BUXTON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL Books at Buxton
6–22 JULY
Box Office: 01298 72190 www.buxtonfestival.co.uk
Supporters Buxton International Festival and artists are very grateful for the support of the following organisations: Funders The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas
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A big thank you to our sponsors, your support is crucial on and off the stage. We work with our supporters to create unique experiences, come and join us for our unmissable Festival of opera, music and books and explore new ways to: • Engage with audiences • Raise awareness of your brand • Explore PR opportunities • Entertain • Engage the local community
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There are also many opportunities for individuals to get involved and get access to exclusive behind the scenes events. Join the Directors Circle or an Opera Syndicate, sponsor a singer, opera, music or book event. For details contact: Joanne Williams – Development Director Joanne.williams@buxtonfestival.co.uk
Welcome
This year’s Book Festival is bigger than ever. Buxton International Festival is delighted to announce a new partnership with the British Academy. Perspectives, a series of morning debates curated by Lord Peter Hennessy, explores the issues of our age with some of Britain’s foremost thinkers and commentators.
100 years after some women got the vote we celebrate some remarkable female lives – Bonita Norris, the youngest woman to scale Everest, Jenni Murray on 21 women who may just define history, Shirley Williams in conversation with Dame Janet Smith and the granddaughter of the woman who led the fight for women’s suffrage, Dr Helen Pankhurst.
David Runciman asks ‘Can democracy survive recent elections in Europe and the United States?’ The Financial Times’ David Pilling questions why we celebrate GDP as a measure of success; Mark Cocker demands ‘How can we save British nature before it’s too late?’ and historians Alison Weir and Helen Castor sift fact from fiction.
And back by popular request, Simon Jenkins on ‘Britain’s most striking railway stations and, ‘Digging up the Past’, Tony Robinson, Francis Pryor and John Gater on how they switched a nation on to archaeology.
We have more than 40 events spanning history, arts, politics, nature, economics and sport, from the inside stories of Frankenstein (Fiona Sampson on Mary Shelley) and Charles II, the biggest manhunt in history (Charles Spencer To Catch A King) to authoritative investigations on FIFA (David Conn The Fall of the House of FIFA) and the infamous Paris-Roubaix bicycle race (Guardian cycling correspondent, William Fotheringham). Plus This is Going to Hurt, the best-selling exposé of life as a junior doctor! (Dr Adam Kay) and a remarkable ‘In conversation’ with legendary screen idol, Terence Stamp.
Felicity Goodey Chairman
For many more delights, read on!
Provoking debate, Roy Strong and John Tusa reflect on lives in the creative industries while Classic FM’s John Suchet unpacks Festival favourite Verdi and Paul Kildea reveals the extraordinary tale of Chopin’s piano. In politics Sarah Churchwell and Jesse Norman bring fresh perspectives to age old debates. 3
Jesse Norman
In conversation with Julian Glover Adam Smith: What He Thought and Why It Matters Saturday 7 July 10.45am–11.45am Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £12 Everyone knows Adam Smith – wasn’t he the bloke who inspired Margaret Thatcher? Well, yes, but Conservative MP Jesse Norman shows that there is a lot more to him than that. Often regarded as the most influential economist who ever lived, debate still rages over whether Smith championed freedom of the individual or was an apologist for inequality and human selfishness. Norman looks at the man and his times, the enormous influence he has exerted over two centuries, and how he can help us tackle today’s crisis of capitalism. Sponsored by
John Suchet
Verdi: The Man Revealed Saturday 7 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 But who was Verdi? Giuseppe Verdi, whose Alzira is brought to life at this year’s Festival, remains the greatest operatic composer that Italy, the home of opera, has ever produced. Yet throughout his lifetime he claimed to detest composing and repeatedly rejected it. He was a landowner, a farmer, a politician and symbol of Italian independence; but his music tells a different story. And what of his own story? Perhaps the most intensely private of all composers, Verdi remains a mystery but in Verdi: the Man Revealed former ITN newsman and Classic FM presenter John Suchet peers beneath the opera cloak to discover the real man. Sponsored by
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You’ve heard the man, now listen to the music: Buy a stalls ticket for for the first night of Verdi’s Alzira on 7 July and receive a 10% discount on your John Suchet ticket (if purchased at the same time).
Eugenia Cheng The Art of Logic:
Saturday 7 July 4pm–5pm Spiegeltent, Tickets: £11 How to Make Sense in a World that Doesnʼt Do you want to know when a politician is lying? Some people would say most of the time, but Eugenia Cheng says you can catch them out with mathematics. While strong feelings can obscure the reality behind the rhetoric, black-and-white logic can guide us through the fog around crucial issues. Mathematical logic used side-by-side with emotions not only helps us to make more rational decisions, but also enriches our lives. Eugenia, also a concert pianist, shows us how.
David Cannadine
Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800–1906 Sunday 8 July 10am–11am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Self-belief and fragility Historian David Cannadine takes a look at nineteenth century Britain in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice – an exhilarating time, but also a horrifying one, with revolutions in transport, communication and work, cities growing vast and scientific ideas making the intellectual landscape unrecognisable. This was a country which saw itself at the summit of the world. And yet it was a society convulsed by doubt, fear and introspection – a time at once strangely familiar and yet wholly unlike our own.
