TALENT SPOTLIGHT ON THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE

The Rathbones Folio Prize, also known as ‘The Writers’ Prize’ rewards the best book of the year, regardless of genre, according to that most stringent of criteria, peer review. Former judge, shortlistee and founding member of the Rathbones Folio Academy, Tessa Hadley, herself a multi-award-winning author, will be joined by shortlisted and prize-winning writers for an event delving into the idea of readability, the pressures on creativity and what makes a work of ‘literature’.

Please visit thebathfestival.org.uk for up-to-date information about panellists.

Date: Thursday 18 May

Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: F10

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Penguin Michael Joseph Proof Party

Get ahead of the game at this proof party with Penguin Michael Joseph, publisher of some of the world’s most popular authors. You’ll have the chance to meet two of their biggest 2024 stars and take home an exclusive goodie bag of proof copies months ahead of publication. Debut authors Jessica Bull, whose Miss Austen Investigates reimagines Jane Austen as an amateur sleuth, and Olivia Ford with her delicious redemptive coming-of-old-age tale Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame join chair Francesca Beauman.

Ticket includes a glass of wine or soft drink and a tote bag of limited-edition proofs.

Date: Thursday 18 May

Time: 6pm – 7pm

Venue: Francis Hotel

Price: £9 – £22*

Event code: F8

Festival Special Max Porter Presents Shy

Join multi-award-winning author Max Porter as he brings his latest book alive in Bath for one night only. An unmissable audio and literary bombardment like no other.

Shy is a journey into the mind of a troubled teenager in 1995 who wanders into the night with the voices in his head and realises he isn’t alone.

This special evening starts with an exclusive dramatic reading of Shy, abridged for The Bath Festival and performed by the author with a live electronic score by Roly Porter. After the interval, writer and performer Vanessa Kisuule talks to Max about the story behind Shy before we end this amazing night with a Back to 95 Drum ’n’ Bass & Jungle set by local DJ Nicho

‘Max Porter has a way of writing unlike anyone else. I loved Shy. I finished it elated and tearful, joyful and terrified, changed by the journey. It moved me and surprised me and that is what I look for in my favourite artists’ PJ Harvey

Date: Thursday 18 May

Time: 7.30pm – 9.30pm

Venue: Komedia

Price: £9 – £22.50*

Event code: F11

Workshop Writing About Place

Do you have a passion for places and words? Using a combination of presentation, classroom discussion, a practical exercise and feedback on your work, this two-hour workshop with author and ‘walking writer’ Gail Simmons will introduce you to the skills and concepts needed to turn your enthusiasm into writing that brings places to life. Your ticket includes tea/coffee & biscuits.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm

Venue: Bath Central Library

Price: £10 – £25*

Event code: G1

SHARING STORIES HOW TO DO GOOD, BETTER

Feelings of division and disconnection can keep us all awake at night. Join philanthropist Derek A. Bardowell (Giving Back) and New Citizenship Project co-founder Jon Alexander (Citizens) as they explore the purpose and effectiveness of charity and citizenship. They talk to Greg Ingham about the people and movements that are taking on challenging social issues and how we might move away from a consumer to citizen focused society.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 1.30pm – 2.30pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G5

FICTION GEORGINA MOORE: THE GARNETT GIRLS

The Garnett Girls is one of the most talked about debuts for 2023; a powerful, bighearted novel exploring love, sisterhood and what it means to be home. Author Georgina Moore talks to Joanna Nadin (The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings) about her career as an award-winning book publicist, what it means to now be on ‘the other side’ as a writer herself and how this warm and tender novel came into being.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 11am – 12pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G3

Lunchtime Lecture Our Evolving Brain

The human brain is an astonishing thing. No other life form on the planet has a brain like ours. Neuroscientist and author, Dr Joseph Jebelli (How the Mind Changed), takes a fascinating, in-depth look at the evolution of the human mind, from its remarkable origin through its miraculous modern form. He sets out to answer provocative questions about what the future holds for our brains – and by extension, for humanity.

