15 — 25 May 2020

Welcome to Charleston Festival 2020

I invite you to celebrate the best in art, literature, politics and ideas, past and present, with an eye to challenging the status quo and daring to imagine society differently; just as the Bloomsbury group did around the Charleston dining room table 100 years ago.

From artists Ai Weiwei and Maggi Hambling, to authors Salman Rushdie, Bernardine Evaristo, Leïla Slimani and Lemn Sissay, and influential activists and changemakers like Gloria Steinem, Lady Hale and Emma Rice, this programme demonstrates that the Bloomsbury group’s spirit of creativity, questioning the norm and breaking new ground is not only alive and well, but kicking.

Themes that weave through this year’s festival include: the interaction between art and politics, inspirational individuals who have challenged tradition and helped to drive change, and a number of historical group biographies. They demonstrate that, like the Bloomsbury group, we are all connected to our social and intellectual context in a web of influences and intersections that cannot be ignored.

This year, we have introduced a new under-30s ticket, with 1,000 £10 tickets available across Charleston Festival.

We close the festival with a new commission, Lydia & Maynard: Love Letters, in which Helena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies bring to life the intense love letters that passed between Lydia Lopokova and John Maynard Keynes. The funds raised from this performed reading will support the ongoing work of conserving the beautiful buildings here at Charleston and opening them to the public.

I hope you can join us this May, and at our range of exhibitions, festivals and events at Charleston throughout 2020.

Susannah StevensonArtistic Director: Charleston Festival, Small Wonder & Literary Programmes

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Friday 15 May

12.30pmThe Art of ConversationDavid Crystal£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Begin 10 days of conversation by considering the art of conversation itself with internationally renowned language historian David Crystal, author of How Language Works, Making Sense and The Story of English in 100 Words.

An integral tool for the development and evolution of ideas, conversation has been described as an art, a game, and even a battle. But however you think of it, most of us are unaware of its rules; how they work and how we can bend them when we want to.

Drawing on research conducted for his latest book, Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works, David Crystal tells all.

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3pmThe Lost DecadePolly Toynbee and David Walker£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Journalists and writers Polly Toynbee and David Walker consider the years 2010–2020, one of the most tumultuous periods in British history, and look to what lies ahead.

The last decade was characterised by austerity, paralysis and contempt for leaders and institutions, not to mention Brexit. It featured national tragedies from Grenfell to Windrush, food banks to the property crisis. But it also saw the rise of renewable energy, lower crime rates, legalisation of same-sex marriage and amazing work in the creative industries.

Toynbee and Walker dissect the anatomy of a dark decade, bringing hope for better to come.

Supported by Mayo Wynne Baxter

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5.30pmSex, Lies & WoolfLeïla Slimani in conversation with Rosie Goldsmith£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Franco-Moroccan writer and journalist Leïla Slimani is one of today’s most exciting international voices.

Her global bestselling novels include Lullaby, winner of the 2016 Prix Goncourt, and Adèle, which won the 2015 La Mamounia Prize. As well as writing about human rights in her novels, Slimani is an activist and winner of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom.

Slimani is known to keep a copy of Virginia Woolf’s diaries on her bedside table. Now, she comes to Charleston for the first time to speak to Rosie Goldsmith about her novels, beliefs, and latest non-fiction book, Sex and Lies, a collection of essays giving voice to young Moroccan women.

Friday 15 May

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7.30pmSuperheroesLemn Sissay in conversation with John Bird£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Join acclaimed poet Lemn Sissay, author of My Name Is Why and this year’s Brighton Festival guest director, in conversation with John Bird, social entrepreneur, life peer and founder of The Big Issue.

Lemn Sissay is passionate about highlighting the artistic and creative success of people who, like him, have had non-traditional childhoods. In 2014 Sissay created a poem printed on the walls of the Foundling Museum, ‘Superman was a Foundling’, a list of fictional characters who had alternative childhoods, from Superman to Lisbeth Salander and Harry Potter.

