The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival

Ways With Words Festival of Words and Ideas Dartington, Devon 6 – 16 July 2012

Visionary power Attends the motions of the viewless winds, Embodied in the mystery of words.

Wordsworth

Ways With Words Comes of Age . . . never been 21 before . . .

Last year we were celebrating 20 years of Ways With Words at Dartington Hall yet for many people 21 is the coming-of-age. We feel each year of a festival is a cause for celebration: festivals mean festivities. They are a time for people to get together to meet old friends, as well as new people, and to laugh, listen, discuss, agree and disagree – just like a party. There are also many opportunities for being quiet; for finding a peaceful place to read or think. At Dartington this might be sitting in the beautiful, flower filled gardens or on the banks of the River Dart.

Chloë Bar-Kar

Videl Bar-Kar

Stephen Bristow

Kay Dunbar

Now we have come of age it is time to challenge ourselves; to ask, “What are festivals for?” Creating time for books, words, new ideas and thoughts; encouraging learning, curiosity, open minds, creativity: this is our mission.

So do come to our 21st festival: on your own, with friends, family or partner. You will find much to elevate you from your usual routine and expand your outlook on life. This is why we have spent 21 years running festivals.

President’s Introduction Welcome to Ways With Words at Dartington.

Once again the festival offers a programme which reflects Britain’s best writing and most exciting ideas.

Just as important, it provides – uniquely among British festivals – a chance for speakers and listeners to meet and continue the arguments which were begun during the huge variety of talks and discussions which fill the days. And it all happens in the wonderful setting of Dartington Hall. As Neville Cardus almost said in one of his cricket essays, without Dartington there could be no summer in this land.

Roy Hattersley Festival President

Michael Palin

Friday 6 July – Great Hall

Great Hall £9

Michael Palin Fact and Fiction Our favourite Python and broadcaster has turned his hand to fiction again. ‘The Truth’ is Michael Palin’s second novel, and explores a biographer’s efforts to pin down the elusive Hamish Melville, an enigmatic activist and humanitarian. Join Michael Palin as he unfolds a plot that spreads across North East India, and explores the boundaries of truth.

Miles Jupp Fibber in the Heat

#3 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Gabrielle Walker A History of Antarctica

Actor, comedian and writer Miles Jupp, a long time cricket fanatic, decided, in a moment of madness, that to see his heroes play he would bluff his way into England’s Test series in India under the guise of Cricket Correspondent for BBC Scotland. An hilarious, charming, yet cautionary tale of cricket heaven, and the multiple, bumbling disasters that nearly always follow a fib too far.

BBC presenter and science writer, Gabrielle Walker, explains what it feels like to be on the continent of Antarctica and why it draws so many people back. It is the most alien place on earth, the only part of our planet where humans could never survive unaided. And yet, in its mysteries lie the secrets of our past, and our future.

With thanks to Sharpham Wines for sponsoring the launch party for Friends of Ways With Words.

Day Ticket: £22.50 (not including #138)

Gabrielle Walker

#2 4pm Great Hall £9

Miles Jupp

#1 2.30pm

Sadly Charley Boorman has cancelled his appearance.

We are pleased to announce a new event for this time slot:

Nicholas Evans

#138 7.30pm Great Hall £9

Nicholas Evans The Brave Nicholas Evans’s latest novel, ‘The Brave’, is set in England, Hollywood and Iraq. The motto of the prep school to which 8 year old Tommy Bedford is dispatched, is SEMPER FORTIS. It’s 1959 and the school bristles with bullies and sadistic staff.

Tommy, a quirky loner, obsessed with cowboys and Indians, needs all the bravery he can summon. His life is turned upside down by a shocking act of violence and the truth about what happened becomes a secret that corrodes his life into adulthood. Evans will talk about his writing, how kidney failure affected his life and his work and the inspiration for the themes of his latest book which lives up to its name - a courageous and full-hearted novel, beautifully interlacing the past and present with Evans’s trademark masterful storytelling.

Friday 6 July – Barn ‘All That Matters’ Afternoon ‘All that Matters’ is a major new series by Hodder Education, written by international experts in their field. These authorities work to distil a topic and get right to its heart, with new and interesting perspectives. #5 2.30pm Barn £9

#6 4pm Barn £9

Donna Dickenson Bioethics: All that Matters – Are Genes Us?

#7 5.30pm Barn £9

Julian Baggini Philosophy: All that Matters – Why Philosophy Makes Us Human

Ziauddin Sardar Muhammad: All that Matters – The Man Behind the Prophet Ziauddin Sardar, pioneering writer on Islam and regular contributor to The Guardian, New Statesman and The Independent, speaks about the huge influence Muhammad has had on the world today. Often discussed as a prophet, Muhammad’s life story has been little explored. Ziauddin Sardar reveals new research on preIslamic Mecca and the controversies surrounding Muhammad’s life.

Day Ticket: £22.50

Donna Dickenson, one of the world’s leading authorities in bioethics, takes aim at the popular view that genes command and we obey. She asks the question: Is our personal identity genetically determined and free will just an illusion? If so, where does that leave our sense of self?

Julian Baggini, bestselling philosopher, author and journalist, talks us through a fabled story of philosophy and the origins of philosophical impulse. From ethics and metaphysics, to the philosophy of science and religion, he explains why philosophy lies at the heart of what makes us human.

Saturday 7 July – Great Hall #8 10am Great Hall £9

Bob Marshall-Andrews Prime Ministers, Passion and Politics

#9 11.30am Great Hall £9

Craig Brown Chance Encounters

#10 1pm Great Hall £9

The entertaining, excoriating Labour MP for Medway from 1997-2010, QC, opponent of the Iraq war and sworn enemy of Tony Blair, gives his view of the political landscape of the last decade: from Westminster dramas, international warfare, spin and whips, the expenses scandal, to UK civil liberties and beyond.

Britain’s sharpest satirist brings his famed parodies to Dartington Hall accompanied by multiple extra voices as he tells of wild and witty exchanges between some distinctive characters: T.S. Eliot and the Royal Family, Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain, George Galloway and Michael Barrymore. Life is made up of individuals meeting one another.

He expands this idea.

John McCarthy Journeys through Israel and Palestine For the first time since his kidnapping and five year incarceration in Lebanon, John McCarthy returns to explore the complexities and contradictions of this troubled region. As he travels through Israel and East Jerusalem, John McCarthy asks what happens to a society in conflict, and how humanity endures under oppression.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #14)

#11 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Hilary Mantel Bring up the Bodies: Tudor England and Thomas Cromwell Hilary Mantel returns with her long-awaited sequel to her Man Booker winning novel, ‘Wolf Hall’.

In transferring his affections from Anne Boleyn to Jane Seymour, Henry VIII compromised the safety of an already isolated nation. Hilary Mantel explores this confusing, cataclysmic period of English history at the very heart of ‘Bring up the Bodies’, a fascinating second act.

#12 4pm Great Hall £9

Jeremy Vine News: New and Old

#13 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Michael Buerk Expanding Planet

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Jeremy Vine takes a look back at his work, spanning over a quarter of a century at the BBC. From his first day which coincided with Black Monday, to being shot at in Bosnia, then to the corridors of Westminster as a political correspondent, Jeremy Vine has been a front-row spectator at some of the major events of recent history.

At the turn of the year, the global population reached a shocking seven billion. Michael Buerk argues that human overpopulation lies behind many, if not most, of the major issues that challenge our future.

Why, he wonders, is hardly anybody discussing it?

Saturday 7 July . . . but also #14 8pm 10pm (including interval) Great Hall £12

Beware of Young Girls – Songs from Kate Dimbleby Described as ‘an ageless mixture of Snow White and Mae West’, Kate Dimbleby is one of the most exciting jazz singers around. She brings her remarkable talent to the autobiographical songs of the witty, ironic and melancholy Dory Previn, as well as a mix of other material.

FE1 2pm £6

Words On The Wing A chance to stroll through the Dartington gardens, punctuated with birdsong, themed poetry, quotes and a capella singing.

