The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival of Words and Ideas by Stephen Bristow

Ways With Words Festival of Words and Ideas Dartington, Devon 5 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 15 July 2013

MIND • BODY • SOUL – all are catered for at Ways With Words The programme for this year’s festival at Dartington Hall is packed with great speakers that you won’t want to miss. That’s the aim. But there’s lots more to do at the festival. You can: • sit quietly and watch the literary world go by; • continue the discussion started in an event over a glass of wine with some fellow audience members; • feel yourself becoming a new person, fired with challenging ideas, fresh information; • write about your experiences for family or

friends by keeping a journal or a blog to record your thoughts; • further your knowledge with more reading; • take photographs; • walk, think, work life out. With 10 days of an exciting festival programme, the companionship of like-minded people, as well as so many other interesting attractions why not plan for a long stay? Can you think of a better way to spend your time or money? We can’t – which is why we run Ways With Words. The Directors – Kay Dunbar, Stephen Bristow Chloë Bar-Kar, Videl Bar-Kar

President’s Introduction With a book of my own published in May, I shall visit most of Britain’s major book festivals this year. But Dartington will be different from all the others. Dartington is a community as well as a festival – a celebration of writing and ideas at which all the participants – talkers and listeners – share the unique atmosphere of whole days spent together. No wonder so many writers and broadcasters want to win a place on the Dartington programme. I can hardly wait. No doubt you feel the same. Roy Hattersley Festival President

It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes. Thomas Aquinas

Friday 5 July – Great Hall

William Dalrymple

Steve Jones

#1 2pm Great Hall £9

William Dalrymple Afghan Battles

#2 4pm Great Hall £9

Steve Jones Science and The Bible

Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time in 1839. After two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in a violent rebellion and expelled soldiers in the greatest military humiliation of the nineteenth century. Historian William Dalrymple explores Britain’s Imperial overreach – and the disaster that followed.

The Bible has been worshipped, mocked and challenged, and sits uncomfortably in the Age of Reason. Geneticist Steve Jones has rewritten the good book in the light of modern science. Are Adam and Eve our ancestors? Did the Great Flood signal the end of the Ice Age? Discover how much science can tell us about who we are.

Sarah Crompton

Darcey Bussell

#3 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Sarah Crompton (Telegraph Arts Editor in Chief) Why the Arts Matter

#4 8pm Great Hall £9

Darcey Bussell My Life

Sarah Crompton has written a book about the history of Sadler’s Wells Dance House and the inspiration it has offered to dancers, choreographers and creators. With her many years of experience of arts journalism she understands the power of the creative industries and their financial and psychological value. She leads a discussion group of fellow arts journalists.

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Day Ticket: £21 (not including #4)

Darcey Bussell has had a dazzling career. As principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, she has performed in the great classics of dance, including Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. She talks to Sarah Crompton (Telegraph Arts Editor in Chief) about her extraordinary life.

Friday 5 July – Barn – Telling Tales

A.L. Kennedy

#5 2pm Barn £9

Harry Eyres Life Lessons from an Ancient Poet The poet Horace lived in remarkable times. Rome was facing a profound crisis though it ruled the world; its values were disintegrating. ‘Horace and Me’ charts Harry Eyres’ relationship with the Latin poet and shows us how he can help us through uncertain times.

Day Ticket: £21

#6 4pm Barn £9

A.L. Kennedy How to Write

#7 5.30pm Barn £9

John Yorke What Makes a Great Screenplay?

A.L. Kennedy has published six novels, five story collections and two books of non-fiction. She is a master of the wry, the darkly comic, the melancholy, and has used her insights to teach writing through her hugely popular Guardian blog. Her humane, funny, frustrated musings will inspire budding writers, readers and fans.

John Yorke loves stories and he knows a good few. As an acclaimed TV producer and commissioner he’s been responsible for some of the most exciting twists and turns in recent British dramas from EastEnders to Shameless. He reveals how and why the best screenwriting works, and how all stories function in an eerily similar way.

Saturday 6 July – Great Hall – President’s Day Today has been programmed by Roy Hattersley, President of The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival at Dartington Hall, to include some of his favourite writers and thinkers.

Peter Hennessy

#8 10am Great Hall £9

Peter Hennessy The State of British Democracy

#9 11.30am Great Hall £9

Douglas Hurd and Ed Young On Benjamin Disraeli

Peter Hennessy sat with David Dimbleby throughout Margaret Thatcher’s funeral commenting on her role as a parliamentarian and her place in history. Who better? Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, FBA, is an English historian of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London.

Benjamin Disraeli, politician, orator, writer, dandy and wit, rose to become British Prime Minister twice in the 19th century, despite never intending to follow a career in politics. Douglas Hurd and Ed Young provide a definitive account of Disraeli’s exceptional life, discussing the loves, ambitions, paradoxes and ideologies of this fascinating leader.

Day Ticket: £35 (not including #13)

Douglas Hurd

Ed Young

#10 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Paula Byrne The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

#11 4pm Great Hall £9

Antonia Fraser talks to Roy Hattersley The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832

Who was the real Jane Austen? Overturning the traditional perception of a conventional and genteel woman, biographer Paula Byrne explores the forces that shaped the interior life of Jane Austen through important objects in her life and work. The woman who emerges is far tougher, more socially and politically aware, and more modern than expected.

Historian Antonia Fraser discusses this key period of British history with Festival President, Lord Hattersley. 1832 was a year full of riots, emancipation, rotten boroughs, impending revolution, reluctant royal assent and dramatic parliamentary debate. The culmination was the Great Reform Bill – and a total upheaval in the way Britain was governed.

Saturday 6 July – Great Hall – President’s Day #13 8 – 10pm Great Hall £16

Paula Byrne

#12 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Antonia Fraser

Charles Williams Gentlemen v Players: Cricket in the 20th Century Charles Williams explores cricket through the game of Gentlemen v Players; a game shaped by the English class system; a match between amateurs and professionals first played in 1806. Charles Williams, who played the game while at Oxford University, examines the final 10 years of its existence; the social changes that led to its abolition in 1962, and the subsequent cricket revolution.

Mercedes-Benz South West

on the theme of cars, driving and the freedom of the road. As Mr Toad would have it – “Poop, Poop!”

Marcus Brigstocke

During the first weekend of the festival there will be a number of impromptu ‘pop-up’ poetry readings by South West poets commissioned by

An Evening With Marcus Brigstocke Stand-up comedian, astringent satirist and regular on Radio 4’s ‘The Now Show’, ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ and ‘Just a Minute’, Marcus Brigstocke brings his newest show to Dartington just ahead of the Edinburgh season. It’s so new we haven’t a clue what’s in it – but, as The Mirror said, “If you haven’t seen him live, then you haven’t seen him at his very best”. Come and laugh, think and then fight back the tears. May contain adult material (16+)

Saturday 6 July – Barn – Global Stories #14 10am Barn £9

Gerard Lemos The End of the Chinese Dream

#15 11.30am Barn £9

Samar Yazbek Inside Syria

#16 1pm Barn £9

Distinguished social theorist and author Gerard Lemos (also a Dartington Trustee) has conducted hundreds of interviews revealing a very different view of life in present day China from that conveyed by television images of industrious and increasingly prosperous workers. Find out about the starker reality behind the officially approved story.

Samar Yazbek, journalist, film-maker and novelist documented the daily struggles in her country from the first few demonstrations in March 2011 until the day she was obliged to flee for her life. Samar was prevented from appearing at Dartington last year. We are honoured to host her today.

#17 2.30pm Barn £9

Pankaj Mishra and Nadeem Aslam History and War

#18 4pm Barn £9

Kishwar Desai Women in India

#19 5.30pm Barn £9

Tilly Culme Seymour Smaholmene Island

Wendy Law-Yone talks to Julia Farrington Burma Today Critically acclaimed author Wendy Law-Yone was born in Mandalay, Burma, where her father was the editor of the leading English language newspaper. Following the 1962 military coup he was imprisoned, and his newspaper shut down. Today she talks to Julia Farrington of Index on Censorship about growing up under the military regime. This event is hosted in partnership with global human rights organisation Index on Censorship: promoting and defending freedom of expression around the world.

Day Ticket: £42

Pankaj Mishra’s ‘From the Ruins of Empire’, longlisted for the Orwell Prize, offers an alternative history of late 19th and early 20th century Asia. Nadeem Aslam’s searing novel, ‘Blind Man’s Garden’, a tale of love after 9/11 in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been one of this year’s most discussed books. They discuss the impact of history, empire, war, and the notion of a “Muslim world”.

Costa award winner Kishwar Desai had an impressive career in journalism and broadcast media in India before becoming an author. Her background means her books weave fact and fiction deftly together to comment on current social issues. She discusses concerns that face women in India today, from fertility rights to unwanted children and sexual attacks.

In 1947 Tilly’s grandmother ‘Mor-mor’ bought an island just off the coast of Norway called Smaholmene in exchange for a mink coat. Here Tilly tells of three generations of women and how Smaholmene Island, hardly more than a collection of rocks rising determinedly out of the water, became so irrevocably part of their lives.

