets.

Sean O’Brien’s Once Assembled Here Again offers a dramatic evocation of time, place and a community closing ranks to conceal the truth. Stephen Maxwell has retired from a lifetime spent teaching history at his alma mater. As he writes the official history of Blake’s, a minor public school steeped in military tradition, he also reveals how, 40 years ago, a secret conflict dating from the Second World War re-enacted itself among staff and pupils, when fascism once more made its presence felt, with violent results.

Chaired by Dr James Smith, Durham University

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Backlisted Podcast: Live!

Saturday 8 October, 1.30pm-2.30pm Gala Theatre Studio Tickets: £6/£4

Backlisted is a popular literary podcast that gives new life to old books. Join Unbound publisher and QI co-creator John Mitchinson, publisher Mathew Clayton, and our Reader in Residence, Andy Miller, plus a special guest for a fascinating and funny discussion of a much-loved book.

This special event will be recorded live at the festival for future broadcast. Find Backlisted on Facebook at www.facebook.com/backlistedpod/ or on Twitter @BacklistedPod

READER IN

RESIDENCE

Andy Miller: What Makes a Classic?

Sunday 9 October, 10.30am-11.30am Durham Town Hall Tickets: £6/£4

Why do some books become classics and others fall by the wayside? Who decides what makes a great book – critics or the public? What are the classics of the future? Join Andy Miller, our Reader in Residence and author of The Year of Reading Dangerously, and author Kit de Waal for an informative and inspiring discussion.

Chaired by Professor Simon James, Durham University

READER IN

RESIDENCE

John Crace and John Sutherland: The Incomplete Shakespeare

Sunday 9 October, 2.30pm–3.30pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £8/£6

Enjoy Shakespeare’s works as you’ve never experienced them before, as The Guardian’s Digested Reads author John Crace partners with Professor John Sutherland to create wonderfully funny parodies of both Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, complete with informative notes.

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, these are the first of a new collection of the Bard’s greatest plays, digested to a few thousand words, told in rhyming couplets and with invaluable side notes. These clever parodies are a joy for those who know their Shakespeare, a massive relief for those studying the plays, and a brilliant introduction for newcomers to his work.

Chaired by Dr Patrick Gray, Durham University

Kes introduced by Andy Miller and Stephen Regan

Monday 10 October, 2pm-4.30pm Gala Theatre Tickets: £7.50/£5

Join our Reader in Residence Andy Miller and Durham University’s Professor Stephen Regan who will introduce a special screening of Kes, directed by Ken Loach. Andy and Stephen are both huge fans of the film and will talk about what it means to them 47 years after it was made.

Adapted from Barry Hines’ modern classic A Kestrel for a Knave, Kes is the story of Barnsley teenager Billy Casper, whose bleak existence is transformed when he begins training a kestrel he finds on a nearby farm.

Barry Hines’s brother, Richard, the original inspiration for A Kestrel for a Knave, will be appearing at the festival on 15 October (see P18).

In partnership with Durham Picturehouse

The Best in New Scottish Writing

Saturday 8 October, 1pm-2pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

Discover some of the most exciting new fiction coming out of Scotland. Helen Sedgwick has a PhD in physics and her debut novel The Comet Seekers explores her passion for the night sky through the relationship of Róisín and François, who meet on a research base in Antarctica. Lucy Ribchester’s new novel The Amber Shadows is a story of lies and intrigue at Bletchley Park. Lucy’s bestselling debut novel The Hourglass Factory was Edinburgh Waterstones’ Book of the Year 2015. Shelley Day is a Northern Writers’ Awards winner and divides her time between Northumberland and Scotland. The Confession of Stella Moon is a haunting domestic noir which exorcises the ghosts of family secrets.

Chaired by Sasha de Buyl

In partnership with Scottish Book Trust

Unbound: The Wisdom of Crowds

Sunday 9 October, 11am-12pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

Publisher John Mitchinson talks to Unbound authors Nikesh Shukla and Alice Jolly about the trials and tribulations of crowd-funding a book.

