Words by the Water 2015

Words

by the Water A Festival of Words and Ideas 6 – 15 March 2015 Theatre by the Lake Keswick

WELCOME to Words by the Water What is so enjoyable about literature festivals is the unrehearsed, live nature of the events. Anything can happen and it often does. No-one knows what a writer will say, how everyone will react, what questions will come from the audience. We are all on tip-toe.

We are comfortable because the atmosphere is supportive, warm and friendly and the speakers are impressed by the intelligent, generous responses of the people listening. But it is unsettling too because there are often surprises.

Come and balance on your toes with us at this year’s Words by the Water.

You will be in for many surprises as well as treats.

Festival Directors: Kay Dunbar, Stephen Bristow, Chloë Bar-Kar and Videl Bar-Kar

Melvyn Bragg, Words by the Water’s President The Words by the Water Festival of Words and Ideas continues its irresistible surge forward. “Beside the lake, beneath the trees”, that’s the location and we who turn up to talk and listen hope to be “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”.

The breeze is the warmth of interest and welcome that all writers receive in Keswick. And, like Shakespeare’s actors at The Globe, we try to please, though for some of us, fluttering is quite an effort these days. And dancing is only a fond memory.

Good luck at what has become a jewel in the new landscape of Literary Festivals in the United Kingdom.

Friday 6 March – Main House

Alan Johnson

2pm Main House £9

3.45pm Main House £9

Michael Frayn

Alan Johnson The Sequel By the age of 18 Alan Johnson was married, a father, and working as a postman in Slough. ‘Please, Mr. Postman’, the sequel to his bestselling memoir, ‘This Boy’, describes the next period in his life with every bit as much honesty, humour and emotional impact as his bestselling debut. ‘Please, Mr Postman’ paints a vivid picture of Britain in the 1970s and reveals another fascinating chapter in the life of one of our best-loved public figures.

Michael Frayn Theatre of the Imagination Snatches of people talking to each other, to the world at large, to themselves, to no one: Michael Frayn’s 30 miniature sketches are meant to be played in the smallest theatre in the world - one’s own imagination. They are comic masterpieces from one of the country’s favourite writers.

Christopher Frayling

5.30pm Main House £9

sponsored by

7pm Main House £9

Åsne Seierstad

Christopher Frayling Chinaphobia China is poised to become the superpower of the 21st century but, probably because of the stereotypical image of the Chinese, this is often considered a threat rather than an achievement. Sir Christopher Frayling, a wideranging cultural historian, previous Chairman of the Arts Council, examines Chinaphobia.

Åsne Seierstad Massacres in Norway Åsne Seierstad, author of ‘The Bookseller of Kabul’ and awardwinning foreign correspondent, talks about her new book, ‘One of Us’, about the terrible massacre in her home country of Norway in 2011. Anders Breivik killed 77 of his fellow Norwegians, most of them teenagers, shooting one a minute.

Main House Day Ticket - £28 for 4 events (not including 8.30pm event)

Friday 6 March – Studio 3.30pm Studio £8

sponsored by Matthew Hyde and Esmé Whittaker

8.30pm Main House £9

Val Corbett, Matthew Hyde and Esmé Whittaker Arts and Crafts Houses in the Lake District The Arts and Crafts houses of the Lake District were mostly built as holiday homes for wealthy, Northern industrialists and embraced informality and simplicity.

The authors explore the lifestyle of the clients, who travelled to enjoy the pleasures of boating and the outdoor way of life. This informative talk is illustrated by Val Corbett’s magnificent photographs.

5pm Studio £8

Peter Marsh Industry: Past, Present and Future In a thrilling display of ingenuity, the world’s factories every year produce 10bn types of products from a limited stock of materials.

Now manufacturing is undergoing a revolution from which Britain, unexpectedly, is poised to benefit.

Peter Marsh tells the fascinating story of industrial change, from the Iron Age to the biochip.

Mary Robinson and Horatio Lawson Out of Time –

Pictures and Poems; an introduction to the exhibition in the Friends’ Gallery Take a moment “out of time” for this cross-border collaboration.

Listen to Cumbrian poet Mary Robinson reading her poems alongside Scottish photographer Horatio Lawson’s images.

6.30pm Studio £8

Blake Morrison Wild – A Poetry Reading Blake Morrison’s new volume of poetry is called ‘Shingle Street’ and some of the poems are inspired by the wildest parts of Suffolk.

Yet these poems and the rest of the volume also recall childhood, parents, love and friends. His reading will inspire the audience to delve into their memories of people and places.

Saturday 7 March – Main House 12.45pm Main House £9

Melvyn Bragg

11am 12.15pm Main House £4 adults, students free (ticket required)

Cate Haste Craigie Aitchison: His Life and Art Cate Haste has written political biography (‘The Goldfish Bowl: Married to the Prime Minister’ – with Cherie Blair; a memoir of Clarissa Eden and ‘Nazi Women’).

She won the Lakeland Book of the Year Award for her illustrated book on the artist Sheila Fell.

Now she has tackled the life of the Scottish artist Craigie Aitchison.

His poetic use of vibrant colour, his interest in shape and design and his fascination with Tuscan icons have made him one of the most popular contemporary artists.

Cate Haste

Cumbria Young Writers’ Award Introduced by Melvyn Bragg Excerpts from short stories, monologues and poems, drawn from hundreds of entries, are performed by actors in this annual celebration of the talent of young Cumbrians.

