Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival 2018

HARROGATE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS

Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival 18-21 October 2018 | Harrogate home of literature

The Crown Hotel, Harrogate

Box Office: 01423 562 303 harrogateinternationalfestivals.com Harrogate International Festivals is a registered charity no. 244861.

2018 | festival programme | at a glance Thursday 18 October 12pm 4pm 6.30pm 8pm

Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch: Alan Johnson 100 Historic Places: Philip Wilkinson The Spy of Venice: Benet Brandreth Why Mummy Swears: Gill Sims

Friday 19 October 10am 12pm 3pm 4.30pm 6pm 7.45pm

Theo: Amanda Prowse Cry to Dream Again: Dr Jane Hawking Something in the Water: Catherine Steadman A Biker’s Life: Henry Cole Round Britain Quiz with BBC Radio 4 The Falcon of Sparta: Conn Iggulden

Saturday 20 October 9.30am 11am 12.30pm 2pm 3.30pm 5pm 6.30pm 8pm

Stable Lass: Gemma Hogg The Travelling Vet: Jonathan Cranston Music Over the Waters: Malcolm Neesam Reading Between the Lines: Emma Bache Our Uninvited Guests: Julie Summers Moscow Midnight: John Simpson History In Conversation: Lindsey Davis and Manda Scott Henry VIII The First Brexiteer? David Starkey

Sunday 21 October 10am 11.30am 1pm 2.30pm 4pm 5.30pm 7pm 8.30pm

Histories of the Unexpected: Sam Willis and James Daybell Rise: Liam Young Why We Get the Wrong Politicians: Isabel Hardman I’m a Joke and So Are You: Robin Ince You Don’t Know Me: Imran Mahmood Chasing the Dram: Rachel McCormack An Evening with Oz Clarke My Alphabet Life from A to Z: Nick Hewer

All events take place at The Crown Hotel, Crown Place, Harrogate HG1 2RZ Join the conversation online @RaworthsHGLit & @HarrogateFest

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Box Office: 01423 562 303 | Booking Fees Apply

Welcome The Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival has become the hot ticket on the national Festival circuit thanks to its stellar line-up of literary names in beautifully intimate settings. Described as ‘One of the UK’s best Literary Festivals’ by Harpers Bazaar, the Festival returns this October, now in its eighth year. We celebrate great writing by bringing best-selling authors, influential politicians, historians, comedians and stars of the screen to share their stories with as wide an audience as possible, with a programme designed to entertain, inspire and educate. Browse our onsite bookshop provided by WHSmith and maybe you will find a new author or book to add to your favourite list.

2018 | Sponsors and Supporters Title Sponsor Community Partners

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Thursday 18 October 12pm

home of literature

Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch: Alan Johnson Tickets £35 including 2 course lunch and glass of wine.

In My Life vividly reminds us of a world that is no longer - a world of Dansettes and jukeboxes, of heartfelt love songs and heart-broken ballads, of smoky coffee shops and dingy dance halls. From Bob Dylan to David Bowie, from Lonnie Donnegan to Bruce Springsteen, all of Alan’s favourites are here. As are, of course, his beloved Beatles, whom he has worshipped with undying admiration since 1963.

Join Alan as he discusses his love of music and the tracks that shaped his life. From being transported as a small child living in condemned housing in ungentrified West London in the late 1950s by the sound of ‘True Love’ by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly on the radio, to going out to work as a postman humming ‘Watching the Detectives’ by Elvis Costello in 1977, Alan Johnson’s life has always had a musical soundtrack. In fact music hasn’t just accompanied his life, it’s been an integral part of it.

4pm

100 Historic Places: Philip Wilkinson

Tickets £11

History and England go together like tea and biscuits. The 100 Historic Places have been witness to the remarkable. Chosen by the public, and experts, join a fascinating journey through science, music, literature, power and protest. Delve into the landmarks - hotbeds of invention, industry and creativity - that shaped England and the world beyond, and bring our nation’s story to life. Author and teacher of architectural history, Philip Wilkinson, takes you on an expertly guided tour.

6.30pm

The Spy of Venice: Benet Brandreth

Tickets £11

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Gyles Brandreth may be an exMP, TV presenter and raconteur, but his son’s career has encompassed soldier, barrister, novelist, actor, comedian, and he’s also an authority on Shakespeare. As a rhetoric coach he works regularly with the RSC, and his one-man show was a sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe. Oh, and Benet has twice been named World Public Speaking Champion.