Simon Williams will act as the Pied Piper and lead you to many and various diversions – a site-specific interlude of muse and music.

Meet outside the West Wing.

Kate Dimbleby

Social Reading Group 1 FE2 led by Sarah Hopkins 4pm The Reader Organisation connects 5.30 pm people with great literature and with Dukes each other.

Room In this group extracts from literature £9 will be read aloud followed by a discussion on how these are related to common experiences; how they help the reader cope with everyday life.

Saturday 7 July – Barn – Of the Earth #15 10am Barn £9

Kim Sayer Growing Plants, Growing People

#16 11.30am Barn £9

Sinclair McKay Ramble On

#17 1pm Barn £9

An inspiring insight into the famous Cornworthy allotments scheme. A sumptuously illustrated story for budding allotmenteers, including an introduction to an eclectic cast of characters, their triumphs, disasters and imaginative growing techniques (some very surprising). A must for anyone looking to produce the perfect plot.

Author of the bestselling ‘The Secret Life of Bletchley Park’, Sinclair McKay tells how country walks and rambling were transformed from a minor and even illegal pastime to the most popular recreational activity in the country. A celebration of our wonderful countryside for anyone who has ever pulled on a pair of walking boots.

Trevor Brinkman, Tim Cresswell and Thom Hunt Three Hungry Boys What happened when three best friends left their wallets and their trepidation at home, challenging themselves to survive for a month on their knowledge of nature and not much else? Channel 4 filmed their adventures and Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall got involved. Find out how these three caught, foraged and blagged their way to full stomachs.

Maybe find the inspiration to have an adventure of your own.

Day Ticket: £45

#18 2.30pm Barn £9

Stephen Moss The Natural History of an English Village

#19 4pm Barn £9

Martin Palmer Reading the Landscape

#20 5.30pm Barn £9

Ruth Padel Life on the Move

Stephen Moss, the natural historian, birder, author and television producer of wildlife programmes, notably of the award winning Springwatch, Autumnwatch, Snow Watch and Birds Britannia, offers an intimate account of the natural history of his parish. In this very personal celebration he explains why the natural world matters to all of us, wherever we live.

Take a tour of the sacred places of Britain and discover secret meanings in the landscape around you. From street names to churches, hill forts to burial mounds, Martin Palmer decodes the ciphers left by politics, belief, warfare and passion, encouraging us to reconnect with our environment and reexamine surroundings we take for granted.

Home is where you start from, but where is a swallow’s real home?

And what does ‘native’ mean if the English oak is an immigrant from Spain? Ruth Padel weaves science and myth, natural and human history, poetry and prose, to conjure a world created and sustained by migration, from geese battling raging winds over Mount Everest to refugees labouring over a drastically changing planet.

Craig Brown

Hilary Mantel

Jeremy Vine

Paul Mason

Joan Bakewell

Jung Chang

Michael Holroyd

Anne Sebba

Lindsey Hilsum

John McCarthy

Michael Buerk

Ian Mortimer

Sunday 8 July – Great Hall #21 10am Great Hall £9

Joan Bakewell She’s Leaving Home

#22 11.30am Great Hall £9

Paul Mason Telling China’s Story

#23 1pm Great Hall £9

When BBC Newsnight Economics Editor, Paul Mason, travelled to China in 2009 he concluded that modern China’s story was easier to tell as fiction. Today he will speak about his zeitgeist novel, ‘Rare Earth’, which explores the rise of the Chinese economy and the West’s failure to understand the East.

Hear him in conversation with fellow broadcaster Lindsey Hilsum who spent two years as Channel 4 News’ China correspondent.

Monty Halls

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Much admired broadcaster and journalist Baroness Bakewell returns to fiction for her latest book. Set in post war Liverpool, she recreates the lives of a mother, father and daughter as the drab 1950s make way for the youth culture that defined the 1960s, when CND protests, bohemian attitudes, sex and television made the headlines.

Lindsey Hilsum Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #27)

Julian Clary

Channel 4 News International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, reported extensively from the recent uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya. She traces the history of Gaddafi’s strange, brutal regime and its eventual downfall through the personal stories of six Libyans; how they overcame fear and found the strength to rebel.

Sunday 8 July – Great Hall #24 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Monty Halls The Fisherman’s Apprentice Marine biologist and BBC broadcaster Monty Halls explored the challenges facing our fishing industry by living and working as a traditional Cornish fisherman over the course of a year. From lobster pots to deep sea trawling, he shares his experience of what’s really involved in getting seafood onto our plates.

#25 4pm Great Hall £9

Michael Holroyd A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers

#26 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Julian Clary with Joan Bakewell Briefs Encountered

Leading biographer Michael Holroyd discusses his latest work: a rich and experimental tapestry of hidden lives and family mysteries connected over the centuries by an opulent Amalfi Coast villa. Join him in what promises to be a masterly inquiry into the biographer’s art.

Much loved entertainer Julian Clary discusses his new novel with Baroness Joan Bakewell. Set in Goldenhurst, Noël Coward’s house in Kent (the very home that later became Julian Clary’s own), this is a tale of forbidden lovers, parties, songs, mysterious deaths and modern day worries, where the 1920s life of Noël Coward seeps mysteriously into the present.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #27)

#27 7.30pm Great Hall £9

Jung Chang Wild Swans: 21 Years On The publication of ‘Wild Swans’ in 1991 was a global phenomenon. This year, Jung Chang’s moving account of three generations of women and the turmoil of 20th century China celebrates its coming of age.

This much-admired author talks to journalist and former Independent editor Rosie Boycott.

Bursaries to Ways With Words Young people between the ages of 17 – 25 can attend all (10 days) or some (5 days) of this year’s festival free of charge.

Email admin@wayswithwords.co.uk to find out more.

Sunday 8 July – Barn – Women’s Lives #28 10am Barn £9

Kate Summerscale A Victorian Scandal

#29 11.30am Barn £9

Louise Foxcroft Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting

#30 1pm Barn £9

Michele Hanson Growing up in 1950s Suburbia

When Henry Robinson sued for divorce in 1858 his key evidence was his wife’s diary, describing in salacious detail an affair with a young doctor.

Kate Summerscale explains how the case scandalised Victorian society, throwing up questions about women’s sexuality and the admissibility of private feelings. But was Isabella Robinson an adulteress, or just a diarist with a vivid imagination?

Weight obsession is perceived as a recent phenomenon but as historian Louise Foxcroft shows, we have been struggling with what, when and how we eat ever since the Greeks and Romans first pinched an inch. In a surprising and often shocking talk, she exposes today’s multi billion pound dieting industry and offers a welcome perspective on how we can be happy and healthy in our bodies.

Michele Hanson is one of the UK’s wittiest and most popular columnists.

Her Guardian columns have been serialised for radio, made into a BBC cartoon and collected in book form.

She describes her coming-of-age in a Britain emerging from post war austerity into the days of ‘never had it so good’. A funny and affectionate look at a vanished way of life.

Day Ticket: £45

#31 2.30pm Barn £9

Susanna Forrest Equine Obsession

#32 4pm Barn £9

Blake Morrison A Discoverie of Witches

#33 5.30pm Barn £9

Rosie Boycott A Nice Girl Like Me at 60

Like many girls, the young Susanna yearned for a pony. Taking what is often considered a female trait, she explains in her memoir how women’s obsession with horses grew out of a longing for independence and a chance to prove strength and bravery. Her exploration takes us on a brisk canter away from princesses to recovering crack addicts, via courtesans, warriors, and heroines across the ages.

Marking the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials Blake Morrison reads from his new collection of poems, giving voice to the participants and victims of the infamous cases. Children testified against their mothers and the hangman strove for efficiency.

Fresh, chilling light is cast on ten condemned women.

Journalist, editor, feminist, foodie, smallholder – just some of the labels attached to Rosie Boycott.