Arts and Crafts in Keswick – A Guided Walk

Crosthwaite Church © Val Corbett

11am – 1.30pm Meet outside Theatre by the Lake £24 (to include entry into Keswick Museum)

Join historian Matthew Hyde, Dr Esmé Whittaker and photographer, Val Corbett for a walking tour of Keswick exploring the inspiration behind their book, ‘Arts and Crafts Houses in the Lake District.’ This tour will show how the Arts and Crafts style in architecture, stained glass and metalwork, is all around. The authors will give a unique insight into the people behind the local movement and the beautiful crafts they produced. The walk will go ahead in wet weather as three locations are indoors.

Length – 3.1 miles, all on footpaths.

Main House Day Ticket - £24 for 4 events (not including Guided Walk or 6pm event)

Linda Blair

2.30pm Main House £9

Claire Tomalin

Melvyn Bragg and John Shapcott Cumbrian Novels John Shapcott discusses Melvyn Bragg’s Cumbrian novels with him. A witty, lively conversation stimulated by John Shapcott’s book, ‘Grains of Sand: Melvyn Bragg’s Cumbrian Novels’.

4.15pm Main House £9

Linda Blair Mindfulness Linda Blair, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, offers a five-step programme for managing stress and anxiety and cultivating calm. Her path to mindfulness is clear, practical and simple, and designed to promote balance, purpose and tranquility.

6pm Main House £14 (talk and film)

Claire Tomalin Nelly Ternan – The Invisible Woman At the height of his career Charles Dickens met a young aspiring actress, Nelly Ternan, who became his mistress, with cataclysmic consequences for them both.

Claire Tomalin is the prize-winning biographer of, amongst others, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen.

At 7pm there will be a 45 minute break.

7.45pm Film: “The Invisible Woman” (12A)

Saturday 7 March – Studio – Science of the Mind 10.45am Studio £8

12.15pm Studio £8

Michael Trimble Why We Like to Cry From classic Greek tragedies to the death of Bambi’s mother the appeal of weepie films, tear-jerking novels and moving music appears to be timeless. Michael Trimble discusses why we are the only species to have evolved the skill of emotional crying and what purpose it serves.

Daniel Freeman Men, Women and Mental Health Every day millions of people struggle with psychological and emotional problems. Daniel Freeman explores which mental health problems are more common in men, and which are seen more often in women. He discusses why women have higher rates of psychological disorder and what might be done to address the imbalance.

2.15pm Studio £8

Frances Larson Heads Lost and Found Josiah Wilkinson liked to pass Oliver Cromwell’s head around on a metal spike at breakfast parties; London Bridge had its own Keeper of the Heads; footage of decapitations circulate online.

What is it about severed heads that we find so compelling? Frances Larson takes us on a grisly yet fascinating excursion through this largely uncharted world.

Daniel Freeman

3.45pm Studio £8

5.15pm Studio £8

Frances Larson

The Nature of Trust Who can we trust? The banks?

Politicians? Professor Geoffrey Hosking explores the ways in which trust and distrust have functioned in past societies and our own. He interrogates the future of trust. Can we learn from historical experience and still trust institutions and powerful individuals, or are we now a distrustful society?

Christian Jarrett What Do We Really Know About the Brain?

Do pregnant women lose their minds? Are right-brained people more creative? Do we only use 10% of our brain? Psychologist Christian Jarrett will debunk some commonly held myths of the brain and separate fact from fiction around the most mysterious and complex organ in the human body.

Geoffrey Hosking Studio Day Ticket - £30 for 5 events

Sunday 8 March – Studio – Science of the Body

Richard Askwith

10.45am Studio £8

12.15pm Studio £8

2.15pm Studio £8

Richard Barnett No Prettiness, Much Beauty

3.45pm Studio £8

Richard Askwith Wild Running

Eric Chaline

David Bainbridge The Shape of Women Cambridge veterinary anatomist David Bainbridge applies the science of evolutionary biology, zoology and psychology to women’s bodies, and asks why humans are the only species with curvy females, and why women think about their bodies more than men think about theirs.

Eric Chaline My Body, My Temple Body care arose from spiritual beliefs, moral discipline and aesthetic ideals, yet today training in the gym is more to do with individual fulfilment. Eric Chaline traces the origins of the gym from Ancient Greece to the present day. He changes the way we think about our bodies and our attitudes to fitness.

Studio Day Ticket - £30 for 5 events

5.15pm Studio £8

Richard Barnett, a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow, discusses disease and the art of medical illustration before the age of colour photography. Through unsettling but often exquisite imagery, he unravels the story of the rise of surgery and the new roles medicine found in government provision and everyday life.

Tired of pounding the concrete streets, Richard Askwith went feral, running instead up wind-blasted rocky fells, through muddy fields and along tussocky cliff paths. He delivers practical tips on how to get out there and run free; how to avoid a stampede when crossing a field of cows and how to get deliberately lost. All part of the fun!

Emma Barrett Thrive at the Limits Emma Barrett asks why some people regularly risk their lives by placing themselves in extreme and challenging situations. Sportspeople, astronauts and explorers embrace physical hardship, pain and mental challenge. She argues that we can all learn from the approaches taken to overcome extreme difficulty.

Sunday 8 March – Main House

Cate Haste

11am Main House £9

Jacqueline Rose

Melvyn Bragg, Margaret Drabble, Cate Haste and Mark McCrum Writing in an Age of Change There have been many challenging changes in the writing and publishing world over the last few years. Some open new possibilities for writers; others make the role of the writer more difficult. These issues will be chewed over this morning.

12.45pm Main House £9

Jacqueline Rose Bleak Times for Women Jacqueline Rose, Professor of English at the University of London, tells the story of several visionary women, each in touch with what is most painful about being human.

She offers a new template for feminism, a clarion call for all to be braver and bolder.