Benet talks about his debut novel, The Spy of Venice, which follows the young Shakespeare fleeing Stratford to seek his fortune. Clever, funny and engaging, the Renaissance man and self-confessed dilettante delivers a performance of Shakespearian heights.

8pm

Why Mummy Swears: Gill Sims

Tickets £14

Bridget Jones meets Peppa Pig! Sick of those ever-so-perfect photos on Facebook of family life? Step up Gill Sims and her hilarious antidote to idealised Instagram. Her blog, Peter and Jane, became a cult sensation for her honest, sweary account of Mummy, Daddy and their two ‘precious moppets’ and ‘judgy dog’.

Why Mummy Swears is her much anticipated follow-up to Why Mummy Drinks. Tapping the nerve of every parent on the planet, it follows the living nightmare that is the school holidays. Forget chilling with a novel and glass of Pinot, there’s sports camps, PTA meetings and disapproving parents.

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Friday 19 October 10am

home of literature

Theo: Amanda Prowse

Tickets £11

Can’t get to sleep at night? Blame Amanda Prowse, whose bestsellers keep you reading till the wee hours. Her life reads like one of her hugely popular novels. In 2011, when she began to write, she was recovering from cancer and relied on her husband’s basic salary as a soldier to keep the couple and their two sons afloat. Her debut, Poppy Day, was rejected by every agent in town. Determined not to give up, she self-published…

Today she has published 20 novels in dozens of languages. Her chart topping No.1 titles What Have I Done?, Perfect Daughter and My Husband’s Wife have sold millions. A regular panellist on daytime TV, she’s known for her infectious observational humour. Don’t miss this page turning event from the ‘Queen of Drama’.

Interviewed by Amanda Rowland, Dep Features Editor, Closer and Bella magazine.

12pm

Cry to Dream Again: Dr Jane Hawking

Tickets £14

Professor Hawking may have had theories on everything, but women he claimed were a ‘complete mystery’. Jane met him while he was still a PhD student, before his diagnosis of motor neurone disease.

A writer and lecturer, Dr Jane Hawking was inevitably over-shadowed by the enormous fame of Stephen, as the physicist became a global superstar. Her memoir, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, became the basis of the Oscar winning 2014 film The Theory of Everything. Cry to Dream Again is the second novel in her Immortal Souls series, featuring the story of a ballerina set during the Second World War, rich in romance and heartbreak.

3pm

Something in the Water: Catherine Steadman

Tickets £11

Beautiful, brilliant and a bestselling debut novelist. Whatever the something is in her water, it’s working! Award-winning actress, Catherine Steadman has starred in major shows such as Tutankhamun alongside Sam Neill and The Tudors, as well as an Olivier-winning turn in the West End. Best known as the feisty Mabel Lane Fox in Downton Abbey, her debut psychological thriller Something in the Water caused a sensation when picked by Reese Witherspoon for her famed book club. Reece has also optioned the Film and TV rights!

While filming in the Namibian desert, Catherine began to fantasise about water.

The story of a honeymooning couple, who chance upon a cash-stuffed duffel bag floating in the ocean, was written on her way to auditions, in trailers and on set.

Box Office: 01423 562 303 | Booking Fees Apply

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Friday 19 October

home of literature

4.30pm A Biker’s Life: Henry Cole

Tickets £11

Introducing Henry Cole: bonkers about bikes, TV presenter, owner of production company HCA Entertainment, film and TV director, world land speed record holder, and former heroin addict, whose great-great uncle was Prime Minister William Gladstone.

Henry Cole went from an Eton educated schoolboy to battlling addiction. He directed Mad Dogs and Englishmen drawing on his own experiences as ‘a heroin addict from a comfortable background.’ Clean for decades, he’s now a TV presenter of the World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides on the Travel Channel Worldwide, as well as numerous shows on bikes for Channel 4, ITV4, the Discovery Channel and Netflix. A Biker’s Life is the dramatic, humorous and candid memoir of one of the most recognisable names in motorcycling.