This event is part of the Lunchtime Lecture series in partnership with University of Bath.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 1.30pm – 2.30pm

Venue: Guildhall Banqueting Room

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G4

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1779 AT NO.1 ROYAL CRESCENT

Take those top hats out of storage and prime your petticoats: it’s time to party High Georgian-style at No.1 Royal Crescent! We’re turning the clock back to a time where the wigs were tall and the dresses wide! So slip into your dancing shoes, stick on your beauty patch and party like it’s 1779. Enjoy a performance by the Jane Austen Dancers and perhaps join in yourself, admire the dresses and sip some Georgian punch. You’ll also be able to get a ‘behind-the-scenes’ wander around the Museum out of hours.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 5.30pm – 7pm

Venue: No.1 Royal Crescent Price: £24.50*

Event code: G8

Current Affairs How To Survive The Climate Upheaval

Mass migration will remake the world in the 21st century as the quadruple threat of drought, heat, wildfires and flooding will see billions of people uprooted. Award-winning science writer and broadcaster Gaia Vince (Nomad Century) describes how migration isn’t the problem – but the solution. She talks to Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh about the economic and cultural benefits, the scale of the challenge, the grand ideas that will be needed to meet it and considers how a borderless world is not something to fear.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 5pm – 6pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G7

ART OF EXPRESSION SEE WHAT YOU’RE MISSING WITH WILL GOMPERTZ

World-leading art expert Will Gompertz (See What You’re Missing) takes us into the minds of artists – from contemporary stars to old masters – to show us how to look and experience the world with their heightened powers of perception. How can Rembrandt help us see ourselves? How can David Hockney help us to see nature? And how can Frida Kahlo help us see through pain? Find out in this engaging event which will open your eyes to the beauty around us. He talks to Hannah MacInnes.

‘Will Gompertz is the best teacher you never had’ Guardian

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 5pm – 6pm

Venue: Guildhall Banqueting Room

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G6

Jon Snow Talks To Dr Rachel Clarke

Eminent broadcaster Jon Snow presented Channel 4 News for 32 years, reporting from dozens of countries on some of the most defining moments in recent history. His new book, The State of Us, takes us through his five-decade career, from being thrown out of university for protesting apartheid to interviewing every prime minister since Margaret Thatcher. He talks to Dr Rachel Clarke about the disintegration of trust in political leaders and the media and how we can all seek out the truth about our world.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm

Venue: Guildhall Banqueting Room

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G9

FICTION DIANA EVANS AND AYÒBÁMI ADÉBÁYÒ

Join two of this country’s most outstanding contemporary novelists as they discuss their spellbinding new novels in which class, wealth and family collide. The follow-up to Ordinary People, Diana Evans’ A House for Alice is a compelling and tender novel, set in the shadows of Grenfell and a country in turmoil. Ayòbámi Adébáyò’s A Spell of Good Things transports us to Nigeria, and shines a light on the worlds of the haves and have-nots. They talk to Sarah Shaffi.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: G10

Festival Special Natalie Haynes Presents Stone Blind At The Roman Baths

Natalie Haynes, ‘rock star mythologist’, brings her irresistible take on the snakehaired gorgon in a special festival event held at Bath’s iconic venue.

Medusa is one of the most recognisable figures in Greek myth: her face has stared out at us for millennia, from Agamemnon’s shield in the Iliad to Versace’s logo now. But was she always the terrifying monster we have made her?

Join writer and broadcaster Natalie (Stone Blind) for a fast-paced tour through Medusa’s history, as she questions our perceptions of monsters and heroes and shows us how to survive contact with someone who can turn us to stone with a glance.

Please note this is a standing only event.

Date: Friday 19 May

Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm

Venue: Roman Baths

Price: £6 – £21*

Event code: G11

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SHARING STORIES

UGLY: UNPICKING THE BEAUTY MYTH

Why are our lives shaped by such limited ideas about beauty? We’ve all had those moments where you look in the mirror and nothing feels OK looking back at you. We’re encouraged to obsess over our looks and go to any length to change them, but we’re also ordered to ‘just love ourselves.’ Multi-award-winning journalist and author of Ugly, Anita Bhagwandas talks to Sarah Shaffi about her own journey and uncovers where these beauty standards started, unpicks why they’ve been perpetuated and unmasks how they’re still being upheld.