Lemn Sissay is joined by John Bird, who Lemn featured on his 2019 ‘list of incredible UK people who were fostered adopted or in children’s homes’, to talk about humanity’s ability to overcome obstacles, and the importance of celebrating positive experiences.

In partnership with Brighton Festival

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12.30pmA Life with LucianWilliam Feaver and Celia Paul in conversation with Nicholas Cullinan£20 / £10 (under-30s)

A portrait of Lucian Freud with two of the people who knew him best.

Celia Paul’s memoir Self-Portrait reveals a life lived through art: from her own training aged 16, through an intense affair with Lucian Freud, to her work today. She is joined by William Feaver, Lucian Freud’s collaborator, curator and close friend. Over many years, Freud narrated to him the story of his life, the result of which is his electrifying biography, The Lives of Lucian Freud.

Paul and Feaver reflect on their memories of this great artist and what it means to live an artist’s life with Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery.

Supported by King & McGaw

Saturday 16 May

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3pmA Room of One’s OwnKit de Waal in conversation with Cathy Rentzenbrink£16 / £10 (under-30s)

What does it mean to be a writer if you don’t have a room of your own?

When Virginia Woolf defined a writer in her 1929 essay A Room of One’s Own, she did not consider a key factor: the role that her financial and educational privilege played in her definition. In short, her class. What if you can’t afford a desk, never mind a room?

Multi-award-winning author Kit de Waal is joined by writer and journalist Cathy Rentzenbrink to discuss what it means to write if you come from a working- class background. Are you a writer? Share a photo of your room on Instagram – real or otherwise – using #MyRoomCF and we will show a selection at this event.

In partnership with Primadonna Festival

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5.30pmThe State of the USMatt Frei and Peter Westmacott in conversation with Emily Maitlis£20 / £10 (under-30s)

We assess the state of US politics today with leading experts in the field.

Peter Westmacott has over 40 years of diplomatic experience, including four in Iran and 14 years as British ambassador to Turkey, France and the US. Over the past 20 years, journalist and writer Matt Frei has served as the Washington correspondent for both the BBC and Channel 4, covering momentous stories such as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the 2012 US presidential election.

Emily Maitlis, journalist and author of Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News, leads Westmacott and Frei in their timely contemplation of US politics.

Saturday 16 May

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7.30pmShaking up the SystemEmma Rice in conversation with Arifa Akbar£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Multi-award-winning director Emma Rice talks about her life, career and artistic vision with The Guardian’s chief theatre critic Arifa Akbar.

After working as a performer, director and artistic director at Kneehigh for 20 years, Rice was the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe in 2016 before founding her own company — Wise Children — in 2018. Her work includes The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan and Yseult, Brief Encounter and the Shakespeare’s Globe productions Romantics Anonymous and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Rice reflects on her creative practice, what it means to drive change, and the obstacles you face when “fighting the good fight”.

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12.30pmA Theatre for Dreamers Polly Samson in conversation with Jenny Éclair£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Escape to the bohemian heat and creativity of the Greek island of Hydra, 1960, as Polly Samson discusses her new book A Theatre for Dreamers with author and comedian Jenny Éclair.

The novel maps an emerging love triangle between the magnetic writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen.

Drawing on her extensive research of real events, Samson depicts the creative process of a circle of poets, painters and musicians living tangled lives, which is at times liberating and joyful and at others incredibly destructive.

Sunday 17 May

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Sunday 17 May, 3pmBig Sister, Little Sister, Red SisterJung Chang in conversation with Hilary Spurling£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Jung Chang, author of the autobiographical Wild Swans and other internationally best-selling books, recounts the lives of the three Soong sisters from Shanghai, who each played a crucial role in shaping modern China while in the midst of war, revolution and seismic transformations.

Weaving her way through Chinese history from the 1880s to 1970s, and drawing on her own experience of growing up in Maoist China, Chang demonstrates how China’s past reverberates in the present. Following an illustrated talk, Jung Chang is joined in conversation by biographer Hilary Spurling, author of Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China.