William Fotheringham Sunday in Hell
Sunday 8 July 4pm–5pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11
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Blood, sweat and tyres Sporting documentaries would never be the same again after A Sunday in Hell, the Danish film director Jorgen Leth’s revolutionary camera and sound techniques forever changed the way cycling is seen. The Guardian’s cycling correspondent William Fotheringham, whose biography of Tom Simpson, Put Me Back On My Bike, was acclaimed by Vélo magazine as ‘the best cycling biography ever written’, reveals how the resulting film has become the most admired cycling documentary of all time.
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The Oldie Literary Lunch Sunday 8 July 12 noon–3pm Old Hall Hotel, Tickets: £50
FEATURING
Leanda de Lisle
on Charles I – traitor, murderer, martyr
Miles Goslett
on how the establishment covered up the David Kelly affair
Cooking the books The Literary Lunch is a golden opportunity to stimulate your brain cells as well as your taste buds. To a sumptuous meal, why not add a fourth course of intellectual refreshment? The three speakers present a compelling array of interest and erudition. Leanda de Lisle is the author of a ground-breaking biography of the martyred monarch Charles I, revealing a king who is principled, radical and brave, but also fatally blinkered. This is a story for our times, of populist politicians and religious wars, of new media and the death of a king that will sow the seeds of a new Britain and a new world. One of the most compelling stories of recent times was the death of the weapons scientist David Kelly. Miles Goslett raises disturbing questions: every detail, from Kelly’s motives to the nature of his death, his body’s discovery and the way that the state investigated his demise, seems on close examination not to make sense. Goslett argues that we should be deeply sceptical of the official narrative and reminds us of the desperate measures those in power resorted to in justifying the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The conflagration that destroyed Chicago in 1871 also ushered in a new world – that of the skyscraper. Dan Cruickshank reveals how modern high-rise building rose literally from the ashes of the old city; how in Victorian times a pattern was set by visionary architects that now dominates the skyline of all the world’s great cities. But it is also the story of Gilded Age Chicago, corrupt, violent, fabulously wealthy and ready to try anything, even revolutionary architecture. MENU Glass of wine
Dan Cruickshank
on Chicago’s most iconic skyscraper Tickets on sale from The Oldie 01225 427311, 9.30am–3pm, Mon–Fri and ask for Laura or email reservations@theoldie.co.uk In association with
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Spring vegetable broth Prawn and salmon salad with paprika mayo Farmhouse pâté with toasted brioche Roasted topside of beef with dripping potatoes and yorkshire pudding Baked cod in olive and tomato sauce with new potatoes Spring vegetable and saffron risotto Vanilla crème brulée with shortbread biscuit Chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce Cheese and biscuits
Posting Letters To The Moon
Wartime letters between Oscar-nominated actress Celia Johnson and her husband Peter Fleming Read by their daughter Lucy Fleming with Simon Williams Sunday 8 July 7.15pm–8.45pm Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £15, £17.50
Wartime brief encounters The actress Celia Johnson is best remembered for Brief Encounter but it was her marriage to the dashing adventurer Peter Fleming that is the real story. While Ian Fleming fictionalised spying and adventure in James Bond, his brother Peter lived the part. After Eton, Oxford and the Grenadier Guards Peter was dispatched, in 1942, to command military deception in the Far East, an area he had extensively explored before the war. For the following three years the letters exchanged with his wife Celia presented an extraordinarily intimate and touching portrait of wartime life and long‑distance love, posting letters to one who seemed ‘as far away as the moon’. Their daughter Lucy is also an actress and with her actor husband Simon Williams (respectively Miranda and Justin in The Archers) this reading brings a moving authenticity to the remarkable record of a love that spanned continents and found two people caught up in vividly contrasting worlds – the London stage and the theatre of war.
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Perspectives: Depth, distance and dimensions in today’s world This year, Buxton International Festival joins forces with the British Academy to revive the spirit of the revolutionary Georgian Coffee House, the social network of its day. The series will be curated by Peter Hennessy and will feature a dynamic mix of speakers brought together with our audience to explore how we look at history, ourselves and even reality itself. Look out for the Perspectives logo in the Books programme and online for further details and regular updates.
PERSPECTIVES 1 – Monday 9 July 9.30am NEWS BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT: British Academy President David Cannadine is joined by Sarah Churchwell and a leading broadcaster to explore the links between the rise in new media platforms and populism. PERSPECTIVES 2 – Wednesday 11 July 10am INHERENT TENSIONS: Is it possible for the modern corporation to grow a conscience and a bottom line? David Pilling, David Edgerton and Tom Levitt imagine new models for old questions. PERSPECTIVES 3 – Friday 13 July LUCKY DIP: Friday 13th may be unlucky for some, but don’t forget to check online for details of Peter’s surprise guests in the 2pm slot. PERSPECTIVES 4 – Saturday 14 July 2.30pm THE NECESSITY OF HISTORY: A real embarrassment of riches as Peter Hennessy is joined by David Runciman and David Cannadine to explore the relevance and necessity of history at a time of constant transition and change. PERSPECTIVES 5 – Sunday 15 July 9.30pm PRIME MOVERS AND PRIME TIMES: Peter Hennessy and Ferdinand Mount discuss Prime Movers – twelve provocateurs of history and life and what they teach us about ourselves. PERSPECTIVES 6 – Friday 20 July 2pm
Peter Hennessy is one of Britain’s best known historians and Atlee Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London. His awardwinning books have covered British history from the aftermath of the Second World War to an analysis of the great offices of state and our unwritten constitution. A regular presenter on BBC Radio Four, Peter co-founded The Institute of Contemporary British History and is a fellow of the British Academy. He was made an independent cross bench life peer in 2010.