6pm

Round Britain Quiz with BBC Radio 4

Tickets £14

A feature on BBC Radio for 70 years, Round Britain Quiz comes to Harrogate! Recorded in front of an audience (you) from the Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival, the show will be broadcast in the new series on Radio 4 before Christmas. The North of England with Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras takes on Wales with David Edwards and Myfanwy Alexander. Tom Sutcliffe is in the questionmaster’s chair. (please note this event is 90 mins) 7.45pm The Falcon of Sparta: Conn Iggulden

Tickets £14

Step aside swords and sandals, Conn’s bestselling books sweep the centuries. One of the most successful historical fiction writers at work today, the author of the Emperor, Conqueror and The Wars of the Roses series returns with one of history’s most epic stories of adventure: The Falcon of Sparta. A tale that masterfully depicts the ferocity, heroism, and savage bloodshed that was the Ancient World.

A former adventurer, and English teacher, Conn Iggulden has made history as well as writing it; he was the first author ever to achieve a simultaneous No 1 across fiction and non-fiction charts, thanks to his handbook for sons and dads the world over, Dangerous Book for Boys.

Interviewed by Historian Clive Room

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Saturday 20 October

home of literature

9.30am Stable Lass: Gemma Hogg

Tickets £11

Saddle up! The ‘equine Bridget Jones’ (The Racing Post), rides out and mucks in. Gemma’s tales from a Yorkshire racing yard have been praised for being wickedly insightful.

From stable lass to assistant trainer at Micky Hammond’s yard, Gemma trots into the closed world of a top racing yard, filled with heart-warming stories and amazing thoroughbreds. Digging up the muck and magic, Gemma arrived in the yard as a teenager fresh out of racing college, adapting to the brutal long hours, backbreaking work and often treacherous weather. From the exhilaration of riding a racecourse to jockeys starving themselves to make weight, Gemma brings to life the wealthy owners and stable lads and lasses in this cantering conversation with her brother-in-law, writer James Hogg.

11am

The Travelling Vet: Jonathan Cranston

Tickets £11

Jonathan Cranston isn’t just your everyday vet, he’s an international veterinary practitioner, author and wait for it – veterinary film consultant.

When Jonathan watched the first Jurassic World movie as a teenager, never in a million years did he expect he’d be involved in one of the sequels.

Swapping dogs for dinosaurs, Jonathan advised on Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, helping to bring the animatronic dinosaurs to life. He got the gig thanks to his experience working with African wildlife. From pets to pandas, he’s travelled across five continents, and in his new book he brings the animal kingdom to life exploring the world’s most iconic animals, and the human relationships involved.

12.30pm Music Over the Waters: Malcolm Neesam

Tickets £11

Harrogate’s foremost historian Malcolm Neesam explores the role that music has played in the town’s history, beginning in the 18th century and ending with the Fiftieth Anniversary of Harrogate International Festivals.

Commissioned to celebrate the Anniversary of the Festivals, this book examines the town’s musical culture and how music at Harrogate Spa led to the creation of Harrogate International Festivals and left a rich, musical legacy in the town. The book is a detailed history and celebration of music in the town with several entertaining stories and personalities along the way!

2pm

Reading Between the Lines: Emma Bache

Tickets £11

Are you creative with a strong imagination? Or easily distracted and oversensitive? Or perhaps you have a strong physical and sexual drive? Your handwriting will reveal all!

The UK’s leading handwriting expert Emma Bache is a graphologist qualified in Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy and has even helped to solve cases of fraud, giving a valuable insight into the criminal mind. She has written in The Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and Cosmopolitan and makes frequent TV and radio appearances. Put away the iPhone for this fascinating insight - every aspect of penmanship is a collection of signals that we are giving out without meaning to. The way we write can tell the world a huge amount; sometimes more than what we write about.

Box Office: 01423 562 303 | Booking Fees Apply

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Saturday 20 October

home of literature

3.30pm Our Uninvited Guests: Julie Summers

Tickets £14

Returning to the era of World War Two, Our Uninvited Guests offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of life in some of Britain’s greatest country houses occupied by people who would never otherwise have set foot in such opulent surroundings. Blenheim Palace was taken over by schoolboys; Polish special agents trained in the grounds of Audley End House, and Brocket Hall was used as a maternity home for women.

5pm

Moscow Midnight: John Simpson

Tickets £16

John Simpson has won three BAFTAs, a News and Current Affairs award and an Emmy. As the World Affairs Editor for more than half his fifty-two year career, Simpson is perhaps perfectly placed to have penned a revelatory thriller. In Moscow Midnight, a politician confides to journalist Jon Swift that he is concerned for his own safety; a few months later he is found dead. Swift finds himself hunting down the killers on a global scale and, between MI5 and Russian thugs, a suspicious death in London unravels into an international conspiracy that stretches all the way to the Kremlin.