She speaks about a career studded with remarkable achievements, (co-founding Spare Rib magazine and Virago publishing, becoming the first female editor of two national broadsheets), but deals candidly with the demons in her past. She ensures she looks forward as well as back.

Sunday 8 July . . . but also #34 11.30am 1pm Dukes Room £6

Wordquest Devon Screening: A Cottage on Dartmoor The early silent Alfred Hitchcock film, The Farmer’s Wife, which was to be shown in this slot has had to be cancelled.

Instead Wordquest will be showing A Cottage on Dartmoor (PG) This is one of the very last silent films to be made in Britain before the talkies revolutionised cinema.

A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929) is a virtuoso piece of filmmaking. This little-known gem will have a live sound score by Seat of The Pants Orchestra (SOTP) Directed by Anthony Asquith (better known for ‘The Browning Version’) A Cottage on Dartmoor is an embroiled melodrama, a tale of love and revenge, set on the bleak landscape of Dartmoor.

Not to be missed by all interested in films!

#35 2.30pm Dukes Room £6

Anthony Gibson The Magic of Landscape and Literature: an illustrated talk

#36 4pm Dukes Room £6

Carol Ballenger Dartington Hall: One Endless Garden

6pm Upper Gatehouse Free (no ticket req’d)

Trade Winds

The West Country landscape has inspired generations of great writers – from Coleridge to Hardy, from Henry Williamson to Ted Hughes.

Anthony Gibson talks about his new book in which he links the writing to real places. The magic of landscape and literature works both ways.

Carol Ballenger will provide an insight into the making of this recent book of her photographs of the Dartington Hall Estate which includes quotes from Dorothy Elmhirst’s ‘Garden Notebooks’, Leonard Elmhirst and Rabindranath Tagore.

There will be readings from the book against a backdrop of projected images.

An exhibition of Carol Ballenger’s Dartington photographs is being shown in Studio 5, Dartington Space from June 19th - July 16th.

An opportunity to join the Dartmoor-based Trade Winds crew and share your own writing and performance. Come and book a five-minute slot to read, sing, play or surprise us. This is Trade Winds’ 10th year: something to celebrate.

Monday 9 July – Great Hall #37 10am Great Hall £9

#38 11.30am Great Hall £9

Shane & Timothy Spall

Janie Hampton The Austerity Olympics: What the Last London Olympics Can Teach Us When the Olympics came to London in 1948, post war Britain was in an economic crisis far worse than the present. Blending Heath Robinson improvisation with the spirit of Ealing Comedy, competitors brought their own towels, slept in schools and travelled by Underground. Janie Hampton’s meticulous research brings the era of ‘Make do and Mend’ to life with tales from her book, ‘The Austerity Olympics’.

#39 1pm Great Hall £9

Penelope Lively and Joan Bakewell Ageing Thoughtfully Dame Penelope Lively’s latest novel, ‘How It All Began’, has an ageing historian as a chief protagonist. She is a complex composite of previous states of being: “Charlotte viewed her younger selves with a certain detachment. They are herself, but other incarnations”. Penelope Lively is now writing a nonfiction book on growing old.

Baroness Bakewell is a broadcaster, writer and Labour peer. Between 2008 and 2010 she acted as a Voice of Older People. In the House of Lords she is calling for the appointment of a commissioner for older people.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #43)

Tom Watson MP Phone Hacking, Murdoch and the Media Tom Watson MP tells the full behind-the-scenes story of the phone hacking scandal and marks the moment when everything began to change. He led the questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks when they appeared before the Select Committee in July 2011 and continues to be at the forefront of the investigation. in association with

#40 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Samar Yazbek Inside Syria From the first few demonstrations in Syria in March 2011 to her final days in the country before fleeing for her life, Samar Yazbek, Syrian journalist, film maker and novelist documented the daily struggles. Her own observations are interspersed with the stories of those at the forefront of the revolution. Since leaving Syria with her young daughter in July 2011, she has been in hiding.

Monday 9 July – Great Hall #41 4pm Great Hall £9

#42 5.30pm Great Hall £9

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#43 7.30pm Great Hall £9

Shane and Timothy Spall The Spalls Sail Away Hear the incredible, touching and often hilarious stories of actor Timothy Spall and his wife Shane aboard their Dutch barge The Princess Matilda. Their five-year journey from Medway to Cornwall, written as a book by Shane Spall and filmed for BBC4, charts an uplifting adventure of love, memories and the unknown, as the couple head out to sea with only a road atlas and a vast amount of ignorance!

Jonathan Fenby Why China Matters With its expanding economy, China is becoming steadily more important in the world. Jonathan Fenby gives a coherent picture of its nature and depicts its future. He edited the Observer newspaper, then the South China Morning Post and is the author of seven books on China.

Ian Mortimer The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England Elizabethan England was a society which made great discoveries, won military victories, and produced some of the finest writing in the English language. Yet at the same time life expectancy was in the early thirties, people starved to death and Catholics were persecuted for their faith. Welcome to a country that was, in all its contradictions, the very crucible of the modern world.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #43)

Monday 9 July . . . but also FE3 2.30pm - 4pm Upper Gatehouse

£10

Clive Fairweather How Shall We Speak of War? A Masterclass on Alice Oswald’s Latest Work, ‘Memorial’ Alice Oswald’s magnificent extended poem, ‘Memorial’, revisits Homer and the Trojan War. Where does her work stand in the context of Royal Wootton Bassett and the facts of war and grief?

Clive Fairweather leads a masterclass to examine the poetry and discuss the themes.

FE4 7 - 10 pm (approx.) £39.50 The boat leaves from Steamer Quay, Totnes

Riverlink Literary Cruise on the River Dart Michael Buerk Floating On A magical evening’s cruise down the River Dart with canapés and drinks on arrival; a literary dinner with Michael Buerk speaking on his life in the media and coffee on deck to end the evening.

(Wine with the meal not included.)

Monday 9 July – Barn – Looking Back #44 10am Barn £9

Anne Sebba That Woman – The Life of Wallis Simpson

#45 11.30am Barn £9

Jessica Douglas-Home Emeralds as Large as Pigeon Eggs: A Glimpse of Empire

#46 1pm Barn £9

Wallis Simpson was one of the most vilified women of the last century.

Drawing on new archives and material recently made available, Anne Sebba sheds light on the motivations of this charismatic and complex figure, the American divorcee who rose from an obscure and impoverished childhood to capture the heart of the King of England.

500 maharajas, 200 camels, a vast tented city: in 1911 Lilah Wingfield journeyed from Ireland to the splendours of the Delhi Durbar and kept a diary rich in detail. Her granddaughter, Jessica DouglasHome, invites us into a dichotomous world of whirling colour and strict protocol, giving us a glimpse of the Raj at its zenith.

Peter Conradi Monarchy: A Survival Story Peter Conradi, author of ‘The King’s Speech’, offers an uncompromising portrayal of Europe’s royals, the scandals, excesses and conflicts of interests hidden behind the ceremonial garb. He asks why, while Western society prizes equality and democracy, our fascination with monarchy shows no signs of waning.

Day Ticket: £45

#47 2.30pm Barn £9

Nigel Cliff Vasco Da Gama’s Holy War

#48 4pm Barn £9

Dan Jones The Plantagenets

#49 5.30pm Barn £9

Helen Rappaport Victoria and Albert: Love, Marriage and Bereavement

Nigel Cliff tells the epic story of a Portuguese explorer and his crew of adventurers, chivalric knights, slaves, and convicts as they set out to discover a sea route from Europe to the fabled lands of Asia.

It is a rousing tale that explores the confused, sometimes comical, yet ultimately tragic collision of cultures that drew the dividing line between the Muslim and Christian eras.

A breakneck account of the greatest and worst kings and queens this country has seen. Historian Dan Jones brings vividly to life the royal intrigues, violent skulduggery and brutal warfare of the middle ages that went hand-in-hand with the development of law, government, architecture, art and folklore as we know them today.