Supported by Sussex Country Gardener

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5.30pmAnne Brontë: 200 YearsAdjoa Andoh, Isabel Greenberg and Jackie Kay in conversation with Cathy Newman £20 / £10 (under-30s)

To mark the 200th anniversary of Anne Brontë’s birth, we celebrate her work and influence with conversation, graphic artworks and live readings from Anne Brontë’s final novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, one of the first feminist novels.

Join the Scottish makar, novelist and poet Jackie Kay, as she speaks to award-winning British graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg, and acclaimed actor and director Adjoa Andoh about the work of this feminist pioneer. Their discussion is interspersed with readings by Adjoa Andoh and complimented by Isabel Greenberg’s artworks inspired by the Brontës.

Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Cathy Newman.

Sunday 17 May

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7.30pmVienna: Fin de Siècle to FascismTom Stoppard in conversation with Patrick Marber£25 / £10 (under-30s)

A rare opportunity to hear internationally award-winning dramatist Tom Stoppard in conversation with prize-winning playwright and director, Patrick Marber.

Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate new play Leopoldstadt, directed by Patrick Marber, traces the trajectory of the Jewish community of Vienna; from crowded tenements, to the centre of artistic and intellectual life, to annihilation.

They discuss the themes of the play — which has deep personal resonances for both of them — its production, and its contemporary relevance.

Supported by Mayfield School

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12.30pmDecades of ChangeLennie Goodings in conversation with Joan Bakewell£20 / £10 (under-30s)

What difference does 40 years make?

Inspired by her new book, A Bite of the Apple: A Life with Books, Writers and Virago, Lennie Goodings, chair of the UK publishing house Virago Press, is joined by journalist, television presenter and Labour Party peer Joan Bakewell to consider the ways in which society has changed since the 70s.

Two instrumental women driven by passion and conviction reflect on managing the tension between idealism and pragmatism; between sisterhood and celebrity; between watching feminism wax and wane at the same time as knowing that so many of the battles are yet to be won.

Tuesday 19 May

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3pmBloomsbury RebelsSarah Watling and Pippa Harris in conversation with Nicolette Jones £16 / £10 (under-30s)

Meet the Olivier sisters — Margery, Brynhild, Daphne and Noël — with historian Sarah Watling, author of Noble Savages, and film and TV producer and BAFTA chair Pippa Harris, who is the granddaughter of Noël Olivier.

From the start, the Olivier sisters stood out: surprisingly emancipated, strikingly beautiful, markedly determined, and alarmingly “wild”. Rupert Brooke was said to be in love with all four of them, D. H. Lawrence thought they were frankly “wrong”, while Virginia Woolf found them curiously difficult to read.

Rediscover the lives of four extraordinary women as Nicolette Jones leads this conversation about family and history.

Supported by Nira Wright

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5.30pmBricks & MortarHannah Rothschild and Emily Brand in conversation with Rebecca Rideal £16 / £10 (under-30s)

A discussion of historical fiction, family, and the wonderful inspiration that buildings can provide, be it for fictional or non-fictional purposes.

Like so many places, Charleston cannot be separated from the history, stories, family and friends it once housed. Hannah Rothschild’s latest fictional novel, House of Trelawney, traces the crumbling fate of the Trelawney family and their Cornish castle. By contrast, Emily Brand’s new work, The Fall of the House of Byron, is a non-fiction telling of the poet Lord Byron’s ancestors over three generations in their aristocratic seat.

They speak to author and historian Rebecca Rideal about buildings, history, family and writing.

Tuesday 19 May

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7.30pmCarol Ann Duffy & Friends: In GreenCarol Ann Duffy, Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker and Ella Duffy £20 / £10 (under-30s)

Poet, playwright and former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates an evening of poetry on the theme of the environment, and the artistic responses triggered by the current climate crisis.

Featuring readings from poet, artist and chancellor of Newcastle University Imtiaz Dharker, Ella Duffy, winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2010, and former national poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, as well as a performance from Carol Ann Duffy herself.

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rottWednesday 20 May

12.30pmCircles & SquaresMo Moulton and Francesca Wade in conversation with Frances Spalding£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Frances Spalding, art historian, biographer and author of The Bloomsbury Group, chairs a discussion with Mo Moulton and Francesca Wade about two groups of activists and experimenters who were living and working in the interwar urban hubs of London and Oxford.