Is fiction harder than non-fiction? Do readers want their books with a side of dosa? And just how much tweeting is too much?

Nikesh Shukla is the award-winning author of Coconut Unlimited and Meatspace. His new collection, The Good Immigrant, was funded in just three days.

Alice Jolly is a novelist, playwright and teacher of creative writing. Her book Dead Babies and Seaside Towns is a savagely personal account of the search for an alternative way to create a family.

Juan Pablo Villalobos: I’ll Sell You A Dog

Sunday 9 October, 1pm–2pm Durham Town Hall (Burlison Gallery) Tickets: £6/£4

We’re delighted to welcome internationally acclaimed Mexican author Juan Pablo Villalobos to Durham for this event. He will be introducing his new book, I’ll Sell You a Dog (translated by Rosalind Harvey), a comic novel whose absurd inventions, scurrilous antics and oddball characters are vintage Villalobos.

Juan Pablo Villalobos was born in Guadalajara. The author of Down the Rabbit Hole and Quesadillas, both published by And Other Stories, his novels have been translated into 15 languages.

Chaired by Stefan Tobler

In partnership with And Other Stories

Shelley Day

Because dark secrets don’t decompose

“A timely and intelligent book” AL Kennedy

Day

‘A timely and intelligent book … passion, insight and a

real understanding of both risk and mercy … delicately

explores the tangled layers of family grief and guilt.’ ‘Shelley Day’s voice is exciting and unique ... and her

1977: A killer is released from prison and returns

‘home’ – to a decaying, deserted boarding house

choked with weeds and foreboding.Memories of strange rituals, gruesome secrets and

shame hang heavy in the air, exerting a brooding

power over young Stella Moon.confront the ghosts of her macabre family history

and her own shocking crime. Guilt, paranoia and

manipulation have woven a tangled web of truth

and lies. All is ambiguous. Of only one thing is

she certain...Stella Moon killed her own mother.

www.saraband.net £8.99

Because dark secrets don’t decompose

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Events presented by our friends at Durham Cathedral and publisher Sacristy Press

Jon Grogan and Professor Chris Cook: From Over the Edge: Breakdown, Depression and the Church

Wednesday 12 October, 7pm-8pmPrior’s Hall, Durham CathedralTickets: £5/£4

Many Christians who suffer from depression and other mental health problems struggle to rationalise their condition with their faith. Author Jon Grogan will discuss how he survived a breakdown with his faith intact, alongside Professor Chris Cook who will contextualise Jon’s experiences from the perspective of a clinical psychiatrist, academic and priest.

Jon Grogan is the author of From Over the Edge. Chris Cook is a prominent theologian at Durham University. He is a priest in the Church of England and an Honorary Minor Canon at Durham Cathedral.

Gavin Wakefield and Guests: The Northern Powerhouse and God: Searching for the Angel of the North

Thursday 13 October, 7pm-8pmPrior’s Hall, Durham CathedralTickets: £5/£4

From the monks of Lindisfarne to the Synod of Whitby, the North is historically considered to be a cradle of Christianity in England. But in today’s society is there a ‘gospel for the North’? Gavin Wakefield, author of Northern Gospel, Northern Church, asks if we can or should consider the North of England as a distinct entity with its own particular religious and spiritual identity. Gavin will be joined by fellow contributors in discussing what makes spiritual communities in the North unique, and yet an integral part of a larger nation and Church.

The Revd Dr Gavin Wakefield is Director of Training, Mission and Ministry in the Diocese of York and Director of Mission and Pastoral Studies at Cranmer Hall, Durham University.

John Guy: Elizabeth: the Forgotten Years


History has pictured Elizabeth I as Gloriana, an icon of strength. But the reality was more complex. In 1583 Elizabeth is 50, past childbearing, and facing her greatest challenges: the Spanish Armada; the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots; and relentless plotting. This gripping portrait of her life and times reveals a woman who is fallible, insecure, and struggling to lead.