When Prince Albert died at the age of 42 Queen Victoria and the nation were paralysed with grief. For the 150th anniversary of Albert’s death, Helen Rappaport examines the circumstances leading up to it and offers new theories on what killed him. With details gleaned from letters and diaries, she breathes fresh life into English history’s most famous widowhood.

Tuesday 10 July – Barn – How to Live #50 10am Barn £9

Raymond Tallis Seized by Wonder

#51 11.30am Barn £9

Robert Rowland Smith Life’s Ups and Downs

#52 1pm Barn £9

Dan Kieran The Art of Slow Travel

The proper state of mankind is one of wonder; the world is miraculous and not everything is explicable by rational thought: challenging thoughts from philosopher and polymath Raymond Tallis whose witty and provocative ideas make us see, and wonder, in new ways.

Sartre on meaninglessness; Nietzsche on midlife crisis; Freud on losing one’s virginity: from birth to death the best brains in history have thought about the meaning behind life’s landmarks.

Robert Rowland Smith brings their genius together.

Do we really travel any more, or do we just arrive? Dan Kieran, author of ‘The Idle Traveller’, reassesses why we travel and what travel has become. Besides extolling the virtues of staycation holidaying, he argues we need to bin the brochures and immerse ourselves in the life-changing experience of true journeying.

Day Ticket: £42.50

#53 2.30pm Barn £9

Conor Woodman A Fairer World Is Big Business incompatible with the eradication of poverty?

Conor Woodman, who wrote and presented the Channel 4 series ‘Around the World in 80 Trades’ (a book followed from the series: ‘The Adventure Capitalist’), offers simple, but radical solutions on how to create a fairer world.

Deborah Moggach #54 4 - 4.45pm The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Based on Deborah Moggach’s novel, Barn the film, ‘The Best Exotic Marigold £14 Hotel’, has proved to have great to include appeal. She talks about her original talk and film idea and the shift from book to screen.

5.15 7.20pm Barn

Film – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (cert. 12A) Starring Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup A group of British retirees decide to “outsource” their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for a newly restored palatial hotel and filled with visions of a life of leisure, good weather and mango juice in their gin, a group of very different people leave England. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways.

Tuesday 10 July – Great Hall #55 10am Great Hall £9

Guy Fraser-Sampson The Financial Mess: Causes and Cures Guy Fraser-Sampson gives a fierce view of today’s economic climate, both in the UK and internationally. He argues that in democratic societies, politicians’ concerns with short-term electioneering means that they are inherently unsuitable candidates for administering to a financial system where true benefit can be measured only in years and decades, rather than weeks and months.

#56 11.30am Great Hall £9

Tom Parker Bowles Let’s Eat

#57 1pm Great Hall £9

Sarah Bradford Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times

#58 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Hannah Rothschild Pannonica: the Medici of Jazz

#59 4pm Great Hall £9

Alex James All Cheeses Great and Small: A Life Less Blurry

#60 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Helen Dunmore New Departures

Tireless in his pursuit of a good dinner, award winning food writer Tom Parker Bowles has eaten some of the best food in the world but cares equally about how to get the basics right. From travel-inspired dishes to his mother’s roast chicken recipe, he shares his views on life and food with restaurateur, writer and publisher Tom Jaine.

The historian and royal biographer Sarah Bradford chronicles Queen Elizabeth II’s life and reign through abdication and the Blitz, the sex and spy scandals of the swinging 60s, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Expect some telling insights.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #61)

Beautiful, spirited, a Rothschild by birth and a baroness by marriage, Pannonica de Koenigswarter found her true calling in 1950s New York as the guardian angel to revolutionary jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Hannah Rothschild’s search to solve the mystery of her rebellious great aunt ‘Nica’ illuminates a fascinating life.

Blur bassist and cheese enthusiast, Alex James talks about his life and passions post Britpop. Leaving Rock and Roll excesses behind (the Hell’s Angels airport escorts in Reykjavik; Manhatten rooftops; sell out tours and party lifestyle) for an organic farm in the Cotswolds, Alex James discovers the joys of five kids, mud, berry bushes and, of course, making cheese.

Orange Prize winner, Helen Dunmore, is one of the finest and most respected of contemporary writers. Whether writing poetry, children’s books, short stories or novels she attracts wide acclaim. Now she has moved into new territory with her latest work, a ghost story, ‘The Greatcoat’, set during and after the Second World War. She tells of how she leaps across genres.

Tuesday 10 July . . . but also #61 8pm Great Hall £9

The Telegraph Debate The Olympics: What Do They Mean For Us?

FE5 9.30am11.30am Meeting Room £16

As the UK prepares itself for the imminent start of the Olympics, our esteemed panel discusses their value and meaning. The panel will include the sports historian Martin Polley, who will offer enlightenment on Britain’s Olympic heritage; Adharanand Finn, who moved from Devon to Kenya to discover the secrets of the world’s greatest runners; and the prolific sports writer Max Davidson.

Liz Hunt, The Telegraph’s Associate Editor, will chair this event.

The Hot Pen Workshop A Writing Workshop with Christopher North ‘The pictures come, the pictures go, Quick, quick, ‘currente calamo’’ So said Arthur Clough. Freeing your writing by ‘hot penning’ or using the ‘running pen’ style can take your creativity into unfamiliar but rewarding areas. Come to explore a number of techniques for liberating your pen to make some surprising explorations into imagination and memory.

Tom Parker Bowles

#62 Guy Fraser-Sampson 12 noon Finding Inspiration Guy Fraser-Sampson has found his Upper Gatehouse inspiration from another writer’s creation. His latest novel, ‘Lucia £6 On Holiday’, is a new addition to the Mapp and Lucia canon, based on the immortal characters first created by E.F. Benson. This is a pitch-perfect and enjoyable social satire of an England long gone but not forgotten. He describes the rationale and the process of recreating.

Alex James

Dan Kieran #63 Have Your Say on Slow Travel 3.30pm Dan Kieran’s family have become Upper Gatehouse air travel refuseniks. He argues we should travel more meaningfully £6 and enjoy the journey. Isn’t it about time you allowed your travel plans to slow down?

(A chance to ask more questions and to give your views on the topic)

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #61)

Wednesday 11 July – Great Hall Nikita Lalwani

#64 10am Great Hall £9

Anna Reid Leningrad: A Tragic City Under Siege Anna Reid discusses Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s brutal attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, a two and a half year siege that would see blockade, bombardment and two million lives lost. Anna Reid details personal accounts of the siege from both sides to reveal fascinating accounts of one of the darkest periods of the 20th century.

#65 Elif Shafak Sadly Elif Honour Shafak has cancelled.

11.30am We are pleased to most announce a new The widely read event: writer in Great Hall Nikita Lalwani Turkey today, Elif Shafak talks about £9#139 The Villageher latest novel centring ‘Honour’, 11.30am Village’, Nikita Lalwani’s latest on the life of a Kurdish woman in Great Hall ‘The novel, is based onofa love, real-life open and London.

A tale murder £9 prison in India.

It is three a storygenerations about tragedy, in which manipulation and personal morality, encounter changes and clashes about how frail our moral judgement against a backdrop of Kurdistan, can be. Her first novel ‘Gifted’ was Istanbul and London’s East End. longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Desmond Elliott Prize.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #70 or #71)

#66 1pm Great Hall £9

David Lammy MP Britain in Flames

#67 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Christopher Simon Sykes Hockney: A Bigger Biography

David Lammy predicted the UK riots a year before they took place and witnessed firsthand the race riots of the 1980s. From his own experience – single parent household in Tottenham, “only black boy in a whiter-than-white world” as chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, personal challenges as a Labour MP – he explores a society simmering with tensions.

As a boy David Hockney wrote on his science exam paper, “Am no good at science but I can draw”, and added a drawing of the invigilator.

This sums him up: his Northern wit; his disregard of convention; and his confidence in his own work. It’s a good story; expect many more from his biographer Christopher Simon Sykes.