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TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION: A the closing session of the Perspectives series Alison Weir, Helen Castor and Rosemary Ashton explore the differing challenges of writing history and historical fiction and the phenomenal increase in the public’s appetite for both. In association with
News but not as we know it In association with
Monday 9 July 9.30am–11am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £15 British Academy President David Cannadine is joined by Sarah Churchwell and a leading broadcaster to explore the links between the rise in new media platforms and populism. Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Professor Sir David Cannadine FBA is a historian of modern British history from 1800 to 2000; he is Visiting Professor in History at Oxford University, and General Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Sarah Churchwell
Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream Monday 9 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Trump and the soul of the nation ‘America first’ and ‘the American dream’ are the watch-words of Donald Trump. But what do they mean and are they in direct conflict in a battle for the soul of the nation? Sarah Churchwell explores the history of these two expressions using the voices that helped shape that debate, from Capitol Hill to the newsroom of the New York Times, students to senators, dreamers to dissenters. She argues that the meanings and history of these terms must be understood afresh so that the true spirit of America can be reclaimed.
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Helen Pankhurst
Deeds Not Words: The Story of Womenʼs Rights – Then and Now Tuesday 10 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11
A Pankhurst on the march again Why, at the present rate will we have to wait until 2069 for the gender pay gap in Britain to disappear? Why, in 2015, did 11% of women lose their jobs due to pregnancy discrimination? In 2018, on the centenary of the Act that gave some women the vote for the first time, Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst and a leading women’s rights campaigner, charts how women’s lives have changed over the last century, and offers a new way forward.
David Pilling
The Growth Delusion: The Wealth and Well-Being of Nations Tuesday 10 July 5pm–6pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 A growing concern For economic growth, heroin consumption and prostitution are worth more than volunteer work or public services, so in a rational world shouldn’t we learn how to value what makes economies better, rather than simply bigger? David Pilling argues that our policies are geared relentlessly towards increasing our gross domestic product (GDP). By this yardstick we have never been wealthier or happier. So why doesn’t it feel that way? Sponsored by
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Inherent Tensions – Is it possible for the modern corporation to grow a conscience and a bottom line? David Pilling, David Edgerton and Tom Levitt imagine new models for old questions Wednesday 11 July 10am–11.30am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £15
David Pilling has been a prize-winning reporter and editor for the Financial Times for 25 years. He won Best Commentator prize from the Society of Publishers in Asia in both 2011 and 2012 and Best Foreign Commentator for 2011 in the UK’s Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards for coverage of China, Japan and Pakistan. David Edgerton is Hans Rausing Professor at King’s College London, where he was the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. He is the author of a sequence of groundbreaking books on 20th century Britain and the iconoclastic and brilliant The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900. When Tom Levitt ceased being the Member of Parliament for High Peak in 2010, after 13 years in post, he established himself as the writer and consultant ‘using the tools of business to create public good’. His third book, The Company Citizen, is an ‘excellent account’ of why business needs to help solve the problems of the planet, nation and community – according to Unilever CEO Paul Polman. In association with
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David Edgerton
The Rise and Fall of the British Nation Wednesday 11 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 How Britain won the peace A passionate sense of identity may have fuelled antipathy to the EU, but that identity itself remains elusive. David Edgerton breaks the bounds of conventional historical perspectives in arguing that Britain was only a real, successful nation, with shared goals and horizons, from the 1940s until the 1970s: before this it was an imperial power, and afterwards bound up with the European Union and international capital. Packed with surprising examples and arguments, Professor Edgerton gives us a grown-up, unsentimental history that is crucial at a moment of serious reconsideration of the country’s future.
Dr Peter Collinge Swimming, opium and drink
Wednesday 11 July 5.30pm–6.30pm Pump Room, Tickets: £11 The spa experience in Georgian Buxton In the 1780s Buxton’s visitors sought relief from their ailments, but they also wanted entertainment. Using the letters and accounts of the aristocratic Hester Newdigate and Jane Macartney, taking the waters, eating, drinking, shopping, balls and card assemblies are brought vividly to life. Newdigate’s eye for detail and humorous anecdotes, combined with Macartney’s meticulous record-keeping also reveal inept attempts at swimming, dangerous self-medication, and the expense of the eighteenth-century spa experience.
In partnership with
Daniel Trilling Lights in the Distance
Thursday 12 July 10am–11am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Exile and refuge at the borders of Europe A mother who puts her children into a refrigerated lorry and asks ‘what else could I do?ʼ A runaway teenager who comes of age on the streets and in abandoned buildings. A student who leaves his war-ravaged country behind because he doesnʼt want to kill. Each of the thousands of people who come to Europe in search of asylum every year brings a unique story with them. Acclaimed journalist Daniel Trilling builds a portrait of the refugee crisis, seen through the eyes of the people who experienced it first-hand.