They include modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and writer and publisher Virginia Woolf.

Mo Moulton, author of Mutual Admiration Society, and Francesca Wade, author of Square Haunting, reveal what drew these women to these cities, in search of a space where they could live, love and, above all, work independently.

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3pmGenerationsMaggi Hambling in conversation with Rob Diament£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Charleston has housed and inspired generations of painters and artists; from Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant to Angelica Garnett and Quentin Bell.

Painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling reflects on art across the generations in light of her late father Harry Hambling, a self-taught watercolour painter who only seriously took up painting at the age of 65, unearthing a great talent.

Maggi Hambling speaks to Rob Diament, director of the Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate and co-host of the Talk Art podcast.

Supported by Lancing College

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5.30pmThe Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off! Gloria Steinem£25 / £10 (under-30s)

Since her early days as a journalist and feminist activist in the late 1960s, Steinem’s words have helped generations to empower themselves and work together.

Now, in a rare visit to the UK, the feminist icon comes to Charleston Festival for the first time to speak about her latest book, The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off! Thoughts on Life, Love and Rebellion, a stunningly illustrated collection of Steinem’s most powerful and pithy quotes, framed by newly written reflections and an introduction by Gloria Steinem.

Wednesday 20 May

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7.30pmJeremy Hutchinson Memorial LectureLady Hale with Shami Chakrabarti£25 / £10 (under-30s)

Former president of the supreme court Lady Hale reflects on her legal career and celebrates Jeremy Hutchinson’s life and impact in this special lecture for Charleston Festival 2020, followed by a Q&A chaired by Shami Chakrabarti.

Lady Hale was the supreme court’s first female president from its creation 10 years ago, and in 1984 she was the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission. When appointed Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lady Hale devised her own coat of arms, the motto of which translates as “women are equal to everything”.

This event is held in memory of Jeremy Hutchinson, one of the greatest advocates of his time, who famously defended the publishers of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, as well as Christine Keeler and Soviet spy George Blake. Much of his commitment to civil liberties, freedom of speech and artistic freedom was grounded in his Bloomsbury group upbringing.

Supported by Adams & Remers

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12.30pmWhat Sells Art?Philip Mould and Charles Saumarez Smith£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Whether you are selling artworks in the commercial art world or staging large public exhibitions, art relies on the idea that it has tangible value. So how do you make people care?

Philip Mould is an art dealer, writer and broadcaster who has made a number of major art discoveries, including some of Thomas Gainsborough’s earliest known works and lost works by Anthony Van Dyck and Thomas Lawrence.

He speaks to Charles Saumarez Smith, former secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts and director of the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery about what really sells art.

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3pmWomen on the Run Edna O’Brien in conversation with Mark Lawson£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Influential Irish novelist, memoirist poet and short story writer Edna O’Brien speaks to writer and broadcaster Mark Lawson about her latest book, Girl.

Edna O’Brien was the winner of last year’s bi-annual David Cohen Prize for Literature — which recognises a whole body of work — for having “broken down social and sexual barriers for women in Ireland and beyond and moved mountains both politically and lyrically through her writing”. Her most recent novel, Girl, which revolves around the school girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria, demonstrates the scope of her creative imagination.

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5.30pmArt in an EmergencyOlivia Laing and James Shapiro in conversation with Alex Clark£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Do art and literature have any impact on the “real world”?

Writer, novelist and cultural critic Olivia Laing speaks to renowned Shakespeare academic James Shapiro about political crises past and present and the ways in which art and politics influence each other, chaired by journalist and broadcaster Alex Clark.

James Shapiro’s latest book, Shakespeare in a Divided America, looks back at key moments of political crisis in US history and how leaders drew on Shakespeare, while Olivia Laing makes the case for why art matters in today’s turbulent political weather in her new collection of essays, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency.