Sunday 7 July – Great Hall

Nick Baker

#20 10am Great Hall £5

#21 11.30am Great Hall £9

Roy Hattersley

Stuart Maconie

Nick Baker FAMILY EVENT – Nature Tracking Popular wildlife presenter Nick Baker reveals the pleasures of being a nature detective. Every animal leaves some kind of trace as it passes. Learn to spot and interpret the clues left behind by wildlife – a footprint, a bent blade of grass, a soil disturbance, a chewed nut or nibbled leaf.

Roy Hattersley The Devonshires: A Family and a Nation Follow the story of the Cavendish family and the first eight ‘Dukes of Devonshire’ and you span the political, social and cultural history of England: from the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381 to the end of the Tory government in 1906. The story of the dynasty that includes scientists, soldiers, patrons, politicians, builders, philanderers, and powerful women

Day Ticket: £39 (not including #26)

A.C. Grayling

is told by Lord Hattersley, author, journalist, long-serving Labour politician and President of Ways With Words at Dartington Hall. #22 1pm Great Hall £9

Stuart Maconie Changing Times, Changing Songs BBC 6 Music presenter, Stuart Maconie, tells the story of 20th century Britain through a collective soundtrack – songs that we have loved and laboured to, and which have changed the way we feel. These are the tunes and lyrics that tell us about ourselves – war, work, class, leisure, race, sex and drugs are all here.

Sunday 7 July – Great Hall

John Sweeney

Jonathan Dimbleby

#23 2.30pm Great Hall £9

A.C. Grayling The God Argument

#24 4pm Great Hall £9

John Sweeney Finding the Facts Among Fictions

There has been a bad-tempered quarrel between defenders and critics of religion in recent years. Here, Professor of Philosophy A.C. Grayling, thoroughly and calmly examines the reasons people have for subscribing to religion, and offers a reflective and humanist outlook as an alternative position.

#25 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Jonathan Dimbleby Destiny in the Desert

#26 7.30pm 9.30pm Great Hall £10

The Adventures of Andy Kershaw

BBC broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby delves into the true significance of the British victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942: a story of high drama, powerful personalities, rivalries and strategies, played out in war capitals across the world and in the command posts and desert foxholes at the front.

World music pioneer, accidental foreign correspondent and cheeky chappie, Andy Kershaw has lived ten lives to most people’s one. Whether it’s being propositioned by Little Richard or reporting for Radio 4 from the genocide in Rwanda there isn’t much he hasn’t done. And his record collection weighs seven tonnes! ‘Sensational… wildly hilarious. . . The finest British broadcaster bar none.’ Stephen Fry

John Sweeney, investigative journalist, former Observer correspondent and current BBC Panorama reporter, traces the stories that have shaped his life and his writing: wars and revolutions, mass graves in Zimbabwe, cot deaths in Britain, the Church of Scientology and the current state of North Korea.

Andy Kershaw

Day Ticket: £39 (not including #26)

Sunday 7 July – Barn – History #27 10am Barn £9

John Guy The Children of Henry VIII

#28 11.30am Barn £9

Lawrence Norfolk John Saturnall’s Feast

#29 1pm Barn £9

Diana Souhami and Rhidian Brook Post War Society: 1946

Behind the politics and pageantry at the Tudor court, a family drama unfolded like no other. Nothing drove Henry VIII more than the desire to produce a male heir. He married six wives and fathered four living children, each by a different mother. Cambridge historian John Guy explores their incredible stories and interrelationships, which were often scarred by jealousy and mistrust.

Acclaimed author of ‘Lemprière’s Dictionary’, Lawrence Norfolk returns with a story of seventeenth-century life, love, war and cookery. He explores the history of English cuisine, the vast subterranean kitchens that fed the lords and landowners of the day, and the exquisite dishes that inspired his novel.

Diana Souhami’s new book explores the haunting murder of Dagmar Peterzywalski whose corpse was discovered near the A20 in Kent in 1946. Rhidian Brook’s latest fiction also takes place in 1946, this time in Hamburg, where Colonel Lewis Morgan’s British family live with a German widower and his traumatised daughter. The two authors discuss the trauma of fractured post-war society in England and Germany.

Day Ticket: £42

#30 2.30pm Barn £9

James Heneage The Walls of Byzantium

#31 4pm Barn £9

Ruth Goodman How to be a Victorian

#32 5.30pm Barn £9

Clive Aslet War Memorial

The first of the Mistra Chronicles comes out in July, the epic account of the decades leading up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the 9/11 of its time. James Heneage takes us from Medici Florence to Ming China to show how Byzantine genius ensured a crucial 50-year delay in Ottoman expansion to allow the Italian Renaissance to take root.

How did it feel to cook with coal and wash with tea leaves? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your teeth with cuttlefish? Dress in whalebone and feed opium to the baby? Discover the more intimate, personal and physical day-to-day history of the Victorian period, with social historian and BBC presenter Ruth Goodman.

Editor-at-large of Country Life, Clive Aslet, unravels the story of one war memorial in the Dartmoor village of Lydford. Tracing the lives of 22 men and one woman who died fighting for Britain in the two World Wars, the Falklands and Iraq, Aslet provides an intimate portrait of nearby countryside and the extraordinary tales of otherwise ordinary local people.

Sunday 7 July . . . but also #33 11.30am Dukes Room £6

Emma Carter – Arts Programme Manager, High Cross House, National Trust

Carol Ballenger – photographer Design for Living –

#34 2.30pm Dukes Room £6

James Crowden Flowers in the Minefields, El Alamein to St Honorine

#35 4pm Dukes Room £6

Simon Williams and Philip Kuhn itinerant press launches ‘He She’

7.30pm Dukes Room FREE (no ticket req’d)

Trade Winds

The National Trust is celebrating the significance of High Cross House, one of the most iconic modernist houses in Britain. Carol Ballenger will show her photographs inspired by the light and colours of High Cross House.

‘Design for Living’ Exhibition at High Cross House June 8 – 15 September National Trust admission fees apply to all non-members Wednesday – Sunday 10.30am – 5pm

Day Ticket: £15

James Crowden explores the life of John Jarmain, war poet and anti-tank gunner who fought with the 51st Highland Division in the Western Desert and Sicily. He was killed in Normandy, east of Caen, in June 1944. His poems were published by Collins as was his novel, Priddy Barrows.

The Bard of Exeter, Simon Williams, reads from his new itinerant press publication, ‘He She’. Publisher, Philip Kuhn, talks about his small-run, handmade artefact books, which combine the finest materials with individual design. itinerant press is about as far away from print-on-demand as you could get.

Trade Winds is a long established seeding ground for poets, singersongwriters and storytellers, new and experienced. Festival goers are welcome to add their voices to the mix with short performance pieces. The format is simple, just turn up at the start to get yourself a spot in the show!

Monday 8 July – Great Hall

Peter Stanford

Salley Vickers

#36 10am Great Hall £9

Peter Stanford How to Read a Graveyard

#37 11.30am Great Hall £9

Salley Vickers Mysterious Writing

Death is the one certainty in life, yet we have become reluctant to talk about it. If we want to know how previous generations dealt with death, graveyards tell us the history – if we are able to read them. Peter Stanford ruminates on internet memorials, medieval corpse roads, war graves and our own mortality.

There is something special about the medieval Cathedral of Chartres and the mysterious woman who is to be found cleaning it each morning. No one quite knows where she came from. Salley Vickers, author of the celebrated ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’, discusses her new novel – a compelling story of tragedy, second chances and the power of the past.

Day Ticket: £35 (not including #41)

Ann Widdecombe

#38 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Ann Widdecombe My Life

#39 4pm Great Hall £9

Nigel Warburton Think!

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Ann Widdecombe has never shied away from uncomfortable issues or controversial views, be they abortion, gay marriage, prison reform or welfare. The MP turned ‘Have I Got News For You’ presenter and ‘Strictly’ dancer star talks about her politics, her career and her beliefs.

Nigel Warburton, philosopher and podcaster, discusses the ideas and works of some of the most important thinkers in history. From the classic works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, to the groundbreaking modern thought of Wittgenstein and Derrida, he takes us through two and a half millennia of western philosophy, and illuminates its most fascinating ideas.

Monday 8 July – Great Hall #40 5.30pm Great Hall £9

#41 7.30pm Great Hall £9

Barry Millington

Barry Millington On Wagner 2013 is the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth. Has there been a more challenging, revolutionary, flawed composer? His legacy is tarnished and phenomenal. Barry Millington, one of the most distinguished Wagner scholars of our time, takes us through a radical reappraisal of this most perplexing of composers.

Tony Hawks Transforming Words: A Journey from Book to Film Comedian, author and Radio 4 regular Tony Hawks takes us through the challenges of changing a book into a film. Illustrated with clips from the films made from his books ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’ and ‘Playing the Moldovans at Tennis’, he will discuss the problems he faced and the solutions he attempted. Proceeds from this event will go to The Tony Hawks Centre for children with cerebral palsy in Moldova. Tony Hawks

Bursaries to Ways With Words Each year at the Dartington festival we give away about 25 Rover Tickets to young people between the ages of 17 – 25 so that they can attend all (10 days) or some (5 days) of the festival FREE OF CHARGE. This is a fantastic opportunity to become immersed in the festival, be introduced to new ideas, new authors and make new friends. All for NOTHING – What’s not to like?

