Stratford Literary Festival line-up revealed
STAR attractions at this year’s Stratford Literary Festival include queen of cookery Mary Berry, journalist and writer Andrew Marr, and political figures Ken Livingstone, Roy Hattersley and Paddy Ashdown.
The festival takes place between 23rd and 30th April, and will be celebrating its tenth anniversary by returning to its beginnings in 2008 with the theme of Sharing Stories, say festival organisers.
The tenth year of what is considered one of the UK’s most ground-breaking festivals is celebrated with its largest and most diverse programme yet.
Events range from the Romantic poets to the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, wartime spies to The Great British Bake Off.
Headline speakers also include the former head of the British Army, Richard Dannatt, Beirut hostage Terry Waite, Waterstones Book of The Year author Sarah Perry, leading economist Bill Emmott, and cultural curator Roy Strong.
An extensive programme of events for children includes the former Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman, and many award-winning authors and illustrators including Nick Butterworth and Sarah McIntyre, CBeebies’ Jess French, and philosopher Peter Worley, as well as two major projects to encourage children to read and to create bedtime stories with their parents.
Children’s Day will round off the festival with the Horrible Histories Barmy Britain Show, hot foot from a run in the West End, a show for younger children with Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, Playbox Theatre’s latest performance, plus events and workshops with Horrible Histories illustrator, Martin Brown, the brilliant Sarah McIntyre, Philip Reeve, Rob Biddulph, Steven Lenton, Jonny Duddle, Anna Wright and Judy Reaves, bringing to life everything from pirates to funfairs, with something for everyone from aged three to 13.
Founding director, Annie Ashworth, said: “The programme is packed to bursting, and we’ve tried hard to offer a wide variety of events to engage as many people as possible. “I really hope though that people will give some events a try that they might not believe are for them. They might discover lovely surprises.”