Thursday 21 May

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7.30pmIn Pursuit of JusticePhilippe Sands in conversation with Eva Hoffman£16 / £10 (under-30s)

International human rights lawyer and author of East West Street Philippe Sands discusses “the ratlines” — a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe in the aftermath of World War II — and his personal quest to unearth the story of the man who presided over the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles, including Sands’ own family.

Based on Sands’ smash-hit podcast, The Ratline is a historical detective story that uncovers the fate of the Nazi Governor of Galicia who went on the run after his post-war indictment for mass murder.

Philippe Sands discusses the meaning of justice and evil with author and academic Eva Hoffman, whose parents survived the Holocaust in hiding.

Supported by NFU Mutual

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Friday 22 May

12.30pmBuilding EdenTim Smit with Caroline Lucas£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Tim Smit, known for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project in Cornwall, gives a talk explaining why creating Edens wherever you are is important. Since, as Tim Smit is fond of quoting, “Heal the Soil, Heal the Soul” (President Xi of China).

Following his talk, Tim Smit is joined for a Q&A session with Green Party politician and MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas to discuss how big-thinking and interdisciplinarity can solve the greatest challenges facing humanity.

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3pmHumanity is Slowing DownDanny Dorling£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Social geographer Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1% and The Equality Effect, presents a counterintuitive argument that we should welcome the current slowdown — of population growth, economies, and technological innovation — in his latest work, Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration – and Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives.

Drawing on a rich trove of global data, Dorling illustrates how human progress has been slowing down since the early 1970s. Yet rather than lament this change, Dorling embraces it. Is it in fact more “progressive” to move on from the goal of growth?

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5.30pmBreaking GroundBernardine Evaristo and Mike McCormack in conversation with Alex Clark £20 / £10 (under-30s)

Awarding-winning authors of experimental writing Bernardine Evaristo and Mike McCormack discuss breaking tradition and letting content dictate form with journalist and broadcaster Alex Clark.

Bernardine Evaristo’s work spans an enormous range of genres, from novels to radio drama, and she describes her Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other as “fusion fiction”. Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones, which won both the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize and the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award, is equally experimental, featuring only a single sentence, with all events written as a recollection from the present.

Together, they explore what draws writers to play with form.

Supported by Hurstpierpoint College

Friday 22 May

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7.30pmSalman Rushdie in Conversation£25 / £10 (under-30s)

Salman Rushdie returns to Charleston Festival to discuss his life and work.

Rushdie’s latest novel is Quichotte, an epic Don Quixote for the modern age set in the contemporary US. Just as Cervantes wrote Don Quixote to satirise the culture of his time, so Rushdie takes the reader on a wild ride through a country on the verge of moral and spiritual collapse told with the kind of storytelling magic that is the hallmark of Rushdie’s work.

Salman Rushdie has received many awards for his writing, including the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2019 Midnight’s Children was judged to be the “Booker of Bookers”, the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 40 years.

Supported by Hurstpierpoint College

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12.30pmPhilosophers & DetectivesAlexander McCall Smith in conversation with Catherine Taylor£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and popular authors.

Following the publication of his highly successful No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, McCall Smith has seen his books translated into over 46 languages. These include the 44 Scotland Street and Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series, the Corduroy Mansions series, and the new Detective Varg series.

On the release of The Talented Mr Varg and The Geometry of Holding Hands, McCall Smith speaks to Catherine Taylor about his writing, finding new ideas, and how he stays so incredibly productive.

Supported by Merchant Gourmet

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3pmClothes & Other Things That MatterAlexandra Shulman£20 / £10 (under-30s)

Join Alexandra Shulman, editor- in-chief of British Vogue from 1992–2017, the magazine’s longest serving editor to consider what clothes mean to us, and what they reveal about the society we live in.

Alexandra Shulman’s book Clothes... and other things that matter is a self-deprecating and moving mix of memories, observation and fashion history which prompts readers to consider the meaning of clothes in women’s lives and how our wardrobes intersect with the larger world: the career ladder, motherhood, romance, sexual identity, failure, body image and celebrity.

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Saturday 23 May

5:30pmRadicalism & ResistanceDavid Blight and Richard Gergel in conversation with Kamal Ahmed£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Yale professor David Blight and federal judge Richard Gergel discuss the history and current status of civil rights in the US with Kamal Ahmed, editorial director at BBC News.