For details and application procedure (short and sweet!) email admin@wayswithwords.co.uk

Monday 8 July . . . but also 6pm – Dukes Room – FREE The Voice Café – New Words and Ideas A selection of poetry, prose, live writing and scripted work will be performed. Audience members can try creative word play too. To submit work or perform email admin@wayswithwords.co.uk

Day Ticket: £35 (not including #41)

Monday 8 July – Barn – Society and Culture #42 10am Barn £9

David Nixon Street Stories Framed within a theology of liberation, David Nixon has interviewed men and women who have experienced homelessness at some stage in their lives. Short biographies of twelve characters are examined under themes including crises in health and relationships, selfharm and suicide, anger and pain, God and the Bible.

#43 11.30am Barn £9

David Stuckler The Body Economic

#44 1pm Barn £9

David Boyle Who Killed the Middle Classes?

Cambridge scholar David Stuckler provides the first agenda-shaping look at the human costs of financial crisis. Observing people’s daily lives from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the present, Stuckler asks questions such as why did Sweden experience a fall in suicides during its banking crisis and why is Greece experiencing rocketing HIV rates. His conclusions are surprising and compelling.

Once, being middle-class meant owning your own home, supporting your children, and the guarantee of a comfortable retirement. Between Thatcher’s boost of the mortgage market and Blair’s position over public services, the middle classes are struggling and destabilised. In a hopeful enquiry, Boyle asks whether they can be revived – and if they could become the key to future economic stability.

Day Ticket: £42

#45 2.30pm Barn £9

Neil Ansell Place and Belonging At the beginning of the 80s Neil Ansell chose a life of voluntary poverty, living in squats and among rough sleepers. But in a decade of growing unemployment and increased heroin use many of the people he was supporting died or disappeared. To cope he visited the Isle of Jura in Western Scotland. He contrasts the two environments and asks what it means to belong and what we mean when we call a place home.

#46 4pm Barn £9

Jonathan Jones Art and Sex

#47 5.30pm Barn £9

Simon Thurley Men from the Ministry: How Britain Saved Its Heritage

Taking Donatello’s provocative reinvention of the nude as his starting point, Guardian critic and Turner prize judge, Jonathan Jones, shows how the story of the Renaissance is the story of a sexual revolution. Through 15th century Florence to Rubens and Rembrandt, Jones argues that we are not looking at images of ideal beauty, but powerful expressions of erotica.

Between 1900 and 1950 the British state amassed a huge collection of over 800 historic buildings, monuments and historic sites and opened them to the public. Nothing like it had ever been seen before: an outdoor museum of national history. Chief Executive of English Heritage, Simon Thurley, explains why the extraordinary collecting frenzy took place.

Tuesday 9 July – Barn – Literary Matters #48 10am Barn £9

Jane Dunn Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters Daphne du Maurier is one of the master storytellers of our time, yet her sisters Angela and Jeanne had creative and romantic lives even more bold and unconventional than du Maurier’s own. Jane Dunn considers these three sisters side by side to reveal a story of social non-conformity, love, rivalry and compulsive make-believe, a glamorous, theatrical family with lives as psychologically complex as any du Maurier novel.

#49 11.30am Barn £9

Andrew Wilson Sylvia Plath Before Ted

#50 1pm Barn £9

Alister McGrath C.S. Lewis – A Life

Using previously unavailable archives and papers, and drawing on exclusive interviews with friends and lovers who have never spoken openly about Sylvia Plath before, ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’, is the first book to focus on Plath’s early life. Fifty years after her death, Andrew Wilson reclaims Plath’s unsettled and unsettling voice from the tangle of emotions and associations of her relationship with Ted Hughes.

To write about the much-loved author, C.S. Lewis, Alister McGrath studied all of his correspondence and archival materials in chronological order. The result is an illuminating biography of a remarkable man recounting the creation of the Narnia

Day Ticket: £42

series, Lewis’ life as an Oxford don, and his seismic shift from atheism to Christianity. #51 2.30pm Barn £9

Martin Rowson Gulliver and Beyond Award-winning Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson takes on Jonathan Swift’s classic satire in a reimagining of the tale for modern times. This is a homage to the original ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ while being an up-to-date indictment of the same enduring human idiocies that enraged Swift – all magnificently drawn in Rowson’s expert hand.

#52 Sarah Churchwell Murder, Mayhem and the 3.45pm – Invention of The Great Gatsby 4.30pm Blending biography and history with Barn forgotten newspaper accounts, £14 letters, and newly discovered archival to include material, Sarah Churchwell traces talk and film the genesis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, carefully reconstructing the author’s chaotic world of 1920s America and the high-profile murder that provided crucial inspiration for Fitzgerald’s famous tale. 4.50pm – 7.10pm Barn (timings are approx.)

FILM – THE GREAT GATSBY No film has been so eagerly anticipated in 2013 as Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby. The F. Scott Fitzgerald classic has been brought to dreamy, decadent life by the director of ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, this flamboyant film will make you soar off your feet.

Tuesday 9 July – Great Hall

Marcel Theroux

Rachel Joyce

#53 10am Great Hall £9

Marcel Theroux and Rachel Joyce Making the Mind Spin

#54 11.30am Great Hall £9

Sinclair McKay The Secret Listeners: Breaking the German Code

Marcel Theroux and Rachel Joyce have both written intriguing novels using rich metaphysical ideas. ‘Strange Bodies’ by Theroux is a dizzying conspiracy spun around madness and death. Joyce, the author of ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ has constructed an absorbing drama hinging on the very nature of time.

Before Bletchley Park could break the German codes, the enemy’s daily communications were monitored around the clock by the Listening Service – a team of young men and women posted across the world. From Cairo to Karachi there is a fascinating compendium of memories from surviving veterans, whose contribution to the war effort was shrouded in secrecy.

Day Ticket: £42 (not including #59)

Lottie Moggach

Deborah Moggach

#55 1pm Great Hall £9

Deborah Moggach and Lottie Moggach Fiction in the Blood

#56 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Artemis Cooper Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Travels

As Lottie Moggach makes her fiction debut with ‘Kiss Me First’ – an examination into the rights and responsibilities around suicide and online personae – she discusses character, plot, and the life of a writer with her mother, acclaimed author Deborah Moggach of ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ and 2013 title, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.

Patrick Leigh Fermor, who died in 2011, was a war hero, widely acclaimed as the greatest travel writer of his time. An extraordinary man, who walked across pre-war Europe, he was a self-educated polymath and lover of Greece. Artemis Cooper, with complete access to his archives, has trawled through years of interviews and conversations to reveal a man of amazing gifts.

Tuesday 9 July – Great Hall #59 8pm – 9.15pm Great Hall £10

Artemis Cooper

LiTTLe MACHiNe Poems, classic and obscure, are given a new voice in songs crafted by band LiTTLe MACHiNe, whose fans include Carol-Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke. From the Medieval to the Metaphysicals, the Romantics to the modern - listen to your favourite poems set to acoustic instruments. Walter Wray – guitar-playing composer, arranger and singer. Steve Halliwell – multiinstrumentalist, poet and composer. Chris Hardy – poet, songwriter and guitarist.

Luke Harding

#57 4pm Great Hall £9

Luke Harding Russia: Mafia State

#58 5.30pm Great Hall £9

David Kynaston and Richard Davenport-Hines 50s and 60s Britain

Luke Harding arrived in Moscow, as the new correspondent for the Guardian, in 2007. In the beginning of an aggressive, psychological campaign, agents of Russia’s Security Service (the successor of the KGB) broke into his flat, tailed him, and bugged him. Luke Harding tracks the insidious methods of intimidation used by a resurgent Kremlin.

Historians David Kynaston and Richard Davenport-Hines discuss Britain of the late 50s and early 60s. They explore this action-packed time during which modern Britain began to take shape, from Carry On films to the Notting Hill riots and the Profumo scandal, discussing how the breakdown of social boundaries in these crucial years still affects us today.

Day Ticket: £42 (not including #59)

LiTTLe MACHINe

Tuesday 9 July . . . but also #60 2.30pm Dukes Room £6

Katy Bennie Oral History Many fascinating stories disappear when a person dies. Katy Bennie leads a project for the Newton Abbot and GWR Museum Oral History project which aims to record memories to use and disseminate for the benefit of all. She will present the work they have collected so far.

Wednesday 10 July – Great Hall

Damian Barr

#61 10am Great Hall £9

#62 11.30am Great Hall £9

Rupert Christiansen

Damian Barr and Rupert Christiansen Family Matters Two writers provide fascinating reflections on their childhoods. Rupert Christiansen writes a lyrical portrait of a devastating relationship with his parents and their muted break up. Growing up gay in a former coal-mining village in Scotland during Thatcher’s reign leads Damian Barr to ask how the Iron Lady affected his life.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett The Poet, the Fascist, the Revolutionary The story of Gabriele D’Annunzio is astonishing. In 1919 the poet and dabbling politician declared himself Commandante of the city of Fiume in modern-day Croatia. Lucy HughesHallett charts the story of the right-wing revolutionary, romantic artist and utopian-seeking figure who set his dreams against a backdrop of rising Fascism.