Margaret Drabble

James Naughtie

2.30pm Main House £9

Margaret Drabble Quiet Novels, Big Stories

4.15pm Main House £9

James Naughtie Emotion in Politics

sponsored by

In her collection of short stories, ‘Pure Gold Baby’, Margaret Drabble charts the way our childhood experiences shape us throughout our lives. Like all her fiction these stories glimmer with irony, lyricism and moral vision. Through her quiet but clear message, over many years, Margaret Drabble has formed the way readers regard books, women’s experiences and life.

A mysterious death has exposed secrets within the government, bringing on a political crisis that will expose a world of danger and deceit: such is the theme of James Naughtie’s first novel, ‘The Madness of July’. At present he is working on his second novel, ‘The Paris Spring’.

For over 20 years he has greeted the waking world with his insights into political life. Who better to know its intrigues?

Main House Day Ticket - £35 for 5 events (not including 7.30pm event)

Mark McCrum

6pm Main House £9

Ben Okri

The Royal Literary Fund Talk – Mark McCrum Writing for Survival Mark McCrum talks about his writing career, from lunch with the King of the Zulus to touring with pop star Robbie Williams. He tells the fascinating truths behind the Reality TV shows, ‘1900 House’ and ‘Castaway’, explains how he ghosted Prince Harry, and why he wrote his new novel, ‘Fest’, a murder mystery set at a literature festival.

The Royal Literary Fund was set up in 1790 to help professional authors.

Past beneficiaries have included Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, DH Lawrence and Dylan Thomas.

Last year it helped 200 writers, though not all of them are quite so famous yet. www.rlf.org.uk

7.30pm Main House £9

Ben Okri A Magical Life When Ben Okri talks to audiences they find the experience profound and transforming. His words lead to unexpected, poetic and metaphysical revelations. He is the author of The Booker prizewinning novel, ‘The Famished Road’, and now has written ‘The Age of Magic’, his first novel in seven years. Expect an enchanting and unusual event.

Monday 9 March – Main House – Food Glorious Food

Charles Spence

10.15am 11.30am Circle Gallery £6

Lucy McDiarmid

POETRY BREAKFAST Coffee, Croissants and Poetry Bring a poem to read – one of your own or one you admire.

(Advance booking essential)

10.45am Main House £9

Charles Spence Eating with all the Senses Having worked for many years alongside Heston Blumenthal experimenting with the effect of sensory experience on taste perception, Charles Spence discusses gastro-physics. He asks ‘What makes for the perfect dining experience’?

Gillian Riley

Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi

12.15pm Main House £9

Lucy McDiarmid The Peacock Dinner

2.15pm Main House £9

Gillian Riley Golden Apples – Food in Art

On January 18, 1914 seven male poets, including W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Wilfrid Blunt, gathered together to eat a peacock. Lucy McDiarmid offers an account of that meal, immortalised as the Peacock Dinner and explores the friendships, alliances and rivalries between the poets.

Artists of all periods have portrayed the tools and processes of the gastronomic world – of the drying, salting or smoking of meat, fish and vegetables. Food historian Gillian Riley demonstrates what art can tell us about the history of food.

Main House Day Ticket - £35 for 5 events (not including the Poetry Breakfast)

Raymond Tallis

3.45pm Main House £9

Katie Caldesi and Giancarlo Caldesi Venice – A True Taste Owners of La Cucina Caldesi restaurant and cookery school, Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi transport us to Venice where they have unearthed recipes including hot polpette (salty pork rissoles) and sweet fritelle (fried custardfilled dumplings) which have been served on the streets for centuries.

Magna e bevi che /a vita xé un lampo – ‘eat and drink because life is a lightning flash’ – is their motto.

5.30pm Main House £9

Raymond Tallis A Complete Sense of the World What is the nature and purpose of the arts? Raymond Tallis, wellknown writer, philosopher and cultural critic, discusses why and how the arts enrich lives.

Tuesday 10 March – Main House

Julie Summers

John Tusa

11am Main House £9

Julie Summers Wartime Fashions

12.45pm Main House £9

John Tusa In Defence of the Arts

Julie Summers is the bestselling author of ‘Jam Busters’, about the WI in the Second World War. It is currently being made into a major ITV drama. Now she turns to the fashions of World War II and gives a talk full of humorous and fascinating facts.

Should the arts be useful before they are excellent? Can they turn their backs on the past if they are to be creative in the present? Sir John Tusa, Director of the Clore Leadership Programme, former Managing Director of the BBC World Service and of the Barbican Centre, examines how the arts can survive in a financial downturn.

He explains why the arts deserve special treatment.

Juliet Barker

David Crystal

2.30pm Main House £9

Juliet Barker The Peasants’ Revolt

4.15pm Main House £9

David Crystal Words in Time and Place

Why did a diverse group of ordinary men and women unite in armed rebellion against church and state to demand a radical political agenda?

The dramatic and shocking events of the Peasants’ Revolt provide the backdrop to Juliet Barker’s latest fascinating book. The acclaimed historian and distinguished biographer of the Brontës and Wordsworth will talk of this violent incident in medieval England with her usual authority and style.

Why does the English Language have many words to express a single concept? How, why and when have words entered the language?

World-celebrated linguist David Crystal explores these questions, introduces new words and delves into fascinating facts about the development of the language.

Main House Day Ticket - £35 for 5 events (not including 7.30pm event)

Tim Burt

6pm Main House £9

sponsored by

7.30pm Main House £9

Catherine Anderson

Tim Burt Shaping the Future of Global Business The pace of change in the corporate world is increasing exponentially, driven by technology and consumer behaviour. Where will we be in five years’ time? Tim Burt has asked this question of 20 eminent leaders of major multinational businesses.

Their visions will affect many areas of people’s lives.