David Blight’s Frederick Douglas, Prophet of Freedom, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History 2019, is a biography of the escaped slave who became an influential and eloquent abolitionist and political activist. Richard Gergel’s Unexampled Courage recounts the transformative decisions taken by President Truman and a southern judge following a miscarriage of justice involving a racially motivated crime: an inspiring example of change stemming from cruelty.

In partnership with Charleston to Charleston Literary FestivalSupported by Walter and Gerry Fiederowicz

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7.30pmGender Pioneers: (Wo)menAnneka Harry£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Writer, comedy actor and producer Anneka Harry introduces you to Gender Rebels: 50 Influential Cross-Dressers, Impersonators, Name-Changers, and Game-Changers.

From marauding 18th-century pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who collided on the high seas after swapping their petticoats for pantaloons, to Billy Tipton, the swinging jazz musician, who led a double life, taking five wives along the way, these historical women pretended to be men in order to make their way in the world, and in so doing questioned and undermined the assumed gender norms of their day.

Meet the unsung (s)heroes of history: the diverse, defiant and daring (wo)men who changed the rules, and their identities, to make things happen.

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12.30pmGloomsbury: A Charlatan RetrospectiveSue Limb, Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer£25 / £10 (under-30s)

A playful retrospective of the hit BBC Radio 4 comedy show Gloomsbury with its writer Sue Limb and scene readings from original cast members Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer who played Ginny and Lionel (the Woolfs) and the cook and gardener (the Goslings).

From 2015–2018, Gloomsbury lovingly sent up the Bloomsbury group and parodied their arty and adulterous adventures, with characters such as Nesta Bell, Vera Sackcloth-Vest, TS Jellitot and Sigmund Void. Many scenes were set here at ‘Charlatan’ house.

Their conversation is interspersed with live readings as we revisit some of the most enjoyable scenes in Gloomsbury.

Sunday 24 May

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3pmThe FightCarrie Gracie and Helen Lewis in conversation with Bidisha£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Helen Lewis’ book Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights tells the stories of complicated, contradictory, imperfect women, who fought each other as well as fighting for equal rights, while Carrie Gracie’s Equal: How we fix the gender pay gap covers her own experience of holding her employer — the BBC — to account.

But why is ‘difficult’ behaviour necessary, and why it is perceived as such?

Chaired by broadcaster, writer, film maker and artist Bidisha, who has contributed to a new anthology of short fiction about British protest movements called Resist: Stories of Uprising.P

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5.30pmE M Forster: Live in Fragments No Longer Nicola Beauman and Adrian Munsey in conversation with Rupert Christiansen£16 / £10 (under-30s)

“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.” (E M Forster, Howards End)

A celebration of the work of novelist, short story writer, and essayist E M Forster to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.

Featuring Nicola Beauman, author of E M Forster: A Biography and Adrian Munsey, who produced the 2019 documentary The Long Journey of E M Forster. Chaired by writer, journalist, critic and The Telegraph columnist Rupert Christiansen.

Sunday 24 May

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7.30pmUndisciplined ArtAi Weiwei in conversation with Tim Marlow£25 / £10 (under-30s)

A rare chance to hear Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei discuss his work and creative practice.

Ai Weiwei is internationally renowned for making strong statements that resonate with contemporary issues around the world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Weiwei uses a wide range of media to examine society and its values. As such, Weiwei’s practice actively challenges the idea that art is a separate discipline, unrelated to the banality of daily life.

Ai Weiwei discusses art that cannot be contained with Tim Marlow, award-winning broadcaster, art historian and director and chief executive of the Design Museum.

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Monday 25 May

12.30pmHostile EnvironmentColin Grant, Kavita Puri and Nicolas Hatton in conversation with Amelia Gentleman£16 / £10 (under-30s)

From those who came here as part of the Windrush generation, to partition in 1947, and contemporary EU citizens who have made their home here, how hostile has the UK proven?

