The Marlborough LitFest is now in its sixth year and this year takes place from Friday October 2 to Sunday October 4.
The 2015 programme has something for everyone, with more than 25 events over three days featuring fiction and non-fiction, as well as poetry and creative writing workshops.
The 2015 line-up includes bestselling author of The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series Alexander McCall Smith, prizewinning novelist and poet Helen Dunmore as well as the Golding Speaker, Salley Vickers. A real treat for Wolf Hall fans is BAFTA-award winning director Peter Kosminsky in discussion with Channel 4’s Jon Snow about the recent TV adaptation. History buffs can choose between historical biographer and novelist Alison Weir or medieval historian and Magna Carta expert, Sean McGlyn; broadcaster, novelist and human rights journalist, Bidisha, will be discussing asylum and exile issues, particularly those seeking refuge in the UK from abroad.
Twice nominated for the Man Booker prize, Scottish novelist and journalist Andrew O’Hagan is also an Editor at Large of Esquire and the London Review of Books. O’Hagan is best known for chronicling contemporary Britain and his latest, fifth, novel, The Illuminations, is based on war, memory and secrets.
Guardian journalist and novelist John Lanchester is the author of four novels and two non-fiction books, including Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No-One Can Pay, about the global financial crisis. He has won the EM Forster Award, Whitbread First Novel Prize as well as being longlisted for the Booker Prize. His novel Capital - about a single street in London - is currently being turned into a BBC drama.
Bestselling novelist, poet and children’s author, Helen Dunmore has written 22 children’s books and nine adult books. She won the very first Orange Prize for Fiction. Her latest novel is The Lie, set during and after the First World War and is an enthralling novel of love, memory and devastating loss.
Jasper Fforde spent nearly 20 years in the film industry before his first novel in 2001. His genre of comedy crime fantasy has made him a bestselling author of The Last Dragonslayer series, the Nursery Crime books and the Thursday Next novels – which are set in a parallel Swindon in the 1980s. Jasper’s children attended St John’s in Marlborough and he lived for a time in Great Bedwyn.
Calcutta-born novelist Neel Mukherjee was shortlisted for both the 2014 Man Booker Prize and 2014 Costa novel of the year for The Lives of Others, the tale of a young man drawn into extreme political activism in 1960s Calcutta.
It took Tessa Hadley 23 years to become a published novelist. She’s now an established contemporary author of five novels and two short story collections as well as being Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her first novel, Accidents in the Home was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.
Local primary school children will attend author talks by Jane Hardstaff as well as bestselling author of Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs series Ian Whybrow who will entertain families with his trademark whacky humour.
Choose from a mix of new young authors and contemporary novelists, a new biography of Vita Sackville-West as well as a new translation of Anna Karenina. Current political commentary will be provided by a parliamentary satirist, John Crace. Nature lovers can take a walk in Savernake Forest with BBC’s Springwatch producer and naturalist Stephen Moss. For budding poets there is an open mic session at the Poetry in the Pub or the chance to catch Welsh poet Gillian Clarke at Marlborough College.
Our recommended summer read is ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ by Rachel Joyce, who is our annual Big Town Read author this year. An international bestseller, the novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and translated into 34 languages. Read up so you’re ready for the Q&A at the LitFest with Rachel in October.
For further information, visit www.marlboroughlitfest.org