6.30pm In Conversation: Lindsey Davis and Manda Scott Tickets £14 Be whisked away to the past with tales of murder, treachery and spies!

Lindsey Davis is a bestselling author, known for her crime fiction set in Ancient Rome. Open Pandora’s Boy if you dare, as PI Flavia Albia delves into a tale of loose morality and betrayal. With her books dramatised on BBC Radio 4, she was recently the inaugural winner of the Barcelona International Historical Novel Prize.

Manda Scott’s Treachery of Spies - a high stakes espionage thriller set in 1940s France when the Resistance were fighting for survival against the Nazis - was described by BBC Radio 2’s Simon Mayo as ‘the most exquisite story of heroism, deception, love and treachery you’ll find this year.’ Two historical fiction greats take you back in time on a dramatic adventure.

8pm

Henry VIII The First Brexiteer? David Starkey

Tickets £16

One of the most engaging, brilliant and often controversial speakers, and arguably the country’s most respected and colourful historian, David Starkey uncovers the story behind the most revolutionary and fascinating of English monarchs.

Henry VIII, like a colossus, bestrides the history of our country.

He invented the idea of British uniqueness; in fact the Reformation could be defined as the first Brexit, when his ministers devised the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty.

In this talk David draws on his unique knowledge of Henry’s reign to examine his tumultuous personal life, which pitted religion against politics, through to the Grand Tourists who bought European culture with British money, offering so many parallels with the Brexit situation we find ourselves in today.

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Sunday 21 October

home of literature

10am Histories of the Unexpected: Sam Willis & James Daybell

Tickets £11 What links zebras to the Second World War? What connects partying to mental illness in Victorian Britain? And what ties the bed to the expansion of the British Empire? The answers to these questions and many more that will have never crossed your mind are revealed in Histories of the Unexpected.

One of the country’s foremost historians, Dr Sam Willis, and leading academic, Professor James Daybell, take us on a journey of historical discovery through the entirely unexpected. Discover the Crimean War, the French Revolution, Tutankhamun and more via beards, paperclips and needlework.

11.30am Rise: Liam Young

Tickets £11

Rise is Liam Young’s explanation of why the youth surge happened (he was just 19 when Corbyn stood for leadership in 2015). Dubbed a ‘must-read’ by Owen Jones, the left-winger and activist, passionate about politics, was just ten years-old when he told then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, he wanted his job. He joined Corbyn’s campaign writing for the New Statesman, VICE, and the Independent, and harnessed social media to become one of the most influential voices on the left for his generation. His insider account as a Corbyn aide explains how the youth galvanised a nation.

1pm Why We Get the Wrong Politicians: Isabel Hardman

Tickets £11 Politicians are consistently voted the least trusted professional group by the UK public, embroiled in scandals from sexual harassment to expenses.

They introduce new legislation that doesn’t do what it sets out to achieve - often with terrible financial and human costs. But, with some notable exceptions, they are decent, hard-working people, doing a hugely difficult and demanding job.

Award-winning journalist Isabel Hardman tries to square this circle. The Assistant Editor of the Spectator and presenter of Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster lifts the lid and asks why we end up with representatives with whom we are so unhappy. Filled with forensic analysis and revealing reportage, her landmark book is a must read for anyone who wants to see a better government.

2.30pm I’m a Joke and So Are You: Robin Ince

Tickets £14

Knock, knock. Who’s there? … The connoisseur of comedy, Robin Ince, mines the decades he spent delving into our eccentricities to create gags.

For years on the BBC Radio 4 show, The Infinite Monkey Cage, he has sought sometimes in vain - to understand the world around us. In this book, he unites these pursuits to examine the human condition through the prism of humour.

Why do we make the choices we do in life? Where does anxiety come from? Where does imagination come from? Why are we like we are? Are our parents to blame? Informed by personal insights from his own life as well as interviews with a bevy of A-list comedians, neuroscientists, psychologists and doctors - this is a hilarious and often moving primer to the mind.

Box Office: 01423 562 303 | Booking Fees Apply

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Sunday 21 October 4pm

home of literature

You Don’t Know Me: Imran Mahmood

Tickets £11

A criminal defence barrister with over 20 years’ experience in the Crown Court and Court of Appeal. Imran specialises in Legal Aid cases involving violent crimes as well as fraud and sexual offences, using his experience he wrote the bold, original and dazzling debut, You Don’t Know Me. It’s been claimed the most original thriller of the year, declared by Lee Child as a ‘daring concept executed to perfection’. A young man stands accused of murder. The evidence is overwhelming. But at his trial, this man tells an extraordinary story. He swears he’s innocent. But in the end, all that matters is: do you believe him?