Our panel consider the experience and treatment of immigrant communities in the UK, past and present. With historian Colin Grant, author of Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, broadcaster Kavita Puri, author of Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, and Nicolas Hatton, chair of the3million, the campaign giving a voice to the 3 million EU citizens in the UK. Chaired by Amelia Gentleman, award-winning journalist and author of The Windrush Betrayal.

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3pm300 Years of Huguenot HistoryKate Mosse£16 / £10 (under-30s)

Kate Mosse, the multi-million, bestselling author of Labyrinth and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, reflects on writing her latest series of historical epics set in the French wars of religion.

Kate Mosse’s latest book, The City of Tears, is the second in Mosse’s The Burning Chambers series which will span 300 years of Huguenot history.

Charting a country torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty, Mosse considers the human impact of persecution, violence, and an all too fragile peace. P

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Monday 25 May

5.30pmOrdinary Lives & Devastating Truths Tayari Jones£16 / £10 (under-30s)

US author Tayari Jones’ novel An American Marriage won the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction and her work has been championed by both Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

Now, she comes to Charleston to speak about Silver Sparrow. Set in a middle-class neighbourhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around bigamist James Witherspoon’s two families – one public, one secret – and the complicated friendship of the teenage daughters of each.

Explore the art of writing tangled relationships and the perils of young womanhood with “one of the most important writers of her generation” (The Atlanta Journal Constitution).

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7.30pmLydia & Maynard: Love LettersHelena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies£50 / £10 (under-30s)

“My Loppy, my Lydochka, my miele, my poupsik, my tail, my buzzing bee…” (John Maynard Keynes to Lydia Lopokova)

In a specially commissioned piece to mark the end of this year’s Charleston Festival, Helena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies read the intense love letters that passed between Lydia Lopokova, star of the Ballets Russes, and brilliant economist John Maynard Keynes.

Full of humour, tenderness and passion, this performance charts the happiest and healthiest marriage in all of the Bloomsbury group. Compiled by Holly Dawson.

“When I am on the Downs in the morning I feel that I am having a cocktail with God. I roll with the grass and the hangings and wonder if I am losing time.” (Lydia Lopokova to John Maynard Keynes)

Charleston Festival Gala Supported by Much Ado Books

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PROUD SPONSOR OF THE CHARLESTON FESTIVAL 2020

A truly co-educational school for pupils from 4-18 years.

A dynamic community where pupils are known, nurtured and challenged to the best of their ability.

To book a place at our next Open Morning, or to arrange a personal visit, please contact our Admissions team

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A&R. Past & FutureAdams & Remers solicitors has over two centuries’ experience of helping Sussex families and are rated as one of the leading firms in the area.

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This year we are delighted to support the Charleston Festival as an event supporter.

Adams & Remers LLPLEWES 01273 480616 LONDON 020 7024 3600www.adamsandremers.com

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Senior School Open Morning Saturday 12 September 2020 9.30am to noon (Entry at 13 and 16)HMC – Day, weekly and full boarding Boys and girls 13 to 18

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To register please contact: admissions@bedes.org T 01323 843252 or online at bedes.org

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For up-to-date information on all events, please refer to charleston.org.uk/festivalThe information in the programme was correct at the time of printing. Charleston reserves the right to alter the programme if necessary © 2020 The Charleston Trust.

The Charleston Festival is a fundraising event in aid of the Charleston Trust (Bloomsbury in Sussex), a registered charity (no. 1107313) and a non-profit making company limited by guarantee and registered in England and (or &) Wales (no. 5212725). Registered office: Charleston, Firle, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6LL.

WELCOME TO CHARLESTON’S SISTER FESTIVAL IN THE UNITED STATES

Now in its 4th year, the Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival offers the

opportunity to transport your passion for outstanding writers and stimulating talks -

in the same spirit as the Charleston Festival in Sussex - to the handsome, historic and

hospitable state of South Carolina.

NOVEMBER 5-8, 2020

Full programme released in July 2020: www.charlestontocharleston.com

For further information: leah.rhyne@charlestontocharleston.com

or +1 843 619-3000Photos by Electric Egg

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