Day Ticket: £42 (not including #67 or #68)

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Tracy Chevalier

#63 1pm Great Hall £9

Tracy Chevalier Writing The Past

#64 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Chris Mullin A Very British Coup

Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, will tell of her latest journey into the past as she brings us another evocative work of historical fiction. Hear the story behind ‘The Last Runaway’ set in the cornfields of rural Ohio during the final days of slavery.

Chris Mullin revisits his acclaimed political satire, ‘A Very British Coup’, after a new Channel 4 series,‘Secret State’, has been inspired by his original book. The drama of a Labour leader fighting to dissolve the monopoly of a newspaper magnate is more prescient than ever before.

Wednesday 10 July – Great Hall

Jane Gardam

#65 4pm Great Hall £9

Charles Moore, Chris Mullin and Damian Barr Margaret Thatcher’s Influence: The Past, Present and Future

#68 9pm Great Hall £9

Rosalind Brady and Simon Barron Next To Me A Robin – Songs and Poems

Charles Moore

Jane Gardam Last Friends ‘Old Filth’ and ‘The Man in the Wooden Hat’ told, with black humour, the story of Old Filth QC, the titan of the Hong Kong law courts. Join Jane Gardam as she takes us through a story of love, friendship, grace and tales of the Empire in the last of this unforgettable and muchloved trilogy.

Raymond Tallis God Save the NHS In March 2012 the NHS was delivered a devastating blow by the Coalition government. As the NHS marks its 65th anniversary this summer, the cuts and reforms will be felt by its patients. Philosopher Raymond Tallis explores how our beloved institution was betrayed – and what we can do to save it.

Day Ticket: £42 (not including #67 or #68)

The lady is not for returning but does her influence live on? Labour politician Chris Mullin and Damian Barr, author of ‘Maggie and Me’, a memoir about growing up in the Thatcher years, discuss the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher with Charles Moore, writer of the authorised biography of her life. They talk about Thatcher’s position as a political and historical figure; British politics during and after her rule, and what she means to our society today.

Contemplation of nature in the woodlands and fields of Dartington, together with the writing of poetry, became a daily necessity for Rosalind Brady. She takes you by the hand and steals you away to a quiet place and an intimate encounter with a vibrant world, against a projected backdrop of illustrations by Simon Barron.

Rosalind Brady

#66 5.30pm Great Hall £9

#67 7.30pm Great Hall £9

Wednesday 10 July – Barn – Life and Love #69 10am Barn £9

#70 11.30am Barn £9

#71 1pm Barn £9

Mark Vernon On Love What does love mean to us? Is it the romantic ideal that is so often preached to us? Is it the same as the narcissism that we are born with, or the kind we hold for each other? Writer and broadcaster Mark Vernon draws on science, psychology, philosophy and literature to examine the most mysterious force of all.

Angela Neustatter A Life in Balance Angela Neustatter looks at ways people in very different circumstances are improving the balance of their lives through their homes. From her own comfortable family home to council estates in Manchester and London, from the Australian home of Elisabeth Murdoch to a lesbian houseshare in small-town Texas, she considers the importance of hearth and home.

#72 2.30pm Barn £9

Olivia Fane The Conversations

#73 4pm Barn £9

John Whitfield Reputation

#74 5.30pm Barn £9

Aleks Krotoski Untangling the Web

Stephen Grosz Lives Less Ordinary As a practising psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behaviour. His book ‘The Examined Life’ distils over 50,000 hours of conversation into psychological insight. He’ll talk about the everyday experiences of love, lies, grief and change.

Day Ticket: £42

sponsored by

Olivia Fane has written sixty six short essays, all thought-provoking and some provocative, aimed at providing starting points for conversations. Her topics include: happiness, vanity, the Soul (according to Plato), infidelity, education...and many more.

Why do we care what other people think? John Whitfield discusses the critical importance of reputation, and what happens when it goes wrong, explaining the surreal dynamics behind today’s misbehaving celebrities, expenses-fiddling MPs and risk-taking bankers.

The internet is the most revolutionary innovation of our time, but what are the effects it is having on our social and working world? What kind of companion is a smartphone? How is our privacy compromised when we share everything? Social psychologist Aleks Krotoski examines how much we have - and haven’t - changed in the age of the internet.

TICKET SALES • ONLINE www.wayswithwords.co.uk (from 22 May)

Name Address

• BY PHONE Tel: 01803 867373 Please have your event numbers and your payment card ready before phoning.

• BY POST

Postcode Tel. E-mail

Please complete this form and send with payment and stamped s.a.e. to: Ways With Words Festival Box Office, Droridge Farm, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6JG

BOOKING FOR FRIENDS STARTS WEDNESDAY 15 MAY - max. 2 tickets per event. - for phone and postal bookings only.

Payment can be: - by cheque payable to ‘Ways With Words’. Please date and sign the cheque but leave the rest blank. leave the amount in figures blank. On the line for amount in words write: “not to exceed: (the amount of your order in words)”. This is in case some of your order is not available, in which case we shall complete your cheque for the lesser amount. - by credit / debit card (Visa / Mastercard / Maestro)

GENERAL BOOKING STARTS WEDNESDAY 22 MAY

(Maestro)

valid from _______/________ expiry date _______/________ 3-digit security code issue number _____ name on card __________________________ If some of your order is unavailable we shall send those tickets which are available unless you say otherwise.

BEFORE THE FESTIVAL THE BOX OFFICE WILL BE OPEN FOR TELEPHONE BOOKINGS MONDAY - FRIDAY 10am - 5pm DURING THE FESTIVAL THE BOX OFFICE WILL OPEN 30 MINS. BEFORE THE FIRST EVENT OF THE DAY AND WILL CLOSE AFTER THE START OF THE LAST EVENT. CONCESSIONS People aged 24 or under and people on Universal Credit can buy tickets normally priced at £9 or less for just £4 if purchased in person during the festival. Proof of entitlement will be required. DATA PROTECTION: Ways With Words will not pass on your details to any other organisation.

TERMS & CONDITIONS: The right is reserved to substitute speakers and vary the advertised programme if necessary. All information is correct at the time of going to press. Please refer to the website for full details of our policy on cancellations, ticket refunds and exchanges, and on lost tickets.

event

no.

total

A.N. Author

event

MONDAY 8 JULY 36

Peter Stanford

William Dalrymple

Salley Vickers

Steve Jones

Ann Widdecombe

Sarah Crompton

Nigel Warburton

Darcey Bussell

Barry Millington

FRIDAY 5 JULY

GH Day Ticket #1 - #3

Harry Eyres

A.L. Kennedy

John Yorke

Barn Day Ticket #5 - #7

SATURDAY 6 JULY

Tony Hawks

GH Day Ticket #36 - #40

David Nixon

David Stuckler

David Boyle

Neil Ansell

Peter Hennessy

Jonathan Jones

Hurd & Young

Simon Thurley

Paula Byrne

Barn Day Ticket #42 - #47

Fraser & Hattersley

Charles Williams

Jane Dunn

Marcus Brigstocke

Andrew Wilson

GH Day Ticket #8 - #12

Alister McGrath

TUESDAY 9 JULY 9

Gerard Lemos

Martin Rowson

Samar Yazbek

Sarah Churchwell (Talk & Film)

Law-Yone & Farrington

Barn Day Ticket #48 - #52

Mishra & Aslam

Theroux & Joyce

Kishwar Desai

Sinclair McKay

Tilly Culme Seymour

Moggach & Moggach

Barn Day Ticket #14 - #19

SUNDAY 7 JULY 20

Artemis Cooper

Luke Harding

Kynaston & Davenport-Hines

Nick Baker

Roy Hattersley

Stuart Maconie

A.C. Grayling

John Sweeney

Jonathan Dimbleby

Barr & Christiansen

Andy Kershaw

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

GH Day Ticket #20 - #25

Tracy Chevalier

John Guy

Chris Mullin

Lawrence Norfolk

Jane Gardam

Souhami & Brook

Raymond Tallis

9 9

LiTTLe MACHINe

GH Day Ticket #53 - #58

Katy Bennie

WEDNESDAY 10 JULY

James Heneage

Moore, Mullin & Barr

Ruth Goodman

Brady & Barron

Clive Aslet

GH Day Ticket #61 - #66

42 9

Barn Day Ticket #27 - #32

Mark Vernon

Carter & Ballenger

Angela Neustatter

James Crowden

Stephen Grosz

Williams & Kuhn

Olivia Fane

Dukes Day Ticket #33 - #35

John Whitfield

Aleks Krotoski

Barn Day Ticket #69 - #74

no.

total

event

FE1

Christopher North

Sculpture at Dartington

THURSDAY 11 JULY

no.