Catherine Anderson India’s Disappearing Railways – A Photographic Journey The work of the late photojournalist and travel writer, Angus McDonald, celebrates India’s diversity and its beauty.

Angus McDonald died suddenly whilst travelling in Burma in 2013.

Catherine Anderson, who is currently chief-of-staff to author, Afghanistan expert and Member of Parliament, Rory Stewart, presents the work of her late partner.

Tuesday 10 March – Studio – The Ordinary

Panikos Panayi

10.45am Studio £8

12.15pm Studio £8

Joe Moran

Panikos Panayi Fish and Chips Unwrapped Britain’s original fast food, fish and chips, was first introduced to the British working classes in the 19th century by immigrant Jews.

Professor of European History at De Montfort University, Panikos Panayi unwraps the history of Britain’s most popular dish, adds a shaking of amazing facts and serves with a warming mugful of anecdotes.

Joe Moran TV Times Professor Joe Moran traces the rise and rise of the humble television.

He explores its role in creating our ‘Armchair Nation’ and tells previously untold stories from behind the scenes of programmes that are family favourites such as Countdown and Coronation Street.

Judith Flanders

James Ward

2.15pm Studio £8

Judith Flanders The Invention of Home

3.45pm Studio £8

James Ward Stationery Delights

The idea of ‘home’ as a special place where we can be our true selves is a relatively new idea.

Historian Judith Flanders dismantles domestic myths and investigates the development of ordinary household items – from cutlery, chairs and curtains, to the fitted kitchen, plumbing and windows.

What does shatter-proof resistant mean? What exactly are the thousands of uses of Blu-Tack?

James Ward celebrates the role of the humble biro and answers many burning stationery-related questions. He combines peculiar facts, curious stories and changes the way people look at their desks forever.

Studio Day Ticket - £24 for 4 events

Wednesday 11 March – Studio – Literary Locations 2.15 pm Studio £8

Sofka Zinovieff

10.45am Studio £8

12.15pm Studio £8

Who started his Lake District honeymoon at Mirehouse in 1850, and found his bachelor socks full of holes laid out on the bed? Who, after a stay at Mirehouse in 1847, travelled to the new railway station at Windermere, where he bumped into Hartley Coleridge? Find the answers to these and other amusing questions from John Spedding of Mirehouse.

John Spedding

Jean Findlay A Paradoxical Life The great-great-niece of C.K. Scott Moncrieff, celebrated translator of Proust, reveals how he became a doyen of literary society – friends with Robert Graves and Noël Coward, enemies with Siegfried Sassoon and in love with Wilfred Owen. Jean Findlay peels back the layers of this enigmatic man revealing his paradoxical life as a fervent Catholic convert and homosexual.

Sofka Zinovieff Dalmatians Wore Pearls Sofka Zinovieff offers a glimpse into a vanished world of decadence in Faringdon House, Oxfordshire.

Hailed as an aesthete’s paradise in its hey-day, Faringdon House was the location of a scandalous ménage à trois and was visited by many great names of the 1930s, including Salvador Dali, Cecil Beaton, Gertrude Stein and Siegfried Sassoon.

Studio Day Ticket - £30 for 5 events

John Spedding The Remarkable Literary History of Mirehouse

3.45pm Studio £8

Jeronime Palmer The Great and the Good of Greta Hall Greta Hall is the former home of Lakeland poets Coleridge and Southey. Jeronime Palmer, the present owner of Greta Hall, shares tales of some of the literary characters who frequented the house: William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Keats, Shelley and Sir Walter Scott amongst others.

5.15pm Studio £8

Ian Hall Living the Dream in Cumbria Part-time priest, farmer and campsite owner, Ian Hall, discusses his experiences of shared living with four friends who pooled their resources to buy a fell farm in Eskdale in 1976. He tells stories of an array of Cumbrian characters, interwoven with memories, of the trials and tribulations faced on the land.

Wednesday 11 March – Main House

Julian Spalding

11am Main House £9

John Porter

Julian Spalding The Role of Art and Architecture in Society’s Evolution

Phil Rigby and Michaela Robinson-Tate

2.30pm Main House £9

There are some things that make Cumbria special: its stunning scenery; its world-renowned writers; Cumberland sausage and Kendal mint cake. These pleasures attract visitors from around the world. Michaela Robinson-Tate is currently senior writer on Cumbria Life; Phil Rigby is a press photographer.

Julian Spalding, latterly director of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, examines how our changing world view is interpreted through iconic images of the remote and more recent past: the Pyramids, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, Munch’s ‘The Scream’, the Sydney Opera House, and the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

12.45pm Main House £9

John Porter Moving Mountains John Porter tells the history and style of a generation of climbers including the poignant story of the untimely death of a leading figure of British mountaineering: Alex MacIntyre.

Questions that all climbers grapple with, about luck, friendship and the frailty of life, are tackled.

Michaela RobinsonTate and Phil Rigby The Greatness of Cumbria

4.15pm Main House £9

Patrick Barkham Britain’s Coast Patrick Barkham, Guardian journalist and author of impressive books on butterflies and badgers, tells of his journey around the coast of Britain weaving together local histories, personal stories and the natural history of the most beautiful and treasured parts of the coast.

Main House Day Ticket - £35 for 5 events (not including 7.30pm event)

Patrick Barkham

6pm Main House £9

sponsored by

7.30pm Main House £9

Christopher Matthew

Andrew McNally Swamped in Debt Debt has become engrained in our culture leaving control and ownership in the hands of a few.

Andrew McNally argues that equity, through the value of aligned interests, will make everyone better off and secure political democracy.