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Film
Interlude In Prague (15)
Thursday 12 July 2pm–4pm Buxton Cinema – Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £7 A chance to catch this award-winning 2017 film, based on the life of Mozart, followed by a question and answer session with its screenwriter, Brian Ashby. Prague, 1786. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart spends a few turbulent months escaping the frustrating, privileged elite of Vienna. Overwhelmed by the tangled web of violence and intrigue that surrounds him and with his mind affected, Mozart creates the astonishing music and drama that becomes Don Giovanni. Aneurin Barnard (War and Peace) plays Mozart, and the film also stars James Purefoy, Adrian Edmondson, Samantha Barks, Dervla Kirwan and Nickolas Grace.
Friday 13 July
LUCKY DIP: Friday 13th may be unlucky for some, but don’t forget to check online for details of Peter Hennessy’s surprise guests.
David Runciman How Democracy Ends
Saturday 14 July 10am–11am Spiegeltent, Tickets: £11 The day democracy dies Trump and Putin both came to power in democracies, as did Hitler, so does the greatest threat to democracy lie in democracy itself? Already it seems imperilled in some of the most stable states while we have little thought for what may come after. David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth‑century ideas of democratic failure. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable – a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better.
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David Conn
In conversation with Mike Neary The Fall of the House of FIFA Saturday 14 July 11.30am–12.30pm Spiegeltent, Tickets: £11 Lifting the lid on sport’s greatest scandal From its foundations in 1904 uniting the football‑playing world, to an organisation mired in scandal – dawn raids, FBI investigations, allegations of money laundering, industrial‑scale bribery, racketeering, tax evasion, vote-buying and theft, FIFA’s extraordinary history is chronicled by investigative journalist David Conn, in a definitive story of FIFA’s rise and the most spectacular fall sport has ever seen. t& Spor ture n adve er. off 1. 3 See p
The Necessity of History Saturday 14 July 2.30pm–4pm Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £15 A real embarrassment of riches as Peter Hennessy is joined by David Runciman and David Cannadine to explore the relevance and necessity of history at a time of constant transition and change. In association with
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Prime Movers and Prime Times Peter Hennessy and Ferdinand Mount discuss Prime Movers – twelve provocateurs of history and life and what they teach us about ourselves Sunday 15 July 9.30am–11am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £15 Ferdinand Mount takes Peter Hennessy on a colourful and rip-roaring journey through the lives of great thinkers and politicians who have shaped human history over the past two millennia – from the great orator and statesman of Ancient Greece (Pericles) to the inspiration of the founding of the state of Pakistan (Muhammad Iqbal), from Jesus Christ to Rousseau, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson. These are widely different figures, but can comparisons be drawn between the various approaches each figure promoted in his works?
Gavin Francis
In conversation with Mike Neary Shapeshifters: On Medicine and Human Change Sunday 15 July 2.30pm–3.30pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 The shape of life Why and how does our body mysteriously and remorselessly shift its shape? While medicine now has unprecedented power to alter our lives, that power has limitations and we must accept that to be alive is to be in perpetual change. Gavin Francis, who is both writer and physician, draws on history, art, literature, myth and magic to show how the very essence of being human is change. tein kens Fran 200 31 See p
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Simon Jenkins
Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations Sunday 15 July July 4pm–5pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 A branch of history Shivering on an empty platform or crammed into a cola-can ‘express’, it’s hard to grasp the one-time romance of railways. But Brunel built stations as cathedrals to steam, and on insignificant branch lines a miniature Palladian villa might surprise and delight the rail traveller. Our cities and countryside are studded with architectural gems that Simon Jenkins, former chairman of the National Trust, has collected as Britain’s 100 best stations. As the beginnings and ends of memorable journeys, or of brief encounters, they possess a peculiar magic and an unsung but fascinating history. Sponsored by
Charles Spencer To Catch A King: Charles II’s Great Escape
Monday 16 July 10.30am–11.30am Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £12 Monarch on the run Few English kings have witnessed their death being celebrated by happy villagers, but few have been a fugitive with a price on their head – or the son of a king who lost his head. Noticeably taller than others, with a distinctively dark complexion and a natural manner that scarcely merged with the crowd, it was never going to be easy for Charles II to slip unnoticed out of England, particularly when he was being hunted by half the country. The story of his flight after defeat at the battle of Worcester with absurd disguises, wild chases and hair’s-breadth escapes, reads like an historical thriller but is a true story, first recounted by the king to Samuel Pepys. Now it is vividly retold by Charles Spencer, perhaps best known as Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, and himself a descendant of that royal fugitive through two of King Charles II’s illegitimate sons, the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond.
