Preview: Durham Book Festival
The annual opportunity to enjoy a wonderful wallow in words at Gala Durham from October 10-13 is almost upon us. David Whetstone set out to pick highlights so ended up writing about almost everything
Every festival needs a headliner and such is the established pulling power of Durham Book Festival (founded: 1990) that it has them in glorious abundance.
This year’s line-up includes Pat Barker, Helen Fielding, Alan Hollinghurst, Rebecca F. Kuang, Terry Deary, Jackie Kay and Jodi Picoult.
That’s two Booker Prize winners, including one who lives locally.
Pat Barker brought the human impact of the First World War to life through the characters she created in her Regeneration trilogy, winning the Booker with the concluding instalment, The Ghost Road, published in 1995.
With her Women of Troy trilogy she has shown her touch has never deserted her.
The Silence of the Girls (2018), giving the female perspective on the exploits (and cruelties) of the much documented Achilles and his ilk, is a literary page-turner. It was followed in 2021 by The Women of Troy and this year has seen publication of The Voyage Home to which due homage is being paid at this year’s festival.
A dramatic live reading of the novel, directed by Maria Crocker in partnership with Live Theatre and with new music by North East alt-folk band The Shining Levels, is to take place at Durham’s Gala Theatre on Friday, October 11.
Afterwards the author will be in conversation on stage with writer Adelle Stripe.
Alan Hollinghurst is the other Booker winner (for The Line of Beauty, 2004) and he will be discussing Our Evenings, his first novel in over a decade, with Tom Crewe at the Gala on Saturday, October 12.
It’s almost ridiculous how much is crammed into three days at this year’s festival. Picking highlights is a pretty forlorn exercise but everyone will have their favourites and surely there is – forgive the cliché – something for everyone.
Terry Deary is a North East Treasure famous for serving up history’s horribleness in compelling prose.
His books run into the hundreds and more than 38 million copies have been sold in some 45 languages. You could say he's been horribly successful.
Billed as his first book for adults, A History of Britain in Ten Enemies argues that nations and their leaders are defined by their enemies – exemplified in this country by the Romans, the Spaniards with their Armada, the Nazis and more.
Terry will be talking about it on October 12 and you'll have to be there because he has asked for this event not to be live-streamed.
Another candidate for North East Treasure status, poet Kate Fox, will be at the festival too, demonstrating that as with Doctor Who’s Tardis we’re all Bigger On The Inside (Gala, October 12).
From across the ‘Pond’ come feted Americans Jodi Picoult (October 12) and Rebecca F. Kuang (October 13), both to discuss their latest bestsellers concerned with writing and the moral issues it can raise.
In By Any Other Name Picoult tells of the relationship between two female writers, the 16th Century Emilia Bassano, who is posited as the writer of Shakespeare’s plays, and modern day New York playwright Melina Green.
Kuang, in Yellowface, explores the idea of identity theft with unsuccessful writer June Hayward tempted by the idea of stealing the last manuscript of hotshot rival Athena Liu after the latter’s death.
And if I’m to mention one more female novelist born in the USA, and whose titles regularly fly off the shelves, it has to be Tracy Chevalier who won many devoted fans with Girl With a Pearl Earring.
She will be centre stage on October 13 to discuss her latest, The Glassmaker, set in Venice in the late 15th Century.
To all fans of Bridget Jones and her diaries, the event with Helen Fielding, chaired by New Writing North supremo Claire Malcolm, is surely another that's unmissable.
Mad About Bridget Jones it’s called and it’s scheduled for the Gala on October 12 in the afternoon. Hear how an anonymous newspaper columnist became a page and screen sensation.
An evening with the ever-popular Jackie Kay, meanwhile, is one of the evening attractions on October 11 when the Makar (National Poet for Scotland) will talk about her new poetry collection, May Day, described as a chorus of protest songs.
May Day was this summer’s choice by the Poetry Book Society, based in Newcastle. This event will also feature a reading by newcomer Romalyn Ante from her PBS-recommended collection, AGIMAT.
The only problem with attending the Jackie Kay event is that it overlaps with that of Craig Brown, the wonderfully funny satirist who will be at the Gala to discuss A Voyage Around the Queen, his humorous biography of the late Elizabeth II.
That would be one of my top personal picks – as would the event with David Peace (Gala, October 12), a compelling writer whose latest book, Munichs, looks at the Munich air disaster of 1958 in which so many of the Manchester United team feted as the ‘Busby Babes’ lost their lives.
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Peace has written brilliantly about football before in The Damned United and Red or Dead.
And if you haven’t already, I recommend seeing Tish, the film affectionately remembering Tish Murtha, the fabulous documentary photographer who died before her time. It’s getting a Gala Theatre festival afternoon screening on October 13.
Durham Book Festival, you see, is about more than books. It's also more than just a selling platform for authors, having long been a significant commissioner of work.
This year, as well as the Pat Barker dramatic reading, 12 writers were commissioned to produce essays under the heading North East Now, stimulated by the idea that this year we have acquired a newly elected North East Mayor.
Three of those writers – Arlen Pettitt, Louise Powell and Richard Benson – will be at the Gala on October 12 to talk about their essays in an event chaired by Anna Disley of New Writing North.
All the essays will shortly be available to read on the Durham Book Festival website, as is all the information you need about this year’s event, including times, venues, ticket details and live-streaming opportunities.
Happy wordy wallowing!
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