Christopher Matthew Comic Verse: Mutts, Mongrels and More In his latest book, ‘Dog Treats’, Christopher Matthew writes touching and wicked verse that will be recognised by dog lovers everywhere. Famous for his pastiches (‘Now We are Sixty’ etc), he explains how he began writing comic verse and will illustrate his event liberally with readings from his books.

Thursday 12 March – Main House

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

11am Main House £9

Giles Radice

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown England and Immigration

Max Adams

2.30pm Main House £9

One of Britain’s foremost cultural commentators, Yasmin AlibhaiBrown tells of her love for England; a country shaped by five centuries of immigration. She provides a brilliant history of the waves of immigration, and reflects on where we are now and what it means to be English today.

12.45pm Main House £9

Giles Radice in conversation with Roger Liddle Political Pairings There are many interesting pairs of political leaders from Churchill and Attlee to Cameron and Clegg.

Sometimes these result in intense rivalry, while others illustrate the profound political impact of a successful working relationship.

Lord Radice was Labour MP for Durham North and Chairman of the Treasury Committee until he was appointed a Life Peer.

4.15pm Main House £9

Helen Macdonald

Max Adams Trees Trees are marvels of nature. They are the earth’s lungs, climateregulators and habitat-protectors.

Ever since our prehistoric ancestors emerged from the forests of Africa, trees have given us shelter. Max Adams reflects on humans’ relationship with woods and forests over the centuries.

Helen Macdonald The Healing Power of Hawks Helen Macdonald tells the heartfelt story of taming a bloody, scary, deadly goshawk while un-taming herself. “As … I put myself in the hawk’s wild mind to tame her, my humanity was burning away.” She gives a compelling account of this challenging process. Her book, ‘H is for Hawk’, won the prestigious Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.

Main House Day Ticket - £28 for 4 events (not including 6pm event)

Mark Bostridge

6pm Main House £14 (talk and film)

Shirley Williams

Shirley Williams and Mark Bostridge Vera Brittain and the First World War Mark Bostridge, Vera Brittain’s biographer and Baroness Williams, Vera Brittain’s daughter, explore the effects of the First World War on their remarkable subject, both in terms of her personal life and her eventual decision to become a pacifist. They consider the new film of this period in Vera Brittain’s life, ‘Testament of Youth’.

At 7pm there will be a 45 minute break.

7.45pm Film: “Testament of Youth” (cert. tbc)

Thursday 12 March – Studio – Bookcase Day 10.30am Studio £8

12pm Studio £8

1.30pm Studio £8

Chris Brader Wartime Women in the Borders During the First World War thousands of young women came to live in Timbertown and work in the vast munitions factory at Gretna. Women were to be found in the factories, the pubs and the cinemas; pre-war community values were transformed. Chris Brader describes wartime life in Carlisle and Gretna reflecting on the changes that were taking place throughout Britain.

Ros Roberts Keswick in 1870 Joseph Brown painted a picture of Main Street, Keswick, 1870. Fifty citizens of Keswick are portrayed standing in front of the Moot Hall.

Each one is identified. Ros Roberts has researched their lives and, like Joseph Brown, has captured Keswick and its people at one moment in time.

Steve Matthews Josiah Relph: England’s First Dialect Poet Josiah Relph translated Horace into the Cumberland dialect and wrote fine poetry, but led a sequestered life in the Caldew Valley. The story of this poet, preacher, teacher and antiquarian, is also the story of rural life in Cumberland in the eighteenth century.

3pm Studio £8

Penny Bradshaw Ann Radcliffe’s Tour of the Lakes In 1795 the popular Gothic novelist, Ann Radcliffe, published her ‘Observations During a Tour to the Lakes’. The Lake District was a landscape that was still in the process of imaginative discovery. Penny Bradshaw recalls an important stepping-stone in the journey from picturesque tourism to Romantic inspiration.

4.30pm Studio £8

6pm Studio £8

Peter Roebuck Cattle Drovers in 18th Century Cumbria Herds of cattle were driven down from Scotland to be sold in the great markets in the south of England. The Highlanders drove their cattle across the Solway and over the Border Hills and through the Lake District. Droving has been little studied, but it was culturally and economically of great significance. Peter Roebuck, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Ulster, tells the story of this epic trade.

Mark Flinn All the World Comes to the Lakes “The world comes to the Lakes,” said Wordsworth. Mark Flinn describes the numerous guidebooks over the last two centuries which have influenced the way we look at the Lakes.

Studio Day Ticket - £36 for 6 events

Friday 13 March – Studio – Women’s Lives

Catherine Hall

Irma Kurtz

10.45am Studio £8

Catherine Hall Realities of War

12.15pm Studio £8

Irma Kurtz Purveyor of Common Sense

Catherine Hall has worked in international peace building and as an editor for human rights charities. She is thus well placed to offer a fresh take on the maledominated arena of war. Through the narrative lens of a female war photographer she explores the repercussions of war both emotionally and psychologically in her latest novel.

Over the past forty years Cosmopolitan’s agony aunt, Irma Kurtz, has dealt with all of the intimate secrets of the human heart. She discusses the range of problems that perennially cross her desk, from tensions in relationships to eating disorders and, of course, sex.

Studio Day Ticket - £24 for 4 events

Ellee Seymour

Marion Coutts

2.15pm Studio £8

Ellee Seymour Friendship and Fashion

3.45pm Studio £8

Marion Coutts The Adventure of Being and Dying

Ellee Seymour explores the tender romances, hardship and poverty, as well as the fun and camaraderie that shop girls shared between the 1940s and the 1960s in the glamorous environment of Heyworth’s department store in Cambridge. She tells heartwarming tales of working women’s experiences.