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Tony Robinson, Frances Pryor & John Gater Digging up the Past
Sunday 15 July 7.30pm Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £17, £21 Book early for this specially commissioned appearance by Tony Robinson and friends as they share the secrets of how the telly switched a nation on to archaeology. A national treasure in his own right, Tony Robinson, is much loved for his role of Baldrick in the iconic Blackadder and presenting The Worst Jobs in History. For over two decades he was the presenter of Time Team, Channel 4’s ground breaking archaeology series.
archaeologists. In his new book Paths to the Past uncovers the hidden gems of England’s rural and city landscapes. Geologist and fellow Time Team regular John Gater is an associate editor of the Journal of Archeological Prospection and holds an honorary degree from University of Bradford for his distinguished contribution to archaeology.
Frances Pryor was a regular contributor to Time Team and is one of Britain’s most celebrated
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Diary PAGE
Saturday 7 July 10.45am 2pm 4pm
Jesse Norman John Suchet Eugenia Cheng
Wednesday 11 July 4 4 5
Sunday 8 July 10am 12 noon 4pm 7.15pm
David Cannadine The Oldie Literary Lunch William Fotheringham Lucy Fleming & Simon Williams: Posting Letters to the Moon
Perspectives: News but not as we know it Sarah Churchwell
5 6 5 7
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Helen Pankhurst David Pilling
10am 2pm
Perspectives: Inherent Tensions 11 David Edgerton 12 Dr Peter Collinge 12
9 9
10 10
Daniel Trilling Film: Interlude in Prague
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Friday 13 July 10.45am
Tuesday 10 July 2pm 5pm
10am 2pm 5.30pm
Thursday 12 July
Monday 9 July 9.30am 2pm
PAGE
Perspectives event to be announced
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Saturday 14 July 10am 11.30am 2.30pm
David Runciman 13 David Conn 14 Perspectives: The Necessity of History 14
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Sunday 15 July 9.30am 2.30pm 4pm 7.30pm
Perspectives: Prime Movers & Prime Times Gavin Francis Simon Jenkins Tony Robinson, Francis Pryor & John Gater
Thursday 19 July 15 15 16 17
Monday 16 July 10.30am 2pm 4pm
Charles Spencer Michael Pennington Roy Strong
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Miranda Seymour
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Wednesday 18 July 10.45am 2.30pm 4pm
Adam Kay Fiona Sampson John Tusa
10am 2pm 8pm 8pm
Nicholas Shakespeare Anne de Courcy An Evening with Terence Stamp Paul Kildea
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Friday 20 July 10.45am 2pm 4pm
Helen Castor Perspectives: Truth stranger than fiction Shirley Williams
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Saturday 21 July
Tuesday 17 July 2pm
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21 22 22
10am 12 noon 2pm
Mark Cocker Tim Birkhead Jenni Murray
27 27 28
Sunday 22 July 10am 2pm
Mary Colwell Bonita Norris
27 28
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Michael Pennington Chekhov in Siberia
Monday 16 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 A Shakespearean takes Chekhov’s journey In 1890, Anton Chekhov did a most un-Chekhovian thing: he battled 4,000 miles across Russia in order to conduct a survey of the penal colonies of Sakhalin Island. Actor Michael Pennington, who founded the English Shakespeare Company and has performed many memorable roles on stage and screen (including in films Return of the Jedi and The Iron Lady), brings that journey superbly – and shockingly – to life with a powerful one‑man performance.
Roy Strong The Story of Britain
Monday 16 July 4pm–5pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Strong views on our island history A celebrated historian of Tudor portraiture and of the garden, Roy Strong’s latest work takes in the whole sweep of British history from the Celtic tribes to Margaret Thatcher. Formerly director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, Roy Strong has also designed gardens for Gianni Versace and Elton John. He is also High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. His immense scholarship coupled with powerfully held convictions make a compelling contribution to the great question facing Britain; how do we understand our past? Sponsored by
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Miranda Seymour In Byron’s Wake
Tuesday 17 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Two women emerging from Byron’s shadow In 1815, Annabella Milbanke married the notorious and brilliant Lord Byron. Just one year later, she fled, taking with her their baby daughter, the future Ada Lovelace. Byron’s little girl was introduced to mathematics as a means of calming her wild spirits. As an exuberant and boldly unconventional young woman, she amplified her explanations of Charles Babbage’s unbuilt calculating engine to predict – as nobody would do for another century – the dawn today of our modern computer age.
Adam Kay
In conversation with Mike Neary This is Going to Hurt – Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor Wednesday 18 July 10.45am–11.45am Spiegeltent, Tickets: £11
Sick notes 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids – and the hospital parking meter earns more than you. Welcome to the life of a junior doctor. Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay’s diaries provide a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn’t – about life on and off the hospital ward. 21
Fiona Sampson
In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein Wednesday 18 July 2.30pm–3.30pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 The runaway Goth At 16 she ran away with a married poet; at 21 she wrote Frankenstein, the definitive Gothic novel that spawned a whole new genre. The romance and tragedy of Mary Shelley’s short life are well known, but what do we know of the woman herself? Through letters, diaries and records Fiona Sampson reveals the real woman behind the story. She uncovers a complex, generous character – friend, intellectual, lover and mother – trying to fulfil a passionate commitment to writing when to be a woman writer was an extraordinary and costly anomaly.