Tariq Ali

Wednesday 11 July – Great Hall

#68 4pm Great Hall £9

#69 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Siri Hustvedt Defining the Self The author of ‘What I Loved’ and ‘The Summer Without Men’ discusses her dazzling new series of essays, ‘Living, Thinking, Looking’.

Whether discussing a childhood in Minnesota, cross dressing, or the concept of the novel, Siri Hustvedt unravels society’s cultural prejudices with wit, intellect and passion to explore how we interact with others, and what defines the self.

Tariq Ali The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad Written in 2010, ‘The Obama Syndrome’ predicted the administration’s disastrous midterm defeat. Here Tariq Ali discusses the complexities of Obama’s notion of reform, the stagnation and crisis of the Democratic Party, and whether US politics is permanently mired in moderate Republicanism.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #70 or #71)

#70 7.30pm Great Hall £9 Chair: Catherine Pepinster, (Editor of The Tablet) sponsored by

#71 9pm Great Hall £9

Giles Fraser and Mark Vernon Can You Be Spiritual Without Being Religious?

Few today go to church, yet roughly 70% insist they are spiritual despite being nonreligious. Giles Fraser, who resigned as Canon of St Paul’s during the Occupy protests, discusses with philosopher and former priest Mark Vernon if it is enough to develop a deep spiritual life. If not, then what are churches’ mistakes and challenges?

Poetry Parnassus Poetry Parnassus, the largest poetry festival ever in the UK, comes to Dartington from London Southbank Centre. BBC journalist Razia Iqbal chairs readings from four international poets who have fought for freedom of expression and experienced exile: Dhabiya Khamis from Qatar, Soleiman Adel Guemar from Algeria, Ribka Sibhatu from Eritrea, and Jang Jin-Sung, Kim Jong-il’s exiled former court poet from North Korea.

Wednesday 11 July – Barn – The Human Condition #72 10am Barn £9

Ziyad Marar Searching for Intimacy

#73 11.30am Barn £9

Margaret Heffernan Wilful Blindness

#74 1pm Barn £9

“Only connect!” we are told. Yet in an age of new media where “friending” is achieved with a mouse click, genuine intimacy seems hard to find. Drawing on novels, films and psychology, Ziyad Marar celebrates this profound human bond, placing it at the centre of a life lived well.

Taught from infancy to obey authority, we are all dangerously susceptible to the phenomenon of selective sight. What makes us prefer ignorance? Drawing on examples from Nazi Germany to sub-prime mortgage lenders, distinguished businesswoman Margaret Heffernan argues that the biggest threats we face are ones we refuse to see.

#75 2.30pm Barn £9

Tali Sharot Looking on the Bright Side

#76 4pm Barn £9

Patrick Cockburn and Henry Cockburn Living with Schizophrenia

#77 5.30pm Barn £9

Nick Coleman All is Song

Brooke Magnanti The Sex Myth Under the pseudonym Belle de Jour, Dr Brooke Magnanti enthralled and outraged the nation with her ‘Diary of a London Call Girl’. Now her background as a research scientist comes to bear in this frank examination of sex. Is there really an epidemic of sex addiction? Are children being sexualised younger?

Open your mind and prepare to rethink your views.

Day Ticket: £45

Human beings are pre-wired optimists. We expect the future to be better than the past, and hugely underestimate the chances of things going wrong. Tali Sharot looks at how our hopeful brains affect professional and emotional decisions, and why this may be crucial to our existence.

Seven years ago Henry was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He and his father, journalist Patrick Cockburn, offer an extraordinarily candid account of this often debilitating illness and the conflicted history of its diagnosis and treatment. A stirring story of family, parenthood, and the courage it takes to persevere.

Nick Coleman had been writing about music for 25 years when one day he woke up with Sudden Neurosensory Hearing Loss. Thus began his journey through the “back catalogue” stored in his mind, as he fought against losing emotional connection to a past defined by its soundtrack. With curiosity and wit he examines our complex relationship with music and its intimate communion with our sense of who we are.

TICKET SALES

Name Address

• VIA THE WEBSITE www.wayswithwords.co.uk (from 22 May)

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

• BY POST 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 Payment can be: - by cheque payable to ‘Ways With Words’.

Please leave the amount in figures blank.

On the line for amount in words write: “not to exceed: (the amount of your order in words)”.

Then sign the cheque.

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)

(Maestro)

valid from _______/________

Postcode Tel. E-mail BOOKING FOR FRIENDS STARTS TUESDAY 15 MAY - max. 2 tickets per event.

- for phone and postal bookings only.

GENERAL BOOKING STARTS TUESDAY 22 MAY 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. YOUNG PERSON STANDBY TICKETS People aged 24 and under can buy tickets normally priced at £9 or £6 for just £4 if purchased in person during the festival.

Proof of age will be required.

expiry date _______/________

DAY TICKETS are available to buy until the start of the festival.

3-digit security code

DATA PROTECTION:

issue number _____

Ways With Words will not pass on your details to any other organisation.

name on card __________________________

TERMS & CONDITIONS: If some of your order is unavailable we shall send those tickets which are available unless you say otherwise.

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

eg

A.N. Author

9

3

27

Michael Palin

event

£

MONDAY 9 JULY 37

Janie Hampton

9

9

38

Lively & Bakewell

9

FRIDAY 6 JULY 1

#

2

Miles Jupp

9

39

Tom Watson MP

9

3

Gabrielle Walker

9

40

Samar Yazbek

9

4

Charley Boorman

9

41

Shane and Timothy Spall

9

GH Day Ticket #1 - #3

22.50

42

Jonathan Fenby

9

5

Ziauddin Sardar

9

43

6

Donna Dickenson

9

7

Ian Mortimer

9

GH Day Ticket #37 - #42

45

Julian Baggini

9

FE3

Clive Fairweather

10

Barn Day Ticket #5 - #7

22.50

FE4

Literary Cruise - Michael Buerk

39.50

SATURDAY 7 JULY

44

Anne Sebba

9

8

Bob Marshall-Andrews

9

45

Jessica Douglas-Home

9

9

Craig Brown

9

46

Peter Conradi

9

10

John McCarthy

9

47

Nigel Cliff

9

11

Hilary Mantel

9

48

Dan Jones

9

12

Jeremy Vine

9

49

Helen Rappaport

9 45

13

Michael Buerk

9

Barn Day Ticket #44 - #49

14

Kate Dimbleby

12

TUESDAY 10 JULY

GH Day Ticket #8 - #13

45

50

Raymond Tallis

9

15

Kim Sayer

9

51

Robert Rowland Smith

9

16

Sinclair McKay

9

52

Dan Kieran (1)

9

17

Three Hungry Boys

9

53

Conor Woodman

9

18

Stephen Moss

9

54

19

Martin Palmer

9

20

Deborah Moggach (Talk & Film)

14

Barn Day Ticket #50 - #54

42.50 9

Ruth Padel

9

55

Guy Fraser-Sampson (1)

Barn Day Ticket #15 - #20

45

56

Tom Parker Bowles

9

FE1

Words On The Wing

6

57

Sarah Bradford

9

FE2

Social Reading Group 1

9

58

Hannah Rothschild

9

59

Alex James

9 9

SUNDAY 8 JULY 21

Joan Bakewell

9

60

Helen Dunmore

22

Paul Mason

9

61

The Telegraph Debate

9

23

Lindsey Hilsum

9

GH Day Ticket #55 - #60

45

24

Monty Halls

9

FE5

The Hot Pen Workshop

16

25

Michael Holroyd

9

62

Guy Fraser-Sampson (2)

6

26

Clary & Bakewell

9

63

Dan Kieran (2)