total

event

109

Evans & Lewis

110

Ian Robertson

111

Oliver Bullough

Madeley & Finnigan

112

Joe Glenton

Kate Humble

113

David Goodhart

Christopher Reid

114

Lucy Lethbridge

Paul Kildea

Matt Harvey

GH Day Ticket #76 - #80

117

Travelling Light

Jane Feaver

118

Poetry and Music

6 20

Michael Axworthy

Barn Day Ticket #109 - #114

115

Hot Off the Press

116

A Toast to Absent Friends

Kathleen Taylor

Dukes Day Ticket #115 - #118

Rose & Rose

SUNDAY 14 JULY

Mark Miodownik

119

Old Fairweather

David Hendy

120

Rob Hopkins

Aarathi Prasad

121

Sandi Toksvig

Barn Day Ticket #83 - #87

122

Stephen D. King

123

Atkins & Harries

FRIDAY 12 JULY 88

Adkins & Adkins

Lorna Gibb

124

Duffy & Sampson

GH Day Ticket #120 - #123

Anna Whitelock

125

Miriam Darlington

Conran & Jaine

126

Philip Hoare

Stephanie Shirley

127

Tony Juniper

Clare Mulley

128

Guy Grieve

Barn Day Ticket #88 - #93

129

Simms & Hopkins

130

John Boyne

Paddy Ashdown

Pierce & Newbury

Barn Day Ticket #125 - #130

Gillian Slovo

131

Robert Eaglestone

Oliver Balch

132

William Doyle

Victoria Glendinning

133

David Blockley

Charlotte Higgins

134

Nick Groom

100

Jack Straw

135

Richard Toye

GH Day Ticket #94 - #99

Dukes Day Ticket #131 - 135

Skeleton Woman

101

SATURDAY 13 JULY 102

Diarmaid MacCulloch

103

Alan Johnson

104

Melvyn Bragg

105

Gavin Hewitt

106

Cerys Matthews

107

Don Paterson

108

Robin Ince

GH Day Ticket #102 - #107

TICKET TOTAL

Add Friends’ Membership (£15) TOTAL

no.

total

Rover Tickets and Accommodation Packages ROVER TICKETS

ACCOMMODATION PACKAGES

Rover tickets give admission to events in the programme marked with ‘#’ over a particular period. They can be bought separately or as part of an inclusive accommodation package.

Ways With Words offers a full 10-night accommodation package (ranging from £850 - £1600 pp) and two 5-night packages (from £495 - £885 pp) in Higher Close or in the Courtyard at Dartington Hall. We also offer two 3-night weekend packages (from £320 pp) and a 4-night midweek package (from £420 pp) in Higher Close.

A Rover ticket guarantees a seat for every event in the Great Hall. We hold a set number of seats for Rover ticket holders in the Barn and other, smaller venues. These are on a first come, first served basis. ‘Festival Extras’, marked ‘FE’ must be purchased separately. To purchase Rover tickets please write the number you require in the box and then make payment as indicated on the front of the booking form.

10-day Rover ticket (Price: £325) • admission to all events marked ‘#’ 5-day Rover ticket (Price: £230) • 1st 5-day Rovers begin with event #1 on Friday 5 July and end at 12.30pm on Wednesday 10 July. • 2nd 5-day Rovers begin with the 1pm event on Wednesday 10 July until the end of the festival. • Midweek 5-day Rovers run from Monday 8 July to Friday 12 July. Weekend Rover tickets (Price: £150) • 1st weekend Rovers begin with event #1 on Friday 5 July and end with the last event on Sunday 7 July. • 2nd weekend Rovers begin on Friday 12 July at 1pm until the end of the festival.

Accommodation varies from comfortable, en suite bedrooms right in the heart of the festival site to single, student bedrooms (which share bathroom facilities) about 2 mins. walk from the main site. Along with your room and breakfast, packages include lunch and dinner, or just dinner. All packages include a Rover ticket in the price. If you are interested in an accommodation package please phone 01803 867373 and we can advise on availability and give more details. BED & BREAKFAST Bed & Breakfast accommodation is available in Higher Close (single rooms sharing bathroom facilities) at £31 pp/pn. There is a 2-night and 2 tickets per night’s stay minimum purchase.

TO MAKE A RESERVATION for an accommodation / Rover package or for B&B please phone 01803 867373. Payment in full is required at the time of booking. Cancellations cannot be refunded. Customers are strongly advised to take out holiday insurance.

Wednesday 10 July . . . but also FE1 9.30am – 11.30am Dukes Room £16

Christopher North Writing Workshop The Tingle of the Blank Page

#75 2.30pm Dukes Room £6

SCULPTURE AT DARTINGTON

5.30pm Dukes Room FREE (no ticket req’d)

Olivia Fane Masterclass on The Art of Conversing

“There’s something about a blank page that makes me tingle”, said the Harlem writer Nikki Grimes. Here is an opportunity to explore that basic resource with exercises and inspirational ideas to energise you when the page stays resolutely blank. Free writing, life writing, journaling, the diary and the notebook: all shall be considered as aids to the creative process.

Four South West Sculptors talk about their own work, each other’s work, and sculpture on the Dartington Hall Estate. The artists each use different media and have varied philosophical approaches. They will discuss how and why they create what they do.

Do you resort to the same predictable topics of conversation? Do you bore yourself, let alone other people? We’d all like to be better at making interesting and lively conversation that encourages people to seek us out. Come and find out more, pick up some ideas.

Thursday 11 July – Great Hall

Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley

Kate Humble

#76 Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan 10am Great Hall Broadcasting and Books As partners in presenting, Richard £9 and Judy changed the landscape of publishing; their book club is an astonishingly influential network across the country. Following in the footsteps of Judy, Richard has published his first novel, an intriguing love story. Join the pair as they talk about what makes great reading and writing.

#78 2.30pm Great Hall £9

#77 Kate Humble Humble by Nature 11.30am In 2007, Telegraph journalist, wildlife Great Hall presenter and RSPB President, £9 Kate Humble moved to a Welsh smallholding, where a nearby farm was to be sold off. Kate offered to keep the farm working and to run a rural skills and animal husbandry school alongside it. She gives a highly personal account of how, against the odds, the plan succeeded and a small part of Britain’s farming heritage was saved.

Day Ticket: £35 (not including #81)

#79 4pm Great Hall £9

Lucy Lethbridge

Christopher Reid Ted Hughes Memorial Lecture: Ted Hughes, Teacher Christopher Reid, author of ‘A Scattering’ (Costa Book of the Year 2009), worked with Ted Hughes and was the editor of his posthumous ‘Letters’ (2007). He reflects here on Hughes’ gifts as a teacher, on what he set out to teach through his writings and what we should learn from them. In association with Carol Hughes, and Faber and Faber

Lucy Lethbridge Servants: A Downstairs View of Twentieth-century Britain Historian Lucy Lethbridge provides a social history of the last century through the eyes of those who served. From the butler, the maid and the cook of 1900 to the au pairs, cleaners and childminders of seventy years later, Lethbridge offers a fresh perspective on a dramatic century, throwing into sharp, relief a period of feverish social change.

Thursday 11 July – Great Hall #80 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Paul Kildea Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century

#81 8pm Great Hall £9

Matt Harvey The Diffidence Trilogy

Marking Britten’s centenary year, writer, conductor and Artistic Director of the Wigmore Hall, Paul Kildea, provides a definitive biography of Britain’s greatest modern composer. Britten’s work broke decisively with the romantic, nationalist school of figures such as Parry, Elgar and Vaughan Williams and recreated English music in a fresh, modern, European form.

Thursday 11 July . . . but also #82 11.30am Dukes Room £6

Jane Feaver Writing Home Jane Feaver talks about the importance of place to her writing – in this case Devon – and the genesis of her third and most recent novel, ‘An Inventory of Heaven’. She will address the process of composition, offering tips and insight to budding writers and readers alike, and will be available to answer related questions.

Matt’s third and latest book, ‘Mindless Body Spineless Mind’, completes what has become known as the Diffidence Trilogy, ‘a box set without the cumbersome box’, into which he will be dipping - with due diffidence - in this event. He will also be performing outside of the box set. Ted Hughes

Matt Harvey

Day Ticket: £35 (not including #81)

Benjamin Britten

Thursday 11 July – Barn – Science

Barn £9

Kathleen Taylor The Brain Supremacy: The Frontiers of Neuroscience Are we really on the verge of being able to read minds? Kathleen Taylor, cognitive neuroscientist, reveals the latest discoveries of brain research and explores what this new and fast growing science will mean for us as individuals, consumers, parents and citizens – now and in the future. Should we be excited or alarmed by these impressive developments?

#84 11.30am Barn £9

Hilary and Stephen Rose Bioscience’s Promethean Promises

#85 2.30pm Barn £9

Mark Miodownik Marvellous Materials

David Hendy A History of Noise

#86 4pm

In modern life, noise is inescapable. But we rarely pause to think about what sound tells us about the past, and how it shaped it. From prehistoric caves to Buddhist temples and the current hubbub around us, David Hendy brings his major BBC Radio 4 series to Dartington to explore 100,000 years of sound and listening.

