Two weeks to go until the Marlborough Literature Festival

The Marlborough Literature Festival will start later this month, and run from 29 September - 2 October.

The 13th Marlborough Literature Festival will return to the town later this month, and members of the public can still purchase tickets to a number of its varied events. 

Members of the public can purchase tickets from the festival's bookshop, on the festival's website, from The White Horse Bookshop, or via calling 0333 666 3366.

There will be a wide range of literary events for attendees of the LitFest to enjoy. 

The line-up includes 2022 Golding Speaker, Ali Smith, as well as Kamila Shamsie, Patrick Gale, Pam Ayres, Clover Stroud, Max Hastings and Benedict Allen.

For the younger festival-goers, Morag Hood, Tracey Corderoy and Jacqueline Wilson will be attending. 

Other highlights for the adults wishing to attend the festival include:

• Hannah Lowe, reading poetry from her 2021 Costa Award-winning book, The Kids, in Marlborough College’s Memorial Hall.
• The annual Hiscox Debut Authors slot will champion the emerging writing talent of Ayanna Lloyd Banwo and Bobby Palmer.
• Local archaeologist and author, Mike Pitts, talking about his latest book, How to Build Stonehenge.
• Prize-winning author of books on landscape, place, literature and history, Adam Nicolson, on his new book, Life Between the Tides.
• Local Wiltshire vicar, Revd Colin Heber-Percy, in conversation with the Bishop of Ramsbury, Andrew Rumsey, about the role of the parish church during the pandemic and their recent books, Tales of a Country Parish and In English Grounds: A Pastoral Journal, respectively.
• Scottish Bengali author Abir Mukherjee makes a welcome return to LitFest to discuss his latest historical crime fiction book, The Shadows of Men.
• This year’s Translation Duel will feature German-language experts Shaun Whiteside and Ruth Martin discussing a tale from the Brothers Grimm, chaired by Daniel Hahn.
• Author and journalist, Anita Sethi and travel writer, Simon Parker, discuss their travelling experiences in Britain in 2019/20 (Anita walked the Pennine Way; Simon completed a 3,500-mile bike ride around Britain) in their books, I Belong Here and Riding Out, respectively.
• Louise Willder has been writing the ‘blurbs’ on the back of books for Penguin for 25 years and, 5,000 of them later, she’s broken free and written a whole book: Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion.
• Memoir writing workshop with bestselling author and creative writing teacher Cathy Rentzenbrink.
• The annual Collectable Books Roadshow with local rare book expert Chris Gange at Katharine House Gallery.
• Poetry in the Pub returns to The Green Dragon pub with the popular open mic poetry event for poets of any age, chaired by Alex Hickman. This year’s theme is ‘The Environment’ – individuals can submit their poems in advance to [email protected] and these will be read first.

Additionally, as a tribute to the late Queen, 13 local schools took part in the festival's 2022 primary schools competition, which received nearly 800 entries in total. 

Children wrote about 'The Day the Queen came to stay' to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, which organisers say now has a deeper resonance for all. Six prizes of £25 White Horse Bookshop book tokens were donated by Haine & Smith Marlborough. 

These prizes will be given out during the weekend of the LitFest. 

The Marlborough LitFest team also released the following statement regarding the Queen's passing: "The LitFest team are deeply saddened by the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We offer our heartfelt condolences and gratitiude for an incredible reign and a lifetime of dedication to this country."

More information about the Marlborough LitFest can be found online at https://www.marlboroughlitfest.org/, or at https://swindonlink.com/lifestyle/marlborough-lit-fest-programme-launch/