6

27

Jung Chang

9

GH Day Ticket #21 - #26

45

64

Anna Reid

9

Kate Summerscale

9

65

Elif Shafak

9

28

WEDNESDAY 11 JULY

29

Louise Foxcroft

9

66

David Lammy MP

9

30

Michele Hanson

9

67

Christopher Simon Sykes

9

31

Susanna Forrest

9

68

Siri Hustvedt

9

32

Blake Morrison

9

69

Tariq Ali

9

33

Rosie Boycott

9

70

Fraser & Vernon

9

Barn Day Ticket #28 - #33

42

71

Poetry Parnassus

9

GH Day Ticket #64 - #69

45

34

Wordquest Devon

6

35

Anthony Gibson

6

72

Ziyad Marar

9

36

Carol Ballenger

6

73

Margaret Heffernan

9

no.

total

#

event

£

#

event

£

74

Brooke Magnanti

9

no.

total

112

Claire Tomalin

9

75

Tali Sharot

9

113

76

Patrick & Henry Cockburn

9

Arthur Smith

12

GH Day Ticket #107 - #112

45

Nick Coleman

9

114

Monique Roffey

9

Barn Day Ticket #72 - #77

45

115

Jake Arnott

9

78

Julia Stoneham

6

116

Anita Desai

9

79

Rebecca Gethin

6

117

Juliet Nicolson

9

118

John Mullan

9

119

Susannah Clapp

9

Barn Day Ticket #114 - #119

45

77

THURSDAY 12 JULY 80

Simon Armitage

9

81

Ed Vulliamy

9

82

Joanne Harris

9

120

Oversteps - Devon Poets

6

83

Davenport-Hines & Wilson

9

121

Oversteps - Poetry of Place

6

84

Orlando Figes

9

122

Oversteps - Hot Off the Press

6

85

Weldon & Davenport-Hines

9

123

Oversteps - Faith and Doubt

6

86

Clive Stafford Smith

9

124

Oversteps - Encore

6

87

Jenny Eclair

9

UGH Day Ticket #120 - #124

20

GH Day Ticket #80 - #85

45

88

Chris Wadsworth

9

125

Michael Frayn

9

89

Philip Hughes

9

126

Simon Jenkins

9

90

Gus Casely-Hayford

9

127

Peter Hennessy

9

91

Sheila Hale

9

128

Marina Lewycka

9

92

David Green

9

129

Hensher & Mahmood

9

Michael Bird

9

130

A.C. Grayling

9

Barn Day Ticket #88 - #93

45

131

WWW Question Time

9

GH Day Ticket #125 - #130

45

93

SUNDAY 15 JULY

FRIDAY 13 JULY 94

Jeremy Seal

9

132 Hsiao-Hung & Lewycka (Talk & Film)

95

Emma Kennedy

9

133

David J. Goldberg

9

96

Steve Boggan

9

134

Maajid Nawaz

9

135

97

Robert Guest

9

98

Jules Goddard

9

99

Noo Saro-Wiwa

9

Barn Day Ticket #132 - #135

35

Philip Coggan

9

136

Gaby Hinsliff

6

Barn Morning #94 - #96

22.50

137

Lynn Knight

6

Barn Afternoon #97 - #99

22.50

100

Peter Stanford

9

101

Andrew Miller

9

102

Sands, Ali, Jenkin & Wollaston

9

103

Simon Goldhill

9

104

Mark Easton

9

105

Roy Hattersley

9

106

Jeremy Hardy

15

GH Day Ticket #100 - #105

45

Social Reading Goup 2

9

FE6

14

SATURDAY 14 JULY 107

Michael Dobbs

108

James & Mullan

9 9

109

Anne Somerset

9

110

Gary Mulgrew

9

111

Fiona MacCarthy

9

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 £805 - £1395 pp) and two 5-night packages (from £465 - £745 pp) in Higher Close or in the Courtyard at Dartington Hall. We also offer two 3-night weekend packages (from £310 - £340 pp) and a 4-night midweek package (from £400 - £450 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: £315) • admission to all events marked ‘#’ 5-day Rover ticket (Price: £220) • 1st 5-day Rovers begin with event #1 on Friday 6 July and end at 12.30pm on Wednesday 11 July.

• 2nd 5-day Rovers begin with the 1pm event on Wednesday 11 July until the end of the festival.

• Midweek 5-day Rovers run from Monday 9 July to Friday 13 July.

Weekend Rover tickets (Price: £150) • 1st weekend Rovers begin with event #1 on Friday 6 July and end with the last event on Sunday 8 July.

• 2nd weekend Rovers begin on Friday 13 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 the Higher Close student residences (single rooms sharing bathroom facilities) at £30 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 11 July . . . but also #78 10.30am £6 Upper Gatehouse

Julia Stoneham Dramatising Novels for Radio Julia Stoneham has dramatised three novels for BBC radio: first ‘Penmarric’ by Susan Howitch, a historical, family saga; then ‘Voss’ by Patrick White; now she is adapting ‘Talking It Over’ by Julian Barnes. All of them are very different yet there are many common processes. She explains the process, illustrated with brief extracts. #79 12 noon £6 Upper Gatehouse

Rebecca Gethin Start to Finish Rebecca Gethin discusses the process of marshalling ideas, writing and rewriting, finding an agent and getting a first novel published. Her recent book, ‘Liar Dice’, was published last year.

Thursday 12 July – Great Hall #80 10am Great Hall £9

#81 11.30am Great Hall £9

#82 1pm Great Hall £9

Simon Armitage Walking the Pennine Way Two years ago, Simon Armitage decided to walk the 256 miles of the Pennine Way. In ‘modern troubadour’ style, without money in his pocket, he walked from village to village, giving poetry readings to whoever he met along the way.

Today he talks about wild landscapes and chance encounters.

#83 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Richard Davenport-Hines’ book, ‘Titanic Lives’, explores the ship’s micro-society. Andrew Wilson’s ‘Shadow of the Titanic’ captures the incredible memories of the 705 survivors. In the centenary year of the ship’s disaster the two authors discuss this momentous event.

Ed Vulliamy Bosnia: the Reckoning Twenty years ago gunfire in Sarajevo signalled the beginning of the Bosnian war. Now journalist Ed Vulliamy charts his experiences as correspondent in Bosnia and speaks of his horrific discovery of the concentration camps built to kill and torture thousands. He considers the war’s aftermath and the hearts and minds of its survivors.

#84 4pm Great Hall £9

Orlando Figes Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

#85 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Fay Weldon and Richard Davenport-Hines Upstairs, Downstairs, Below Deck

Joanne Harris Peaches for Monsieur le Curé Joanne Harris discusses her third installment of the tale of Vivianne Rocher, protagonist of the acclaimed ‘Chocolat’, and a character closely connected to Joanne Harris. ‘Peaches for Monsieur le Curé’ sees a return to the small, secluded French town of Lansquenet, but much has changed in the past eight years.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #86 or # 87)

Richard Davenport-Hines and Andrew Wilson Titanic: The Lives of Those Aboard and the Memories of Those Who Survived

In 2007 Russia expert, Orlando Figes opened an old trunk found in Moscow’s Memorial Offices which contained the largest, existing private archive of the Gulag: 1500 letters sent from 1946 to 1954 between two lovers; one held in Stalin’s most notorious labour camp. A magnificent love story and an uncensored record of life within the barbed wire unfolded.

Fay Weldon, one of the original screenwriters for ‘Upstairs Downstairs’, talks about her latest novel, ‘Habits of the House’, and the endless Englishs’ fascination with class and aristocracy, with historian Richard Davenport-Hines.

Thursday 12 July – Great Hall #86 7pm Great Hall £9

Fay Weldon

Jenny Eclair

#87 8.30pm Great Hall £9

Thursday 12 July . . . but also 6pm Upper Gatehouse FREE (no ticket required)

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: £45 (not including #86 or #87)

Clive Stafford Smith A Matter of Life and Death Lawyer and founder of Reprieve, Clive Stafford Smith has been fighting the death penalty for over 30 years, in a battle that has included Guantanamo Bay prisoners and American inmates on death row. He talks about the case of Kris Maharaj, a British businessman convicted of murder, and what his sentence reveals about the American justice system.