Barn £9

#87 5.30pm Barn £9

Aarathi Prasad Virgin Births and the Future Most cultures tell the tale of a maiden who gives birth untouched by a man. Is this just a myth, or could virgin birth become the way we make babies in the future? Biologist Aarathi Prasad explores ideas, myths and tales about perception before transporting us to the laboratories that are the equivalent of “non-sexual selection” including egg-fertilising computer chips and artificial wombs for men.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, could not have predicted the scale of the industry now dedicated to this new frontier. Yet why has the promised cornucopia of health benefits failed to emerge? Has bioethics simply become a business enterprise? Feminist sociologist Hilary Rose and neuroscientist Steven Rose take on the bioscience industry and its claims.

From the towering skyscrapers of our cities to the most ordinary objects in our homes, world-leading materials scientist, Professor Mark Miodownik, tells the enthralling stories, science and histories of the materials we take for granted, materials that might one day save the world. He introduces some of humankind’s most ingenious and improbable inventions along the way.

Day Ticket: £35

Aarathi Prasad

#83 10am

Friday 12 July – Barn – Remarkable Women, Remarkable Times #88 10am Barn £9

Roy and Lesley Adkins The Women of Jane Austen’s England In their latest book, ‘Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England’, historians Roy and Lesley Adkins give a vivid portrait of Georgian and Regency England, setting Austen’s world into the context of ordinary people. Hear about the women who lived through that time: a world of constant chores, mysticism, forced marriages, smock weddings, and the sale of wives in town marketplaces.

#89 11.30am Barn £9

Lorna Gibb The Life and Times of Rebecca West

#90 1pm Barn £9

Anna Whitelock Elizabeth’s Bedfellows

#91 2.30pm Barn £9

Caroline Conran with Tom Jaine A Lifetime in Food

#92 4pm Barn £9

Stephanie Shirley A Remarkable Business Woman

#93 5.30pm Barn £9

Clare Mulley The Spy Who Loved

Rebecca West holds a lasting place in English literature as a passionate suffragist, socialist and fiercely intelligent writer of prose. Lorna Gibb’s insightful biography affords a dazzling insight into the life and work of this formidably talented 20th century woman.

Anna Whitelock, historian and broadcaster, reveals the feminised world of the Elizabethan court, at the heart of which lay the Queen’s bedchamber. The favoured women who attended the Queen were witnesses to the face and body beneath the make-up and elaborate clothes – the guardians of the truth. Their stories offer great insight into Elizabethan life.

Day Ticket: £42

Caroline Conran’s latest book is a glorious collection of recipes from the Languedoc, published by Prospect Books and winner of a prestigious food-writing prize. Caroline Conran has spent her life writing about food for magazines and books. Her predigious knowledge and enthusiasm will be evident.

Dame Stephanie Shirley is one of Britain’s leading philanthropists. She founded a highly successful tech company at a time when women were supposed to be looking after the home. Yet she arrived in England with almost nothing as an unaccompanied Kindertransport refugee. She discusses a life of female achievement.

Christine Granville was murdered in June 1952 in a hotel in South Kensington. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising, but that she had survived the Second World War was remarkable. Clare Mulley reveals the life of Britain’s first special agent of WWII, a woman who took on one hazardous mission after another to become one of the most highly decorated secret agents of her time.

Friday 12 July – Great Hall

Paddy Ashdown

Gillian Slovo

#94 10.30am Great Hall £9

John Boyne Spirited Away

#95 12pm Great Hall £9

Paddy Ashdown By Strength and Guile: The Greatest Raid of WWII

The acclaimed author of ‘The Boy in Striped Pyjamas’ talks about his highly anticipated new novel, ‘This House is Haunted’, a gothic tale of obsession, buried secrets and maternal protection set in 19th century Norfolk.

Former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown turns his attention to WWII and the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour. Paddy Ashdown served in The Special Boat Squadron and has researched previously unseen archives and traced surviving witnesses to convey a definitive account of the greatest raid of WWII.

Day Ticket: £42 (not including #100)

Oliver Balch

Victoria Glendinning

#96 1.30pm Great Hall £9

Gillian Slovo Challenging Guantanamo

#97 3pm Great Hall £9

Oliver Balch India Rising

sponsored by

Writer and President of the English Centre of International PEN, Gillian Slovo, discusses her writings, her work with Guantanamo and the story of Ahmed Errachidi, an innocent Moroccan-born London chef who was sold to the Americans and spent over five years in Guantanamo. It is a tale to make you look anew at courage, survival, justice and the consequences of the War on Terror.

Journalist Oliver Balch expounds upon a changing nation. Travelling all over the country, from cricket stadiums and shopping malls to rural schools and shanty towns, Balch shows modern day India: a vast subcontinent with a booming economy, full of tensions, uncertainties, optimism and hope; a country standing at a crossroad.

Friday 12 July – Great Hall #98 4.30pm Great Hall £9

Victoria Glendinning Raffles and the Golden Opportunity

#99 6pm Great Hall £9

Charlotte Higgins Under Another Sky: The Romans in Britain

Victoria Glendinning, a prize winning biographer, explores the life of Thomas Stamford Raffles (17811826): the charismatic founder of Singapore and the Governor of Java. She tells the extraordinary life of an English adventurer, disobedient employee of the East India Company, utopian imperialist, linguist, zoologist and civil servant.

What has the idea of ‘Roman Britain’ meant to us over the years and what does it mean to us now? While tracing the thoughts of our forbears, from the medieval Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edward Elgar and W.H. Auden, Chief Arts Writer of the Guardian, Charlotte Higgins, finds modern Britain indelibly marked by how the Romans first imagined our islands.

Jack Straw Memoirs of a Political Survivor

#100 7.30pm Great Hall £9

Charlotte Higgins

From many years at the forefront of government, Former Labour Cabinet Minister Jack Straw, offers insight into the complex and fascinating world of British politics; his experiences during the Blair/Brown era; the tolls and satisfactions that high office can bring. He discusses some of the seminal decisions that have shaped the present world.

Jack Straw

Friday 12 July . . . but also #101 7.30pm Dukes Room £6

The Story of Skeleton Woman An Inuit tale told by Jade Moon and enhanced by poetry from Susan Taylor and music and song from Carolan Grzesinski and Rebecca Mayes.

Day Ticket: £42 (not including #100)

This is a raw and sensitive tale; a roller coaster of emotions; a story of love, death, rebirth and hope. Come prepared with a fishing rod – for what is sought here lies in the depth of souls.

Saturday 13 July – Great Hall

Diarmaid MacCullough

Alan Johnson

#102 10am Great Hall £9

Diarmaid MacCulloch Silence: A Christian History

#103 11.30am Great Hall £9

Alan Johnson My London Life

From the attitudes of Judaism to silence, to borrowings from Greek explorations of the divine, to the silences which were a feature of Jesus’s brief ministry: Oxford Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch unravels a polyphony of silences from the history of Christianity.

The early years of the man who would be Home Secretary were fraught with difficulties. Alan Johnson’s memoirs track his life as an orphaned boy in post-war Britain. His story plays out through London slums to Kings Road and Chelsea in the 60s, through the time of rock and roll to the beginning of his career as a Labour politician.

Day Ticket: £39 (not including #108)

Gavin Hewitt

#104 1pm Great Hall £9

Cerys Matthews

Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg Home Grown Fiction Broadcaster, novelist and Member of the House of Lords, Melvyn Bragg talks about his latest novel, ‘Grace and Mary’. A man mourns his mother’s decaying mind. Hoping to shore up her memory, he prompts her with songs, photographs and questions about when she was a young woman. This sets him on a deeply moving, elegiac story that stretches back to the 19th century and the time of his great grandmother.

Don Paterson

Saturday 13 July – Great Hall

Great Hall £9

sponsored by

#106 4pm Great Hall £5

#107 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Gavin Hewitt The Lost Continent: Europe’s Darkest Hour Since WWII

#108 8 – 10pm includes an interval Great Hall £14

BBC Europe Editor Gavin Hewitt takes a highly informed look at Europe and how it has wound up in a crisis; the mistakes that were made when the monetary union came into being and where Europe might be heading. An award-winning journalist, he has covered stories from all over the world. He will reflect on the present state and offer a view into the future.

Robin Ince The Importance of Being Interested

Cerys Matthews FAMILY EVENT Hook, Line and Singer: A Singalong for All Ages Welsh singer Cerys Matthews (former front woman of pop band Catatonia) believes that everyone can sing. She has spent her whole life collecting songs wherever she goes, from Wales to Nashville. Her new book of traditional family songs includes favourites from around the world. Come and hear the songs and the stories behind them, and join her for a grand old singalong.

supported by

Don Paterson A Life in Poems Don Paterson is one of the UK’s most highly accaimed poets. His humour, his tonal variety, his sublime reworkings of Rilke’s sonnets have marked him out as one of the frontrank of living poets. His readings are equally remarkable.