John Tusa
In conversation with Michael Williams Making a Noise Wednesday 18 July 4pm–5pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 The art of leading the arts An inspirational broadcaster, fearless champion of the arts, and guardian of journalism’s traditional values, John Tusa’s achievements are astonishing for their breadth as much as their courage. From six years of defending the BBC World Service from political interference and his trenchant criticism of John Birt’s disastrous attack on the core values of the BBC to restoring the fortunes of the Barbican Arts Centre, Tusa presents a fearless and entertaining memoir of life at the top of the arts and broadcasting.
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Nicholas Shakespeare Six Minutes in May: How Churchill Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister Thursday 19 July 10am–11am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 How Churchill took control in Britain’s darkest hour Early May 1940: The first land battle of the war was fought in Norway. It went disastrously for the Allies and many blamed Winston Churchill. Yet weeks later he would rise to the most powerful post in the country, overtaking Chamberlain and the favourite to succeed him, Lord Halifax. Nicholas Shakespeare shows us both the dramatic action on the battlefield in Norway and the machinations and personal relationships in Westminster that led up to this crucial point.
Anne De Courcy
The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York Thursday 19 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 The day of the dollar princess Anne de Courcy charts a veritable invasion a century ago of ‘dollar princesses’ who rescued many an ailing aristocratic house through their marriage dowry. From 1874 to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication. Through diaries, memoirs and letters, Anne de Courcy reveals what they thought of their new lives in England – and what England thought of them.
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An Evening with
Terence Stamp In conversation with Nickolas Grace and discussing his memoir The Ocean fell into the Drop
Thursday 19 July 8pm–9.30pm Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £15, £17.50
As Sergeant Troy he broke the hearts of Bathsheba Everdene, and a million cinemagoing teenage girls – plus those of their mums. Then he tangled with Superman as arch-villain General Zod. Not bad for the son of a tugboat stoker from London’s East End. Terence Stamp, one of the most charismatic actors of the sixties, has blazed a stellar film career ever since his first appearance on the screen in Billy Budd earned him an Oscar nomination. He even achieved a name-check in The Kinks’ hit Waterloo Sunset. But despite
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the dashing good looks Terence has escaped typecasting, even appearing as the ageing drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Terence will talk about his extraordianry life and work to fellow actor Nickolas Grace, best remembered as Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin of Sherwood.
Paul Kildea
Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism Thursday 19 July 8pm–9.30pm Spiegeltent, Tickets: £12 Hitler’s hunt for Chopin In autumn 1940 Nazi officials looted from Wanda Landowska’s Paris home the small piano on which Chopin completed his astonishing 24 Preludes – an instrument built a hundred years earlier by a Majorcan carpenter. In a fusion of live performance and music history Paul Kildea tells the story of the piano and the Preludes, locating them both in the slow arc of musical Romanticism, a movement that the Third Reich was also determined to appropriate as its own.
Helen Castor
Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity Friday 20 July 10.45am–11.45am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Historical image as armour Historian Helen Castor, who recently brought the short rule of Lady Jane Grey to life on TV, paints a vivid portrait of Elizabeth I’s reign. She presided over a Golden Age of victory in war, exploration and culture, but this public image hides a queen shaped by profound and enduring insecurity. From her precarious upbringing at the whim of a brutal, capricious father and her perilous accession after his death, to the failure to marry that threatened her line, Elizabeth faced constant threat with a compellingly inscrutable public persona.
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Truth Stranger than history Friday 20 July 2pm–3.30pm Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £15 Alison Weir and Helen Castor join Rosemary Ashton FBA to explore the challenges of historical drama versus history and why uncertain times have seen a resurgence in the popularity of both. Alison Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous historical biographies, including Queens of the Conquest and novels including Innocent Traitor. Helen Castor is a historian and broadcaster, with books and series on Joan of Arc and Lady Jane Grey, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
In association with
Shirley Williams
In conversation with Dame Janet Smith Friday 20 July 4pm–5pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Celebrating a hundred years of some women gaining the vote, we welcome one of the most prominent women of the last 50 years, Baroness Williams of Crosby. Shirley Williams, the daughter of former Buxton resident and Testament of Youth author Vera Brittain, joined parliament in 1955 as a Labour MP, rising to the post of Education Minister in the Callaghan government of the late 70s. In 1981 she was one of the ‘Gang of Four’ who defected from Labour to set up the SDP. She is now regarded as an elder statesman of the Liberal Democrats, whose wisdom and experience continue to inspire the generations who have followed her into politics. e agett Suffr nary e t n Ce
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Rosemary Ashton OBE, FRSL, FBA is Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature and an Honorary Fellow of UCL. Her book One Hot Summer is released in July.
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Mark Cocker
In conversation with Mike Monaghan Our Place: Can We Save British Nature Before it is Too Late? Saturday 21 July 10am–11am Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 While we claim to ‘love nature’ we relentlessly despoil it, and charities that raised money for conservation become mega-charities that use conservation to raise money. What has happened to the Green movement? Where did it start, and where is it going?
In association with
Mark Cocker focuses on the places and people that have shaped our thought and our landscape to answer the curious conundrum: why do the British seem to love their countryside more than almost any other nation, yet they have come to live amid one of the most denatured landscapes on Earth?