As the respected art critic Tom Lubbock faced cancer he lost the power to speak just as his child was learning to talk. In ‘The Iceberg’, his widow Marion Coutts uses language to talk about its loss in an account of a family under assault and the ingenuity by which they fought to stay together.

Friday 13 March – Main House

Rory Stewart

11am Main House £9

Julia Blackburn

Derwentwater Discussion Led by Rory Stewart MP, Richard (Lord) Inglewood, Polly Toynbee and David Walker Current Politics and Contemporary Issues The European Union, The Middle East, The NHS, education, the economy, housing, UKIP: there are many issues of public concern in the lead-up to the general election, many questions to be considered.

Some of these will be talked over today, with ample opportunity for the audience to add to the discussion.

12.45pm Main House £9

Julia Blackburn Life, Illness and Death Julia Blackburn’s account of the life of John Craske, Norfolk fisherman, artist and embroiderer, is not a conventional biography. Rather it is about life, illness and death. It is also about life after death, as Julia’s

Vincent Deary

beloved husband Herman died before it was finished.

2.30pm Main House £9

Rory Stewart Iraq and Afghanistan – Then and Now Rory Stewart is a thoughtful, questioning, humorous politician with an impressive past. He is well known in Cumbria as the Conservative MP for Penrith.

He shares his experiences of the Middle East and gives his views on the position of the countries today.

4.15pm Main House £9

Vincent Deary Are You Living the Life You Want to Lead?

How do we negotiate change in our lives? Vincent Deary, a health psychologist who specialises in helping people change their lives for the better, examines the power of habit and the difficulty of change. He illuminates the curious ways our environment, habits, experiences and memories daily re-make who we are.

Main House Day Ticket - £35 for 5 events (not including 8pm event)

Bursaries to Words by the Water If you are between the ages of 17 – 25 you may be eligible to attend events at this year’s festival

free of charge Polly Toynbee and David Walker

6pm Main House £9

Polly Toynbee and David Walker Radical Conservative Rule Polly Toynbee and David Walker warn against dismissing Cameron as bland. He is more radical than Margaret Thatcher, they suggest.

She privatised industries; he plans to dismantle the whole of the welfare state. Come to argue or agree with these Guardian journalists.

8pm – 9pm Main House £12

Francesca Martinez What the **** is Normal?

Whatever body you’re born into, it seems that most people share the universal desire to be ‘normal’.

This show is for anyone who’s ever struggled to fit in, felt ‘different’ or wondered what the **** normal means? Apart from a cycle on a washing machine, of course.

(Suitable for 16+) “One of the circuit’s most brilliant comedians” The Observer

To find out more email admin@wayswithwords.co.uk

Saturday 14 March – Main House

John D. Barrow

11am Main House £9

Francesca Martinez

John D. Barrow What Maths Can Tell Us About the Arts Mathematics and the Arts are not so far removed from each other as we think. Professor John D. Barrow of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, enriches our understanding of the maths and the art that surround us in our day-to-day lives. Find out how many words Shakespeare knew, why an egg is egg-shaped, how a soprano can shatter a wine glass …

12.45pm Main House £9

Michael Buerk

Francesca Martinez talks to Peter Stanford Normal is a Four Letter Word What happens when you’re branded ‘abnormal’ in a world obsessed with normality? Francesca Martinez was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was two years old and her parents were

John Crace

gravely told that she would never lead a ‘normal’ life. Intrigued by the power that a six-letter word has over so many people, she shares her own life-changing journey of growing up as ‘abnormal’, being rescued from High-School-Hell by ‘Grange Hill’, letting Ricky Gervais mock her walk in ‘Extras’ and working out what to say to the BBC after being offered the role of a vegetable.

2.30pm Main House £9

Michael Buerk Inside the Human Zoo: What’s Real about Reality Television?

I can’t promise that this will be answered today, but at least Michael Buerk (of BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and recently featuring in ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’) is bringing his superb mind to the question of the unreality of reality television.

Main House Day Ticket - £35 for 5 events (not including 8pm event)

8pm - 10pm (inc 30 min interval) Main House £14

Kate Adie

4.15pm Main House £9

John Crace Modern Politics, the Coalition and the General Election After the general election, Dave and Nick, looking like newly-weds, walked side by side into the rose garden of 10 Downing Street to give their first press conference as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. John Crace, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer delivers his often hilarious insights into contemporary politics.

6pm Main House £9

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Kate Adie Working Women and World War One A generation of men away fighting in World War One inadvertently promoted women’s ascent towards equality. Broadcaster and bestselling author, Kate Adie, shows how women emerged from the shadows of domestic life and took to the fields, the factories and the offices in order to contribute to the war effort.

Susan Calman Lady Like If you’ve seen Susan Calman before, ‘Lady Like’ will be a reassuring couple of hours spent with the woman her neighbours call “the mad cat lady”. If you don’t know who she is, ‘Lady Like’ will, at the very least, make you feel better about your own life. It’s a show about being older, wiser and liking yourself whatever anyone might say. Susan Calman - as seen and heard on ‘The News Quiz’, ‘Calman is Convicted’, ‘QI’, and ‘Have I Got News For You’.

(Suitable for 16+) “She’ll make you chuckle your pants off.”

Time Out

Saturday 14 March – Studio – Global Issues 10.45am Studio £8

12.15pm Studio £8

2.15pm The Studio £8

Ziauddin Sardar The Heart of Islam It’s the direction towards which Muslims turn at prayer; the birthplace of Muhammad; and the sacred city that draws millions of pilgrims each year. Ziauddin Sardar unravels the significance of Mecca and examines the religious struggles and rebellions that have so powerfully shaped Muslim culture.