Jenny Eclair Life, Death and Vanilla Slices Stand-up comic, writer, actress and ‘grumpy old woman’, Jenny Eclair comes to entertain Dartington and discuss her latest novel, ‘Life, Death and Vanilla Slices’. Her tale about family life, secrets, troublesome sons, celebratory cream cakes and buried memories is told with Jenny Eclair’s heavy dose of black humour and sharp observation.

Thursday 12 July – Barn – Ways of Seeing #88 10am Barn £9

#89 11.30am Barn £9

#90 1pm Barn £9

Chris Wadsworth Percy Kelly: The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Drawing Chris Wadsworth, Percy Kelly’s biographer, tells the story of the artist’s extraordinary life: a man who discussed art with Winston Churchill, shook hands with King George VI and dined with members of the Royal family, yet ended life alone in a cottage in Norfolk living his life as a woman.

Philip Hughes Tracks: Walking the Ancient Landscapes of Britain Phillip Hughes, artist and previous chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery, has spent years walking alone though Britain’s dramatic and beautiful ancient landscapes from Scotland to Cornwall. Here he discusses his travels through all seasons, his fascination with remote areas, archeology and maps, and the mountains, monuments and historic sites that inspired his art.

Gus Casely-Hayford The Lost Kingdoms of Africa Renowned cultural historian, Gus Casely-Hayford is presenter of Channel 4’s series, ‘The Genius of British Art’, and BBC 4’s, ‘The Lost Kingdoms of Africa’. From ancient universities that predate Oxford and Cambridge to vast archaeological and religious sites he reveals Africa’s long lost civilisations.

Day Ticket: £45

#91 2.30pm Barn £9

Sheila Hale Titian: His Life

#92 4pm Barn £9

David Green Drawing on Experience

#93 5.30pm Barn £9

Michael Bird Sandra Blow: Making the Splash

Sheila Hale’s biography of Titian is the first since 1877. Against the backdrop of Renaissance Venice, discover an artist notoriously rebellious against authority, who experienced international celebrity, created up to 600 pictures and left a lasting legacy.

“My artwork is an outward sign of inward encounters.”

As some people use a diary, Sir David Green uses his sketchbook. His work with Save the Children, VSO and the British Council has taken him around the world and wherever he has been he has recorded his experiences in drawings and paintings. His talk will include stories about his work, short film extracts and images from his sketchpad. Sir David Green is Chair of the Dartington Hall Trust.

In an illustrated talk, Michael Bird explores the life and work of Sandra Blow, one of the most important British artists of the last 50 years.

Starting with Blow’s great, red, splash painting ‘Vivace’, Michael Bird reveals a vivid, artistic life of emotion and experimentation, and asks if there is ever a straightforward connection between life and art.

Friday 13 July – Barn Great Adventures #94 10am Barn £9

#95 11.30am Barn £9

#96 1pm Barn £9

Jeremy Seal Meander: East to West Along a Turkish River The Meander is a river so famously winding that its name has long signified digression. Travel writer Jeremy Seal discusses his journey, alone and by kayak, along waters which have carried legendary adventurers, kings, soldiers, fishermen and farmers, and where he encountered a country on the cusp of change.

Emma Kennedy I Left My Tent in San Francisco Emma Kennedy has appeared in and written many popular comedy shows, including ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and ‘The Now Show’. She details her haphazard but hilarious journey from California to New York in 1989.

With only pennies in her pocket, she encountered snakes, earthquakes, black magic and incontinent dogs.

In Kennedy’s words, ‘This never happened to Jack Kerouac’.

Steve Boggan Pass the Buck To find the heart of American life, investigative journalist Steve Boggan took a novel approach to travelling. Releasing a ten dollar bill, he followed the note for thirty days across six states and 3,000 miles.

The result was an incredible journey.

He gives a vivid, amusing portrait of modern America.

Morning Ticket: £22.50 (#94 - #96)

More than Money #97 2.30pm Barn £9

sponsored by

#98 4pm Barn £9

sponsored by

#99 5.30pm Barn £9

sponsored by

Robert Guest Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism Robert Guest, Global Business Editor of The Economist and regular guest on the BBC and CNN, presents an unfashionably positive outlook for the future world economy. He celebrates the innovation and wealth fostered by globalisation, migration and the networks developed through transport links and modern technology.

Jules Goddard Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense Why do some organisations consistently outperform others? In a frank exploration of what makes companies successful, Dr Jules Goddard from London Business School challenges the assumptions often accepted in business, and proposes the notion of uncommon sense – thinking, doing or behaving radically differently in order to achieve success.

Philip Coggan Paper Promises Award winning financial journalist Philip Coggan reviews global finance systems as they exist today, and returns to the first principles of money. He examines the role of money through the ages and asks what money is really worth. Join him as he looks at our current economic predicament and future.

Afternoon Ticket: £22.50 (#97 - #99)

Friday 13 July – Great Hall #100 10am Great Hall £9

#101 11.30am Great Hall £9

#102 1pm Great Hall £9

Peter Stanford C. Day-Lewis’ Classic Crime Fiction Peter Stanford, the biographer of C. Day-Lewis who was Poet Laureate in the 1960s, introduces Day-Lewis in the surprising guise of crime writer.

He wrote nineteen crime novels in the 1930s using the pseudonym Nicholas Blake. Four have been reissued to admiring comments from modern day practitioners such as P.D. James.

Peter Stanford will be joined for this event by C. Day-Lewis’ son, Sean Day-Lewis.

Andrew Miller Pure: Death and Superstition in Pre-revolutionary France ‘Pure’, Andrew Miller’s latest novel, brilliantly reviewed and winner of the 2011 Costa Book of the Year Award, is a vivid tale about the burden of history and the dawn of new but troubled aspirations in Paris 1785: a year of suicide, death, bones, desire and destruction. Come and hear from this star of historical fiction whose books, though set in the past, thrill and resonate with our times.

Philippe Sands, Rushanara Ali, Bernard Jenkin and Sarah Wollaston Can There be Integrity in Politics?

Many forces conspire against political integrity, including party loyalties and the drive for reelection. There

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #106)

are fine examples of politicians with high principles, but will they reach the top? As an international criminal justice lawyer, Philippe Sands studies politicians carefully. He will debate the issue of integrity with Rushanara Ali and Bernard Jenkin, both MPs known for their independence. Totnes MP Sarah Wollaston will contribute to and chair the debate.

This is a co-production with The Dartington Hall Trust, and is part of their series of Great Debates. #103 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Simon Goldhill Beyond the Page

#104 4pm Great Hall £9

Mark Easton W is for Weather-Watching: What Sort of Place is Britain?

What are we looking for when we go beyond the page and peer into the lives of our favourite writers?

Professor Simon Goldhill went on many literary pilgrimages to see if the carefully preserved shrines offered enlightenment. Wordsworth’s cottage, the Brontës’ grave, Freud’s couch, Scott’s chair: come on an amusing and thought-provoking journey with him.

BBC News Home Editor, Mark Easton takes a fresh look at the UK through its relationship to 26 subjects – one for each letter of the alphabet. J is for Justice, T is for Toilet, S is for Silly hats (“the hats are silly for a sensible reason”). He is full of surprises and insights. The soul of the nation is exposed in his analysis.

Jeremy Hardy

#105 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Roy Hattersley Now the Cheering’s Over – The Case for a Republic

#106 8pm Great Hall £15 (2hrs including interval)

Jeremy Hardy The Laughter Cure

It has been a boom time for Royalty with William and Kate’s wedding last year and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year. Roy Hattersley has always believed that nothing about the monarchy is rational; sometimes he has criticised the behaviour of Royal individuals; more often he has expressed concern for the monarchy’s debilitating effect on society. He’ll give his views.

A comedy show that isn’t a show as Jeremy Hardy isn’t showy. Rather in his understated, intelligent, thoughtprovoking way he comments on life, the media and politics. Much as he does each week on BBC Radio 4’s ‘The News Quiz’.

It’s a rich diet of angst and anger peppered with silliness and selfdeprecation.