Day Ticket: £39 (not including #108)

Robin Ince

#105 2.30pm

Award winning comedian and science enthusiast Robin Ince follows up his ‘Happiness Through Science’ show with a look at his favourite scientists – Charles Darwin and Richard Feynman. Find out why we have eyebrows and why bald dogs have bad teeth. It is a loving look into the minds of two giants of human imagination. He’ll also stop off on the way to look at some of the more bizarre views of early science – is the ostrich really the offspring of the union of a gnat and a giraffe? (No) A night of spaghetti, barnacles and safe cracking. Mercedes-Benz South West

Saturday 13 July – Barn – Where We Stand #109 10am Barn £9

Rob Evans and Paul Lewis Undercover

#110 11.30am Barn £9

Ian Robertson Winning Combination

sponsored by

#111 1pm Barn £9

Robert Kennedy, the environmental activist unmasked as a policeman in 2010, raised huge questions about the ethics of undercover investigations. How far does it compromise the police force? Is a woman’s sexual consent removed when the partner has an alternative identity? Two Guardian reporters at the forefront of the case answer many questions.

Why do some succeed in life or business where others fail? What affects how power is distributed? Are men more likely to hunger after power than women? The ‘winner effect’ describes how an animal who has conquered opponents is more likely to win later bouts against stronger contenders. Neuroscientist Ian Robertson applies this to professional and emotional lives to fascinating effect.

Oliver Bullough The Last Man in Russia Acclaimed author Oliver Bullough lived in Russia for 7 years. He tracks the steps of an Orthodox Russian priest to reconstruct and examine the Russia he experienced first hand. Famine, occupation, war, the collapse of Communism and the giddy excesses that followed it – Oliver Bullough provides raw insight into life in a totalitarian state.

Day Ticket: £42

#112 2.30pm Barn £9

Joe Glenton I Won’t Go Back to War

#113 4pm Barn £9

David Goodhart Lines in the Sand

#114 5.30pm Barn £9

Michael Axworthy Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic

When the “War on Terror” began, Joe Glenton felt compelled to serve his country. But in 2006 he found himself in Afghanistan, disillusioned, garnering symptoms of PTSD, and increasingly politicised. When he refused to return for a second tour, he was denied his right to object. Here, he charts his journey from a promising soldier to a rebel against unjustified military action.

There have been three periods of high immigration since 1945: in the 1950s, the 1970s and the years following 1997. Britain has a much more tolerant attitude than its European counterparts, but has the idea of diversity won out over the notion of solidarity? In a discussion, the director of Demos, David Goodhart, considers the successes and failures of immigration policy.

Exeter University’s Michael Axworthy, a world expert on Iran, explores the history of this extraordinary country: a state that in 1979 began a revolution based on the supremacy of Islam; that sustained attacks by Iraq in an eight year war; that ignores widespread condemnation and that remains committed to nuclear development.

Saturday 13 July . . . but also

OVERSTEPS POETS FAR AND NEAR #115 10am Dukes Room £6

#116 11.30am Dukes Room £6

Hot Off the Press Readings by some of the latest poets to be published by Oversteps: John Daniel, Rebecca Bilkau, Kathleen Kummer, Jean Atkin and Charles Bennett.

A Toast to Absent Friends Current Oversteps poets offer a selection of poetry by poets who cannot be here today: Elisabeth Rowe, A C Clarke, W H Petty, Marie Marshall, Anne Born and Glen Phillips.

Day Ticket: £20

#117 2.30pm Dukes Room £6

Travelling Light

#118 4pm Dukes Room £6

Poetry and Music

Climb aboard a magic carpet and see where it will take you. The pilots today will be Oz Hardwick, Alwyn Marriage and Christopher North. Other readers on board will include Jennie Osborne, R V Bailey, Genista Lewes and Kathleen Kummer.

Charles Bennett talks about the libretto he wrote for last year’s BBC Proms; Simon Williams spans the gap between music and poetry; and singer-songwriter Zoë Marriage introduces some of her songs, accompanied by guitar. Other poets include Susan Taylor, Michael Swan, Jennie Osborne and Rebecca Bilkau.

Sunday 14 July . . . but also #119 11am Dukes Room £5

Old Fairweather FAMILY EVENT The Dartmoor Dobbie and Other Strange Tales

A programme of traditional storytelling for children and adults old enough (6 - 96 years old) to learn a bird-scaring song, how to speak to a ghost, or the proper way to eat a witch’s apple. (The Dobbie can be found in the Hall Gardens. The apple will be provided.)

Sunday 14 July – Great Hall

Rob Hopkins

#120 11am Great Hall £9

Sandi Toksvig

#121 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Day Ticket: £28 (not including #124)

Rob Hopkins Transition and Stuff Rob Hopkins brings humour, imagination and vision to the great challenges of our time, and argues that what is needed, above all else, at this time in history, is “engaged optimism”. The rapidly-spreading Transition movement which he was pivotal in establishing, is an embodiment of that. In his latest book, ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’, he discusses the thrill of making constructive changes.

Sandi Toksvig talks to James Long Comedy and Fiction Comedian and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig discusses her work and inventive new novel about a young woman, Valentine Grey, who dons her cousin’s uniform and goes to fight in the Boer War. Exploring gender, liberty, empire and injustice, the novel follows Indian-born Valentine who must now cope with the insufferable English weather and society.

Sunday 14 July – Great Hall #122 4pm Great Hall £9

sponsored by

#123 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Stephen D. King talks to James Long Money Made the World Go Around

#124 7.30pm Great Hall £12

Until 2008, the Western world assumed that it’s exponential growth was destined to continue. But leading global economist Stephen D. King warns that six decades of continuously rising living standards are a historical anomaly. We have made promises to ourselves that are only achievable through ongoing economic expansion. King explains his painful but necessary alternative plan.

Peter Atkins and Richard Harries God the Scientist A scientist and a bishop consider some universal questions about origins, endings, birth and death. Prof. Peter Atkins (former Oxford Professor of Chemistry) argues that science has the capacity to reveal the deepest truth. He is joined by Lord Richard Harries (Bishop of Oxford from 1987 - 2006), who maintains that far from challenging his faith, science serves to affirm it.

Peter Atkins

Day Ticket: £28 (not including #124)

Richard Harries

Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson Poetry and Music Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, whose work deals with subjects as diverse as David Beckham’s Achilles tendon, volcanoes, ash clouds and the magic of childhood, is joined by multi-instrumentalist John Sampson for poetry, and period music played upon instruments that include the crumhorn and the Chinese silken gourd.

Sunday 14 July – The Barn – Land, Sea and Oil #125 10am Barn £9

Miriam Darlington In Search of the Wild Otter

#126 11.30am Barn £9

Philip Hoare The Sea Inside

#127 1pm Barn £9

Tony Juniper What Has Nature Ever Done For Us?

Over the course of a year and a half Miriam Darlington travelled around Britain in search of the wild otter. Today she charts her search through Wales, Northumberland, Cornwall and Devon, and her meetings with conservationists, ecologists, scientists, nature enthusiasts, otter experts, hunters and poets.

Author and broadcaster Philip Hoare sets out to rediscover the sea, its islands, birds and beasts. Beginning on the south coast, and travelling to the Azores, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and beyond, he navigates human and natural history to discover what the sea means to us.

From Indian vultures to Chinese bees, Tony Juniper explains how Nature provides the ‘natural services’ that keep the economy going. From the recycling miracles in the soil to an army of predators ridding us of unwanted pests, Tony Juniper’s stories will change the way you think about the planet.

Day Ticket: £42

#128 2.30pm Barn £9

Guy Grieve All at Sea

#129 4pm Barn £9

Andrew Simms and Rob Hopkins Changing Climate

#130 5.30pm Barn £9

Sophie Pierce and Matt Newbury Wild Swimming

Guy Grieve has adventured around the world. His latest exploit was a family affair – his wife and two small sons gave up the school run, re-mortgaged the house and bought a yacht. He talks about journeying from Venezuela to Scotland, the reserves of courage and endurance needed, and what it really means to be a family.

It’s easy to feel that we’ve lost the fight with climate change. It’s tempting to pass over each new piece of doom about global warming. But, as New Economics Foundation Fellow Andrew Simms explains, our capacity for change is as strong as ever, and a better life remains within our grasp. He talks to co-Founder of Transition Town Totnes Rob Hopkins about the great steps we can take to cancel the apocalypse.

Discover local aquatic delights with wild swimmer Sophie Pierce. Taking in caves, cliffs and corals, history, geology and marine biology, a wild, beautiful side to the Devon coastline is revealed. Other swimmers in these waters include Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde and Agatha Christie. The event will be illustrated by award-winning photographer Dan Bolt.

Sunday 14 July – Oxford Short Talks Five authors from the popular Oxford University Very Short Introductions series will be giving half hour talks. Hear expert authors combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make often challenging topics highly accessible. #131 12.30pm – 1pm Dukes Room £4

#132 1.15pm – 1.45pm Dukes Room £4

#133 2pm – 2.30pm Dukes Room £4

David Blockley Engineering

#134 2.45pm – 3.15pm Dukes Room £4

Nick Groom The Gothic

#135 3.30pm – 4pm Dukes Room £4

Richard Toye Rhetoric

Robert Eaglestone Contemporary Fiction Professor Robert Eaglestone explores the major themes, patterns, and debates of contemporary fiction. From the legacies of modernism and postmodernism to the relationship between globalization and terrorism, and the impact of technology, Eaglestone examines how fiction reflects the world in which we live and the concerns of writers and readers alike.