Patrick Cockburn Who Are ISIS? Award-winning journalist and Middle East correspondent for the Independent, Patrick Cockburn, examines the 2014 ISIS uprising and the formation of the Caliphate. He questions the nature of the new threat and explores why things have gone so badly wrong in the region.

Ramita Navai Tehran – Lies and Lives What is everyday life like in Tehran? Journalist Ramita Navai discusses the lives of eight protagonists drawn from across the spectrum of Iranian society.

She delivers an intimate portrait of modern Tehran and of what it is to live, love and survive under such a repressive regime.

Ziauddin Sardar

3.45pm The Studio £8

5.15pm Studio £8

Mona Siddiqui

Peter Hudson A Village in Mauritania Farmer and charity worker, Peter Hudson, has been working to improve lives in an impoverished village in Mauritania since 1988.

He speaks candidly about life in a country where corruption is rife, natural resources are scarce and a small elite live like kings.

Mona Siddiqui A Woman of Faith Regular contributor to Radio Four’s ‘Thought for the Day’, Professor Mona Siddiqui, considers how Islamic custom and identity can be reconciled in 21st-century life, through the lens of her own personal journey as a Muslim and a modern woman.

Studio Day Ticket - £30 for 5 events

Sunday 15 March – Studio – On the Move 2.15pm The Studio £9

Levison Wood

10.45am Studio £8

12.15pm Studio £8

As he strides among bell heather, peat porridge and asphodel, over moorlands from Cornwall via the Pennines to the Borders, William Atkins is guided by the books he reads and the people he meets – farmers, monks, ornithologists, gamekeepers, prisoners, soldiers and walkers.

William Atkins

Andrew Martin Heroic Days of Rail Whatever happened to porters, dining cars and timetables? Andrew Martin, who practically grew up on a train, attempts to recreate five famous British train journeys.

He discovers a few changes have taken place since the days when you could dine on kippers and champagne on the Brighton Belle or be shaved by the Flying Scotsman’s on-board barber.

Levison Wood Walking the Nile Last August, Levison Wood arrived at the Mediterranean Sea having walked the length of the Nile from its source in Rwanda. The former army officer speaks of the dangers he encountered, the characters he met and the extreme highs and lows of his three thousand mile hike through six African countries.

Studio Day Ticket - £30 for 5 events

William Atkins The Moor – South to North

3.45pm The Studio £8

Hannah Reynolds and John Walsh St-Malo to Nice by Bike Cyclists Hannah Reynolds and John Walsh have charted a 1,000-mile route through France from St-Malo to Nice. They find ‘stages’ for both seasoned cyclists and softies, advise on the French for ‘I have a puncture’, seek out the best formule du jour and track down idyllic spots for evening swims.

5.15pm Studio £8

Rose Mitchell The Language of Maps Behind every map is a story.

National Archivist Rose Mitchell takes a fascinating journey through the world of maps and mapmakers including some of the more unusual, such as the map of London drawn on a lady’s glove in 1851.

Sunday 15 March – Main House

Jean Seaton

11am Main House £9

Peter Stanford

Jean Seaton with Michael Buerk, Caroline Thomson and Roger Bolton The BBC, Past and Future Jean Seaton is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and Official Historian of the BBC. She has been involved in a variety of policy discussions within the BBC drawing upon her understanding of the historical precedent. She leads a discussion on what is right and wrong with the BBC with Michael Buerk, Roger Bolton and Caroline Thomson (former BBC executive, now Executive Director of English National Ballet).

12.45pm Main House £9

Peter Stanford Judas Writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford deconstructs that most vilified of Bible characters: Judas Iscariot, who famously betrayed Jesus with a kiss. He investigates how the very name Judas came to

Salley Vickers

Matthew Dennison

be synonymous with betrayal and, ultimately, human evil.

2.30pm Main House £9

4.15 pm Main House £9

Salley Vickers Fiction – Short and Long Salley Vickers talks about her new collection of short stories.

Former lecturer in literature and psychoanalyst; author of the best-selling ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’ and six other acclaimed novels, including her latest ‘The Cleaner of Chartres’; Salley Vickers’ thoughtful talks leave the audience asking questions about literature and life.

Matthew Dennison The Extraordinary Life of Vita Sackville-West Aristocrat, literary celebrity, Sissinghurst’s ‘Rose Queen’, devoted wife, lesbian, recluse, iconoclast: Vita Sackville-West was many things, but she was never straightforward. Matthew Dennison reveals a renegade, brave and charismatic woman who was often misunderstood.

Main House Day Ticket - £28 for 4 events

www.bookscumbria.com

We are pleased to be supporting Words by the Water and look forward to seeing you at the Festival Bookshop, Theatre by the Lake.

We also welcome you to our shops Bookends 56 Castle Street Carlisle Tel 01228 529067 Bookends 66 Main Street Keswick Tel 017687 75277 and Bookcase 17 Castle Street Carlisle Tel 01228 544560, for rare and secondhand books and new classical CDs

Booking and Other Information PLEASE NOTE: TICKETS ARE NOT FOR SALE FROM WAYS WITH WORDS.

In Person

Priority Booking

Online

Friends of Ways With Words or Theatre by the Lake can book tickets from Monday 15 December 2014.

General booking starts on Monday 5 January 2015.

Visit the Box Office at Theatre by the Lake open 9.30am – 8.00pm daily.

Book online at www.theatrebythelake.com

By Phone

Call 017687 74411

Payment Methods

Cash, credit or debit cards (Mastercard/ Visa/ Switch/Delta/Electron/Maestro) are accepted or cheques made payable to Theatre by the Lake.

Ticket Delivery

Tickets booked up to seven days in advance will be posted out for a charge of 70p.