Tim Birkhead
The Wonderful Mr Willughby
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Saturday 21 July 12 noon–1pm Spiegeltent, Tickets: £11 The original bird brain Few have heard of Francis Willughby yet he was the world’s first ornithologist. A brilliant scientist who died of pleurisy in 1672 when he was only 36, he produced the revolutionary Ornithologiae libri tres which founded scientific ornithology in Europe, organising species according to their physical characteristics. He was the first to challenge Aristotle and suggest that swallows migrate, rather than spending the winter buried in mud. Tim Birkhead celebrates Willughby’s endeavours and provides a fascinating insight into a thrilling period of scientific history and a man who lived at its heart.
Mary Colwell Curlew Moon
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Sunday 22 July 11am–12 noon Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 The cry of the curlew
In association with
In the trilling of the curlew the wild spirit of moor and mountain has long found a voice, but no more. Now highly endangered it inspired Mary Colwell to undertake a 500-mile spring journey following the bird from nesting in Ireland to incubating eggs in Wales and finally fledging chicks in Norfolk. Weaving an evocative tale of discovery interspersed with natural history, Mary, a producer at the BBC Natural History Unit, identifies the principal threats but she believes there is still time to save the curlew, provided we act now.
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Jenni Murray
In conversation with Dame Janet Smith A History of Britain in 21 Women Saturday 21 July 2pm–3pm Buxton Opera House, Tickets: £12 Queens, visionaries, artists and politicians
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Bonita Norris
The Girl Who Climbed Everest: Lessons learned facing up to the world’s toughest mountains Sunday 22 July 2pm–3pm Pavilion Arts Centre, Tickets: £11 Conquering mountains of self‑doubt From Everest to K2, Bonita Norris has tackled the world’s toughest and most dangerous mountains. Once an anxious teenager with an eating disorder, it was the discovery of a passion for climbing that inspired her to change her life. She says; ‘It’s outside our comfort zones that the most amazing things happen,’ and drawing on her incredible feats Bonita asks what drives us to go to our limits and beyond? What does it take to make dreams come true? And how can you turn fear into courage?
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From Boadicea fighting Rome to Margaret Thatcher wrestling with the treaty of Rome Jenni Murray presents a vivid panorama of women on the march – sometimes literally – in a kaleidoscope of 21 women who changed the face of Britain. They cover every sphere of endeavour from arts to science and politics to fashion, while Jenni’s own vast experience of presenting Woman’s Hour binds their stories together with a fascinating thread of insight and anecdote.
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Opera & Music
6–22 JULY
BUXTON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL Opera.Music.Books
Look out for separate brochure for full listings of Opera & Music events Box Office: 01298 72190 www.buxtonfestival.co.uk
Join the Friends of Buxton Festival ALL MEMBERS ENJOY: • Priority booking • Regular newsletters by email and post • Invitations to Friends events • Opportunities to book Friends holidays in the UK and abroad • Recognition of your support in the Festival programme • Patrons, Benefactors and Directors Circle members enjoy additional opportunities. There are five levels of membership to choose from, starting from just £30 per year Become a member today online at www.buxtonfestival.co.uk The Friends of Buxton Festival are proud sponsors of Idomeneo at the 2018 Festival.
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Booking
Access Information
Festival Box Office 01298 72190, online at www.buxtonfestival.co.uk, or in person at Buxton Opera House, Water Street, Buxton SK17 6XN from 28 April.
Buxton Opera House
Box Office opening Pre-Festival: Monday to Saturday, 10am–8pm Sunday – Closed. If there is a performance at the Opera House 4pm–8pm During the Festival: Monday to Saturday, 10am–8pm Sunday, 12pm–8pm, or 10am if there is a performance at the Opera House Availability at venues Tickets for venues other than the Opera House can be bought on the door half an hour before each event, unless sold out. Refunds Tickets can neither be refunded or exchanged. Box Office will try to re-sell tickets for sold-out events – a £1.50 administration fee will be charged. All tickets purchased online or through our Box Office are subject to these booking terms and conditions. Ticket prices and fees The advertised price of a ticket is the price that you pay; all ticket prices include any taxes, levies and booking fees. The cost of a ticket is made up of: – Deal Value: The face value of the ticket set by the Festival – Booking Fee: All tickets, except where we sell tickets for a third party, include a 7.5% Booking Fee. This fee goes towards the running cost of our ticketing system, ticket printing, staffing and all credit, debit, cheque, and cash handling costs. These fees help us to stay an effective business, which in turn helps us reinvest in our theatres and continually improve the service we provide – Restoration Levy: Buxton Opera House is an exquisitely beautiful Edwardian theatre and one of the country’s finest examples of Frank Matcham theatre design. To help maintain and operate both the Opera House and Pavilion Arts Centre, the cost of tickets includes a restoration levy of £1 for tickets over £10 and 50p for tickets under £10. Tickets for the Opening Night Opera Gala are exempt from the restoration levy. 30
The Opera House is a beautiful Edwardian building, but unfortunately because of the nature of the building that does bring some restrictions. The Opera House is only partially accessible to wheelchair users and the wheelchair entrance is 72cm at its narrowest point. We have three wheelchair spaces in the Stalls at ground floor level, and a specially adapted toilet. Unfortunately the Stalls bar is not accessible by wheelchair, but a member of staff will gladly bring refreshments to your seat. The Opera House Foyer and Box Office counter are not wheelchair accessible, but there is wheelchair access to the side Box Office door (in Water Street), with an intercom system to alert staff. The Dress Circle and Upper Circle levels are not wheelchair accessible and can only be reached by climbing the stairs. The building is not accessible by motorised scooter. Pavilion Arts Centre All parts of the Pavilion Arts Centre are accessible by wheelchair, apart from the Main Room balcony. Although there is a lift, the balcony is not recommended for those with mobility issues. Spiegeltent The tent will be in the Pavilion Gardens and clearly signposted. It is an accessible venue. Companion tickets In all venues your safety is paramount. In an emergency, if you would have difficulty making your way out of the building on your own, we strongly advise that you bring a companion. Help with hearing There are passive infra-red (PIR) systems in both the Opera House & Pavilion Arts Centre for people with hearing impairments. This works through a special headset rather than your hearing aid and is available from the theatre. Please reserve one when you book your tickets (a £10 cash deposit on the night is required). There is also an induction loop system at both Box Offices.