John Guy is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. His books include My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, and Tudor England. He appears regularly on BBC radio and television.

Introduced by Dr Natalie Mears, Durham University

Jo Baker and Sarah Bakewell: Paris in the Thirties


1933, Paris. Three friends are drinking apricot cocktails and talking about freedom and existence. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron. Sarah Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Café is their story and that of modern existentialism.

1939, Paris. A young writer smokes one last cigarette before the city is torn apart. Soon, he will risk his life to save that city. In A Country Road, Jo Baker reimagines the tale of Samuel Beckett’s Resistance years.

Sarah Bakewell is the author of the prize-winning How to Live: A Life of Montaigne. Jo Baker is the author of the bestselling Longbourne.


Alison Weir: The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox

Saturday 15 October, 11am-12pm Palace Green Library Tickets: £8/£6

The life of Margaret Douglas was full of scandal, intrigue and romance. Lady of honour to five of the wives of her uncle Henry VIII, some thought she should be queen. Beautiful and tempestuous, Northumberland-born Margaret Douglas created scandal – twice – by falling in love with unsuitable men. She was imprisoned in the Tower of London three times; her husband and son were murdered; she warred with two queens and helped to orchestrate the Stuart succession.

Alison Weir is the biggest-selling female historian in the UK. Her acclaimed books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Children of England, Katherine Swynford, Innocent Traitor and The Lady Elizabeth.

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ADOPT A BOOKHelp the Cathedral care for its rare and early printed book collection.

Every book available for adoption is in need of conservation, ranging from £30 to £1000 as identified in the Adopt a Book Catalogue. You will be able to follow your book’s journey from the beginning to completion.

To find out more please contact Sophia Stovall on 0191 374 4055 or email [email protected]

durhamcathedral.co.uk

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‘I once dreamed a whole short story. Wrapped in its peculiar atmosphere, as if draped in clouds, I walked entranced to my desk’

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Subscribe from as little as £24.75 and discover what’s new in creativity and publishing, expert advice and inspiration, extraordinary poetry and prose, plus monthly email supplement with jobs, competitions, writing prompts, news and fun

www.mslexia.co.uk/[email protected] 0191 204 8860

OPEN TREASUREA new world-class exhibition experience now open at Durham Cathedral!

Journey through some of the most intact surviving medieval monastic buildings in the UK as the remarkable story of Durham Cathedral and its incredible collections is revealed.


AN EVENING WITH ANTON EDELMANN & GERARD BASSETFriday 7 October, 7.00pm

Step back in time with an indulgent fine dining experience in the Undercroft Restaurant. Enjoy delicious food prepared by the legendary Anton Edelmann, inspired by an 18th-century recipe book from the Cathedral’s collections, with wine pairing by Gerard Basset OBE.£75 per person including wine. Contact [email protected] or call 0191 386 4266 to reserve a place.durhamcathedral.co.uk

CHRISTMAS WITH DURHAM CATHEDRAL CHOIR Joined by the Reg Vardy Band Saturday 10 December, 7.30pm

Enjoy a festive concert of Christmas carols and seasonal music in a candlelit Cathedral.

Tickets: £26, £22, £18 & £10 (£22, £18, £15 & £8 concessions), available from the Gala Theatre Box Office 03000 266600 or www.galadurham.co.uk


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Book by phone on 03000 266 600 durhambookfestival.com

Durham Book Festival is commissioned by Durham County Council and produced by New Writing North and has been made possible by support from the following partners and sponsors.

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4th Estate And Other Stories BloomsburyCanongateDavid Fickling BooksFaber & FaberHarperCollins Children’s BooksHot Key BooksJonathan CapeOrionPenguin Random HousePicador Profile BooksSarabandScribeSimon & SchusterTransworldUnboundWalker Books

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The Linden Family Trust

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