5.30pm Chasing the Dram: Rachel McCormack

Tickets £14

Looking for a dram fine time? Rachel McCormack hit the jackpot with her year-long journey across Scotland to research its national drink.

Her infectious travelogue brings in her expertise as a food writer and radio commentator, as she irreverently reclaims the spirit of whisky.

Interspersing an engaging mix of anecdotes, history and information on distillers and recipes, Chasing the Dram is peppered with recipes for cocktails, puddings and savoury dishes. Rachel is on a mission to change your perceptions. Mix it up in this entertaining and spirited talk.

7pm

An Evening with Oz Clarke

Tickets £16

Combining fast-paced witty memoir with passionately opinionated guide, Oz pops the cork on his life-long love affair with wine. Red and White is a unique contribution to wine writing - something totally out of the ordinary: by the greatest wine taster of his - or any - generation.

Oz is renowned for his infectious enthusiasm and has won all the major wine writing awards.

Sniff, sip and swill, with the ideal drinking companion as he explains why he fell in love with wine, how to enjoy wine – whatever the budget – and be inspired by Oz’s encyclopaedic knowledge and inimitable zeal. Bottoms up!

8.30pm My Alphabet Life from A to Z: Nick Hewer

Tickets £16

I’ll have a consonant, a vowel, another consonant…spelling it out from A-Z the slick PR Consultant began his television career as Alan Sugar’s adviser on The Apprentice. His astute insights into the foibles and failings of the apprentices won him a cult following. When he became the new presenter of Countdown in 2012, ratings went through the roof.

In Hewer’s first book, he takes us through his life, beginning with A for Apprentice (of course). Along the way, he discusses Determination and how to get it, offers insights from growing Old, reveals his greatest Regrets and much else besides.

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2018 | How to Book

By Phone: Online: In Person:

Opening Times:

01423 562 303 harrogateinternationalfestivals.com Harrogate International Festivals, 32 Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate, HG1 1DB Monday to Friday, 10am – 5pm

Payment: Harrogate International Festivals Box Office accepts all major credit/debit cards (except American Express), cash and cheques. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Harrogate International Festivals’.

Booking Fee: Please note that all transactions are subject to a £1.75 booking fee.

Programme Changes: Harrogate International Festivals reserve the right to make alterations to the programme as become necessary including event cancellations.

Ticket Delivery: If required, we will endeavour to post all tickets out within 2 working days of making a booking. Tickets will be posted by Second Class Post at a cost of £1.50. Tickets can also be left at the relevant Box Office for collection. Please bring along the order number and any proof of eligibility for any discounted tickets/ concessions.

Tickets on the door: Subject to availability tickets will be available to purchase on the door 30 minutes prior to the event starting. Be aware events can sell out in advance. Early booking is recommended. Booking fees still apply.

Refunds: The Box Office cannot refund money or exchange tickets except in the case of an event cancellation.

Harrogate International Festivals will not store your credit or debit card details and payments will be taken on a per transaction basis, as indicated by the card holder via phone or www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com Please note, full Terms and Conditions can be viewed on our website, alongside our Privacy Policy.

Multibuy Offer…

Bundle up to take advantage of our Multibuy Offer.

You can now enjoy more events throughout the weekend for less.

Book 5 events - receive a 5% discount Book 10 events, receive a 10% discount Book 20 events, receive a 20% discount *Valid for all events excluding the Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch.

Not applicable with any other discounts or offers.

Please contact the Festival Office for more details or book online and the offer will automatically update when you check out.

Harrogate International Festivals is a registered charity, no. 244861.

All information correct at time of going to print.

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HARROGATE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS

Harrogate International Festivals 2018-2019 | Harrogate | home of festivals

Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival

18-21 October 2018 | Crown Hotel | home of literature

Harrogate International Sunday Series

Jan - Apr 2019 | Old Swan Hotel | home of chamber music

Harrogate Music Festival

July 2019 | Harrogate | home of music

Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 18-21 July 2019 | Old Swan Hotel | home of crime

HIF+ Outreach and Education

Across the year | Harrogate | home of engagement

HIF Presents

Across the year | Harrogate | home of entertainment

Box Office: 01423 562 303

To find out more information and for our full programme of events please visit:

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