Special Offers
Extra Information
Only one offer per ticket. All offers are subject to availability.
BUXTON FESTIVAL FRINGE
Groups of ten receive a 10% discount for all performances except Saturday evenings. See five Book talks and save! Book tickets (at the same time) for five or more Book talks and receive 10% off the full price. Offer excludes Literary Lunch. Opera House Standby. Full-time students and those on JSA/Income Support may purchase any available seat for a performance at half price from 6.45pm on the day of the performance. Personal callers at the Box Office only. Under 30s – Festival for a Fiver. From 1 June all available seats are £5 for under-30s. Book at the Opera House Box Office or by phone. Tickets must be collected from the Box Office and proof of age provided. Festival for a Fiver tickets cannot be purchased online. Offer excludes Festival Friends events and Literary Lunch. re Natu offer
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Nature package. Book for Mark Cocker (21 July) and receive a 25% discount on tickets for Tim Birkhead (21 July) or Mary Colwell (22 July). Sport & adventure package. Book for any two of our sports talks William Fotheringham (8 July), David Conn (14 July) or Bonita Norris (22 July) - and receive a 25% discount on the second talk. Frankenstein 200. Book for any two of the following: Gavin Francis (15 July), Miranda Seymour (17 July) or Fiona Sampson (18 July) and receive a 25% discount on the second talk.
Verdi offer: Buy a stalls ticket for for the first night of Verdi’s Alzira on 7 July and receive a 10% discount on your John Suchet ticket (if purchased at the same time).
The 2018 Fringe offers a spectacular programme of theatre, comedy, music, film, exhibitions, poetry, children’s events and more. One of the largest Fringes in England, it features some 500 performances at over 40 venues in and around Buxton, including a free afternoon sampler at the Pavilion Gardens on Sunday 8 July. The Fringe is open to all with no selection or censorship. The programme is published in early June and on www.buxtonfringe.org.uk, where you can order a free printed programme and find out how to become a Fringe Friend. For queries email info@buxtonfringe.org.uk, call 01298 70705 or text 07952 193 521.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME BOOK
The Festival programme book, packed with fascinating information on all the events at this year’s Festival, will be available from 6 July. In the meantime, you can book your copy now, at the price of £12, from the Box Office on 01298 72190.
THE SPIEGELTENT
Spiegeltents are travelling theatre spaces which transport audiences to a world of romance. Their colourful fairground-style entrances build anticipation before the audience even take their seats, while inside they are designed like a hall of mirrors adding glamour and excitement to our Festival events. Our Spiegeltent is located in Buxton’s picturesque Pavilion Gardens.
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How to get to Buxton
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Please call the Buxton Tourist Information Centre (Tel: 01298 25106) or Festival Office if you need advice on your travel plans.
Intercity trains also go to Stockport and Manchester with connecting services to Buxton – www.nationalrail.co.uk
By Car: Buxton is approximately an hour’s drive from the M1, M6, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby.
Northern Rail provides direct services to Buxton from Manchester, Preston, Blackpool and Hazel Grove – www.northernrail.co.uk
Visit www.theaa.com for route planning. Car parking: There are 1001 car park spaces in Buxton including: Buxton Opera House: Pay and display parking for 50 cars, including 2 spaces for the disabled. Pavilion Gardens: Parking for 262 cars including 15 spaces for the disabled. Please allow extra time if travelling by car on Carnival Day (14 July). By Rail: Regular inter-city trains from Euston to Macclesfield take less than 2 hours and with a 20 min taxi ride to Buxton – www.virgintrains.co.uk
By Bus: Direct buses to Buxton operate from Chesterfield, Derby, Glossop, Huddersfield, Macclesfield, Sheffield, Stockport and Stoke. For more information visit www.derbysbus.info, or www.traveline.info Traveline Tel: 0871 200 22 33 National Express Tel: 08717 81 81 78 By Air: Regular national and international flights to Manchester and Nottingham East Midlands airports. Manchester Airport is approx. 50 minutes away by Taxi/Car.
Buxton International Festival, 3 The Square, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AZ. Registered Charity No 276957