Tickets booked within seven days of the performance date will be held for collection from the Box Office.

Reservations

Tickets which have not been paid for within five days of reservation (or for late bookers one hour before the performance) will be offered for re-sale.

Refund and Exchange Policy

If you inform the Box Office at least 48 hours before an event, we will be happy to exchange your tickets for another WBTW 2015 event (subject to availability) or hold a credit for you against a future booking.

There is a £1 fee per ticket for this service (with a maximum charge of £10 per transaction).

If an event is cancelled you can exchange your ticket for another event at the festival - subject to availability - or for a voucher which you can use at any Ways With Words event in the future.

There will be no charge for this.

If you don’t wish to exchange you are entitled to a refund of the ticket’s value. (NB this will be a proportion of the value if you bought a day ticket.

We do not refund people who hold Festival Passes.)

Festival Passes • Festival Pass ‘A’ at £155 gives entry to all Main House events on Fri 6 – Tues 10 March inc.

• Festival Pass ‘B’ at £155 gives entry to all Main House events on Wed 11 – Sun 15 March inc.

Passes can be collected from Theatre by the Lake at the start of the festival.

Group Bookings Please contact the box office by phone for details and reservations.

Young Person Standby Tickets People aged 24 and under can buy tickets normally priced at £9 or £8 for just £4 if purchased 24 hours or less before the event’s start time. Proof of age will be required when you collect your tickets.

Getting to the Theatre To locate the theatre and find out about car parking and transport links please go to the theatre’s website: www.theatrebythelake.com/location

Theatre by the Lake’s Address Theatre by the Lake Lakeside Keswick Cumbria CA12 5DJ

Away With Words . . .

Getting away from the normal routine can be an enormous boost to your creativity and general sense of well-being.

Ways With Words organises other festivals in the UK and also holiday courses in Italy and in Devon.

For full details of all of these go to wayswithwords.co.uk where you can also sign up to receive regular e-newsletters.

Fingals Hotel, Dittisham, Devon Writing and Reading Course 10 – 15 May 2015

Villa Pia, Umbria, Italy Writing and Painting Course 26 September – 3 October 2015 3 – 10 October 2015

. . . We hope to see you back in Keswick next year for

Words by the Water 2016 (4 – 13 March)

Thank you to: The Advisory Group Members:

Our Venue Hosts:

Sue Allan Christopher Burns Richard Eccles (Cumbria Life) James & Janaki Fryer Spedding (Mirehouse) Patric Gilchrist (Theatre by the Lake) Philippa Harrison Gwenda and Lucy Matthews (Bookends) Elizabeth Stott Helen Towers (Reader Development Officer)

The Words by the Water Staff: Customer Relations : Phil John Festival Programme and Administration Assistants : Leah Varnell and Jane Fitzgerald Festival Assistants : Penny and Bob Humphrys Charles Mitchell and Cynthia Fletcher

Sponsor:

Support in Kind:

Mercedes-Benz of South Lakes

The Publishers: Alma Books Ltd • Atlantic Books • Bloomsbury Bodley Head • Canongate • Chatto and Windus Ebury • Elliott and Thompson • Faber and Faber Granta • Hardie Grant Books • Harper Colllins Head of Zeus • Hodder • IB Tauris • Jonathan Cape • Little Brown • Lund Humphries • Orion Oxford University Press • Oxford Publicity Partnership • Penguin • Profile • Quarto Publishing • Reaktion • Routledge • Simon and Schuster • Thames and Hudson • The History Press • Transworld • Verso • Vertebrate Publishing • Vintage • Wild Things Publishing Wiley Blackwell • Wilmington Square Books

Photo Credits: Val Corbett, Rehan Jamil, Josh Kearns, Kona McPhee, Fiona Makkink, Kate Mount, Marzena Pogorzaly Fiona Shaw, Steve Ullathorne, Jeff Veitch, B. White

facebook.com/wayswithwords follow us @ways_with_words #wbtw15

BAILLIE GIFFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP

AT BAILLIE GIFFORD WE BELIEVE IN THE VALUE OF GREAT LITERATURE AND IN LONG-LASTING SUCCESS STORIES.

We love great work that stands the test of time.

Baillie Gifford is delighted to continue to sponsor some of the most renowned literary festivals throughout the UK. We believe that, much like a classic piece of literature, a great investment philosophy will stand the test of time.

Baillie Gifford is one of the UK’s largest independent investment trust managers. In our daily work in investments we do our very best to emulate the imagination, insight and intelligence that successful writers bring to the creative process.

In our own way we’re publishers too. Our free, award-winning Trust magazine provides you with an engaging and insightful overview of the investment world, along with details of our literary festival activity throughout the UK.

To find out more or to take out a free subscription for Trust magazine, please call us on 0800 280 2820 or visit us at www.bgtrustonline.com Baillie Gifford – long-term investment partners Your call may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes. Baillie Gifford Savings Management Limited (BGSM) produces Trust magazine and is an affiliate of Baillie Gifford & Co Limited, which is the manager and secretary of seven 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.

Speakers include: Kate Adie Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Richard Askwith Juliet Barker Linda Blair Mark Bostridge Melvyn Bragg Michael Buerk Susan Calman Margaret Drabble Christopher Frayling Michael Frayn Cate Haste Alan Johnson Helen Macdonald Francesca Martinez Blake Morrison James Naughtie Ben Okri Giles Radice Jacqueline Rose Åsne Seierstad Mona Siddiqui Julian Spalding Rory Stewart Claire Tomalin Polly Toynbee John Tusa Salley Vickers David Walker Shirley Williams – and more 017687 74411

www.wordsbythewater.org.uk