Lifestyle Destination Fabulous

The Times fashion director, Anna Murphy, wants to turn the old rules about ageing upside-down and inside-out. She talks to Bath Life’s beauty columnist Sarah Baker about the practical (how to dress your best) and the existential (how to feel your best) and shares tips, tricks and her personal experiences. Come and celebrate making the most of life as a grown-up woman.

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 11am – 12pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H2

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 12.30pm – 1.30pm

Venue: Walcot House

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H3

Sharing Stories

ESME YOUNG: BEHIND THE SEAMS

From her fashion student days in 1970s London to forming a punk fashion collective; from designing costumes for pop videos and films to her role as muchloved judge on The Great British Sewing Bee, Esme Young’s career spans a lifetime of creativity. She joins Sewing Bee’s youngest ever winner, self-taught sustainable fashion expert Serena Baker, to take us behind the scenes of a creative life lived differently.

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 2.30pm – 3.30pm

Venue: Guildhall

Banqueting Room

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H4

Fiction Janice Hallett And Kate Hamer

Don’t miss this special Bath Festival event with two masterful, bestselling suspense writers. Janice Hallett (The Twyford Code) – described as the modern-day Agatha Christie – makes a welcome return to the festival to talk about her stunning new mystery, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. She’s joined by Kate Hamer, author of the bestselling debut thriller, The Girl in the Red Coat and its unsettling new followup, The Lost Girls. They talk to Joanna Nadin.

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 2.30pm – 3.30pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H5

FICTION ORE AGBAJE-WILLIAMS AND NAOISE DOLAN

Forget romance, the most meaningful, messy and emotional relationships are friendships. But what happens when friendships get complicated? And when adults can’t agree? Join Ore Agbaje-Williams, debut author of The Three Of Us, about a wife whose husband and best friend loathe each other, and Naoise Dolan (Exciting Times), whose new novel The Happy Couple follows five characters whose lives intersect in the run-up to a wedding. Chaired by Sarah Shaffi

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 3pm – 4pm

Venue: Walcot House

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H6

FESTIVAL SPECIAL VIRAGO PRESS: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

Since 1973, Virago has been championing outstanding writing by women and people of underrepresented genders, bringing their voices to the widest possible readership around the world. Join Lennie Goodings, chair of Virago Press and author of A Bite of the Apple: A Life with Books, Writers and Virago, Claire Kohda, author of Woman, Eating and contributor to the anthology Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild and Untamed, and Virago publisher, Sarah Savitt, as they celebrate its 50th anniversary. Together they will discuss Virago’s legacy: the writers, the Virago Modern Classics and how their books will continue to change the world over the next 50 years too.

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 5pm – 6pm

Venue: Guildhall Salon

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H8

Walking Tours

Don’t forget to check out the walking tours daily at 10am, 2pm and 5.30pm on pages 20-21

Current Affairs

GARY YOUNGE: DISPATCHES FROM THE BLACK DIASPORA

For the last three decades Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events impacting the black diaspora. He accompanied Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joined revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama’s victory, and interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. He talks to Colin Grant (I’m Black So You Don’t Have To Be) about how much change is possible and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations.

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 5pm – 6pm

Venue: Guildhall Banqueting Room

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H7

Festival Special Litwitchure With Juno Dawson

Festival favourites Jen Cownie and Fiona Lensvelt, who perform together as Litwitchure, return for a special ‘witch lit’ event with bestselling author Juno Dawson. Jen and Fiona read Juno’s tarot live on stage, using the cards to explore her hopes, dreams, fears and achievements – as well as the themes of her bewitching new novel The Shadow Cabinet, the second in her sensational Her Majesty’s Royal Coven trilogy. Guaranteed to be a riotous, unpredictable evening full of surprises – there’s no way of knowing what the cards will reveal!

Date: Saturday 20 May

Time: 5pm – 6pm

Venue: Walcot House

Price: £5 – £15*

Event code: H9

*Ticket price excludes booking fee