William Doyle The French Revolution History Professor William Doyle discusses the French Revolution: the familiar but controversial images of its key events; its developments and consequences; the collapse of the old regime; how the revolution happened and how it allowed Napoleon Bonaparte to take control.

Robert Eaglestone

Day Ticket: £15

William Doyle

David Blockley

Engineering is part of almost everything we do - from the water we drink and the food we eat, to the buildings we live in and the roads and railways we travel on. Professor David Blockley explores the nature and practice of engineering: its history, its scope, and its relationship with art, craft, science, and technology.

Professor Nick Groom shows how Gothic has come to encompass so many meanings within our culture and society. Trace the story of the Goths from the ancient tribe who sacked Rome to the alternative subculture of the present day.

Professor Richard Toye considers rhetoric as the foundation-stone of civil society and an essential part of any democratic process. Using examples from Ancient Greece, medieval Islamic preaching, and modern cinema, Toye considers why we should all have an appreciation of the art of rhetoric. Nick Groom

Richard Toye

General Information – Travelling to Dartington

• • •

Dartington is roughly 25 miles southwest of Exeter and about a four hour drive from London. By car, take the M5, A38 and A384, then follow yellow AA signs to the festival. From the west, take the A38 from Plymouth, the A385 and then follow the AA signs. By train – Paddington is the mainline station from London. Totnes is the station nearest to Dartington Hall. Dartington Hall is a five minute taxi ride from the station.

British Tapas in The White Hart The British Tapas menu gives Dartington’s chefs and apprentices a way to explore their creativity with new dishes. The delicious offerings regularly change to make the most of the produce that the local area has to offer.

Enjoy the atmosphere – share the flavours. • •

Parking Parking charges now apply on the Dartington Estate. Parking is on a first-come, first-served basis. Please leave plenty of time to get to your event as you may need to park at a distance from the venues and there may be queues at the ticket machines. Alternative parking is available at the Shops and a free minibus shuttle service will be provided at busy periods. Full details of charges etc. can be found at www.wayswithwords.co.uk/news (NB. Residents will receive a permit on booking which entitles the holder to free parking in the designated car parks.)

Access There is wheelchair access to the Great Hall, Barn and Upper Gatehouse, but please let us know when you buy your tickets as wheelchair spaces are limited and must be reserved in advance. There is access to the bar and dining rooms and to some bedrooms.

Hard of Hearing There is a loop system in place in the Great Hall (please ask the stewards where to sit to take advantage of this) and an infra-red headphone system in the Barn.

• • •

British Food in the style of Tapas Encourages you to share with your friends (if you still want to keep hold of your own food, that’s fine with us). Changes regularly so there is always something new to try. Carafes of wine so you can really get into the new Tapas ambiance. Dishes are £4.50 each, 3 for £12.95

There’s Lots to do at Dartington Study The History of Dartington – Find out about the medieval hall, built between 1388 and 1400 for John Holand, half-brother to Richard II. It was restored by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst who commissioned architect William Weir to renovate the buildings, restoring the magnificent hammerbeam roof on the Great Hall where most of Ways With Words’ events take place. Explore The Dartington Gardens – The gardens feature a tiltyard (thought actually to be the remains of an Elizabethan water garden) and major sculptures, including examples by Henry Moore, Willi Soukop and Peter Randall-Page. Many visitors to the festival enjoy walks in the gardens which are very close to the literary action. Walk by The River Dart which flows through the Dartington Hall estate in a beautiful tree lined valley. Watch Films – Besides the film of The Great Gatsby, which we are showing as part of the festival programme, the Barn Cinema shows films each night of the festival. Browse Books – there is a bigger than ever Waterstones shop on-site and many second-hand book stalls. The Ship Studio This is situated in the courtyard at Dartington. Here you will find stalls selling second hand and antiquarian books and quality locally made crafts open each day from 10am - 5.30pm. Sculpture @ Dartington Some of the best Sculptors in the South West are returning to Dartington with an exhibition inspired by the theme of ‘Side by Side and Other Stories’. Visit this changing exhibition each day throughout the festival for quiet inspiration in clay, wood, stone and bronze. The Shops at Dartington A short walk from the festival site you will find shops selling Craft and Glassware, Farm Foods, Stationery and Gifts. (Open Mon - Sat, 9.30am 5.30pm and Sun, 10am - 5pm)

With thanks to . . . Lord Hattersley, Festival President Title Sponsor Event Sponsors

Mercedes-Benz South West Official Bookselling Partner

The Publishers

Allen Lane, Atlantic Press, Aurum Press, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Chatto & Windus, Faber and Faber, Fourth Estate, Granta Books, Guardian Books, Hardie Grant Books, Harper Collins, HarperPress, Haus Publishing, Headline Publishing Group, Hodder & Stoughton, John Murray Publishers Ltd, Jonathan Cape Ltd, Little Brown, Midas PR, Oneworld Publications, Orion Publishing Group, Oxford University Press, Pan Macmillan, Particular Books, Penguin, Phoenix, Picador, Profile Books, Quercus Publishing Plc., Random House, Simon & Schuster Ltd, Thames & Hudson, Transworld, Verso Books, Virago Press Ltd, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Wiley-Blackwell, Yale University Press

Ways With Words’ Patrons:

Jonathan Dimbleby, Nicholas Evans, Sir Michael Holroyd, Dame Penelope Lively, James Long, Blake Morrison, The Rt. Hon. The Lord Owen, The Lord O’Hagan, Peter Stanford, Salley Vickers

Good, Close and Best Friends:

Colin Goldsmith, Marlene Eyre, Pamela Harding, Mrs E. Piercey, Moira Sykes

Ways With Words Staff

Box Office Manager: Bryony Tilsley Programme Assistants: Lizzie Rusbridger & Thalia Allington-Wood Administrative Assistant: Alice Ling Venue Managers: Jess Morris, Charlie Ansell Caroline Wilson, Technical Advice: Chris Edwards Thank you to the generous and energetic team of volunteers who support the festival in a variety of ways before, during and after the festival. All at Dartington Accommodation and Catering Services Ltd. Festival photographs by Josie Birch

BAILLIE GIFFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP

LITERATURE ADDS TO REALITY, IT DOES NOT SIMPLY DESCRIBE IT. IT ENRICHES THE NECESSARY COMPETENCIES THAT DAILY LIFE REQUIRES AND PROVIDES; AND IN THIS RESPECT, IT IRRIGATES THE DESERTS THAT OUR LIVES HAVE ALREADY BECOME. C. S. LEWIS 1898 -1963

The story of long-term investment continues. Baillie Gifford is delighted to continue being a major sponsor of The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival. We are one of the UK’s largest investment trust managers. In our daily work in investments we do our very best to emulate the diligence and imagination that successful writers bring to the creative process. Our free tri-annual Trust magazine offers you an engaging and insightful overview of the investment world along with details of our literary festival activity throughout the UK. To ﬁnd out more about our sponsorship and Trust magazine or to enter our prize draw, visit us* at www.bgtrustonline.com/dartington *To access the prize draw page you must use the full URL stated above. Baillie Gifford Savings Management Limited (BGSM) produces Trust magazine and is wholly owned by Baillie Gifford & Co, which is the manager and secretary of eight investment trusts. Your personal data is held and used by BGSM in accordance with data protection legislation. We may use your information to send you details about Baillie Gifford products, funds or special offers and to contact you for business research purposes. We will only disclose your information to other companies within the Baillie Gifford group and to agents appointed by us for these purposes. You can withdraw your consent to receiving further marketing communications from us and to being contacted for business research purposes at any time. You also have the right to review and amend your data at any time.

Diary Dates Over the next 12 months Ways With Words will be running events in the UK and in Italy. Join us this autumn in

Umbria, Italy 21 – 28 September and 28 September – 5 October 2013

or later in the year on the east coast in

Southwold, Suffolk 7 – 11 November 2013

next spring in

Keswick, Cumbria 7 – 16 March 2014

For up to the minute festival updates: www.facebook.com/wayswithwords

or for our next summer festival at

Dartington @ways_with_words

#www13

4 – 14 July 2014

wayswithwords.co.uk 01803 867373

Paddy Ashdown Melvyn Bragg Marcus Brigstocke Darcey Bussell Tracy Chevalier Artemis Cooper William Dalrymple Jonathan Dimbleby Carol Ann Duffy Antonia Fraser Jane Gardam Victoria Glendinning A.C. Grayling Matt Harvey Tony Hawks Gavin Hewitt Kate Humble Douglas Hurd Robin Ince Alan Johnson Steve Jones Tony Juniper A.L. Kennedy Andy Kershaw Diarmaid MacCulloch Deborah Moggach Charles Moore Don Paterson Christopher Reid Gillian Slovo Jack Straw Sandi Toksvig Salley Vickers Ann Widdecombe