“In an ideal world, Jeremy Hardy would be extremely famous, but an ideal world would leave him without most of his best material.”

The Guardian

Friday 13 July . . . but also FE6 11.30am 1pm £9 Dukes Room

Social Reading Group 2

2.30pm FREE (no ticket req’d) Upper Gatehouse

Wordquest Devon Poetry Open-Mic

led by Sarah Hopkins The Reader Organisation connects people with great literature and with each other.

In this session extracts from literature will be read aloud followed by a discussion on how they relate to common experiences; how they help the reader cope with everyday life.

You are invited to join in an informal open mic session of poetry. If you have a poem you would like to share please contact Sarah on 07808 787266 or email wordquest@auneheadarts.org.uk to arrange a slot.

Saturday 14 July – Great Hall – President’s Day This day has been programmed by the President of The Telegraph Ways With Words festival at Dartington Hall, Roy Hattersley.

The day includes some of his favourite writers and thinkers.

#107 10am Great Hall £9

Michael Dobbs Politics as Muse

#108 11.30am Great Hall £9

P.D. James talks to John Mullan Jane Austen and Crime

2012 has been an eventful year for peer, writer, dramatist and politician, Lord Dobbs. In April Kevin Spacey began filming the US remake of Michael Dobb’s first book, ‘House of Cards’. His latest Harry Jones thriller, ‘A Sentimental Traitor’, was published in February. His first play, ‘The Turning Point’, starts its UK tour in September. Which part of his writing and political life does Michael Dobbs find most satisfying?

Inspired by a lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen, P.D. James masterfully recreates the world of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, and combines it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story in her latest book, ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’. John Mullan is a passionate Jane Austen fan.

Will he approve?

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #113)

#109 1pm Great Hall £9

Anne Somerset The Politics of Passion: The Life of Queen Anne

#110 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Gary Mulgrew Gang of One

Queen Anne was one of Britain’s most remarkable monarchs. With a personal life riven by passion, illness and intrigue, she presided over some of the most momentous events in British history. In 1702, fourteen years after she helped oust her father from his throne and deprive her newborn half-brother of his birthright, Queen Anne inherited the crowns of England and Scotland.

Against all expectation she proved Britain’s most successful Stuart ruler.

Gary Mulgrew was one of the British bankers dubbed ‘the NatWest Three’ who ended up in a US jail after losing a high profile extradition case. Today he will discuss his raw and shocking account of survival in one of Texas’s most notorious, gang-infested prisons. With insight and dark humour, Mulgrew portrays the moral and physical challenges of prison life, the search and yearning for his children, and the deal that cost him everything.

#112 5.30pm Great Hall £9

Claire Tomalin Charles Dickens: His Torments and Triumphs

#113 8pm Great Hall £12 (2hrs including interval)

Arthur Smith Mayor of Balham*

Fiona MacCarthy explores and reevaluates Edward Burne-Jones’ art and life; his battle against vicious public hostility; his susceptibility to female beauty that inspired his art but ruined his marriage; his ill-health and the devastating rift with his close friend William Morris as their views on art and politics diverged.

P.D. James

Fiona MacCarthy Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris: A Great Victorian Friendship?

Michael Dobbs

#111 4pm Great Hall £9

Claire Tomalin, whose acuity and sympathy for her subjects make her one of our finest biographers, gives us a valuable picture of the life and work of the Charles Dickens.

Vivacious, charming, successful, he was possessed of abundant energy but his life was shaped by tragedy and trauma.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #113)

Arthur Smith

This grumpy old man par excellence has written four plays including ‘An Evening With Gary Lineker’.

His stand-up routines range from vigorous yodelling to mediaeval literature via death by drink. His delivery is relaxed and sardonic, but his shows are a surprising, dark and witty treat. (*self-appointed)

Saturday 14 July – Barn – Fictions #114 10am Barn £9

#115 11.30am Barn £9

#116 1pm Barn £9

Monique Roffey Caribbean Odyssey With ‘The White Woman on the Green Bicycle’ Monique Roffey was hailed as part of a new fiction emerging from the Caribbean. Now she returns to her birthplace in her latest novel, ‘Archipelago’, the story of a father and daughter who set out in a sailing boat to make peace with the waters that swept away their house. She discusses the joys and perils of returning home.

Jake Arnott Machinations, Magicians and Moon Landings In a departure from his crime novels, the author of ‘The Long Firm’, Jake Arnott will discuss his latest work, ‘The House of Rumour’, which casts fresh light on some of the key episodes in 20th century history.

He tells a tale of spies, cult leaders, rocket scientists, astrologists and artists, all woven into a web where truth and illusion meet.

Anita Desai The Artist of Disappearance In a rare UK visit, we are delighted to welcome to Dartington, Anita Desai, one of India’s greatest living writers. In her latest novel she presents three characters for whom art promises an escape from the humdrum. She considers the pull of mediocrity and the place of creativity in a commercial society.

In association with West Cork Literary Festival

Day Ticket: £45

#117 2.30pm Barn £9

Juliet Nicolson Between the Wars: History and Fiction

#118 4pm Barn £9

John Mullan What Matters in Jane Austen?

#119 5.30pm Barn £9

Susannah Clapp Love From Angela Carter

Duty and pleasure, tradition and novelty, order and chaos battle for supremacy in historian Juliet Nicolson’s novel, ‘Abdication’, set in 1936. She indulges our continuing fascination with this tumultuous period and its characters.

John Mullan, Professor of English at UCL and weekly columnist for The Guardian demonstrates that Jane Austen can be best appreciated by asking some specific questions: Who owned carriages or pianos? What was the correct way to propose?

Intriguing topics for Austenites keen to delve deeper into the intricacy and devilish cleverness of her fiction.

Susannah Clapp, Angela Carter’s literary executor and theatre critic of The Observer, offers a unique portrait of her friend Angela Carter as revealed in her postcards. These small, humorous documents form a paper trail through the writer’s life, giving an intimate insight into the fierce politics, swooping imagination and anarchic intelligence of one of the last century’s most vivid voices.

Saturday 14 July . . . but also Events by Oversteps Poetry – introduced by Alwyn Marriage Morning: WHERE WE ARE #120 10.30am Upper Gatehouse £6

Devon Poets

#121 12 noon Upper Gatehouse £6

Poetry of Place

Oversteps Books, which is based in Devon, publishes poets from all over Britain and some from abroad. This event is a celebration of some of Devon’s talent. Readers include Rose Cook, Susan Taylor, Simon Williams, Jennie Osborne and Rebecca Gethin.

Location is often a major influence and inspiration for poets. Four poets discuss the part a particular place plays in their writing: Christopher North (Spain), Hilary Elfick (New Zealand), Simon Williams (Dartmoor) and Ann Dawney (the Sussex Downs and France).

Day Ticket: £20

Afternoon: WHO WE ARE #122 2pm Upper Gatehouse £6

Hot Off the Press

#123 3.30pm Upper Gatehouse £6

Faith and Doubt

#124 5pm Upper Gatehouse £6

Encore

Oversteps recently published poets share their collections with you: Joan McGavin, R.V. Bailey, Graham High and Diane Tang.

What we believe, or don’t, can be an important part of who we are.

A.C. Clarke writes on a French priest who lost his faith.

Alwyn Marriage reflects on the Christian festival of Christmas.

Also Joan McGavin, Robert Stein, Christopher North and R.V. Bailey.

Four poets who have had previous collections with Oversteps Books: A.C. Clarke, Ann Kelley, Ross Cogan and Susan Williams.

JANE MARTIN JEWELLERY

jane.jeweller@virgin.net

Waterstones is proud to sponsor

Ways With Words 2012 See us at Dartington for new and classic titles by the guest authors.

Waterstones in Plymouth at: Drake Circus Mall

in the SHIP STUDIO at Dartington Hall 12 ­ 5 daily

Christmas at Dartington Hall

Tel 01752 669 898

65-69 New George Street Tel 01752 256 699

Enjoy a three or four-day break in one of our fabulous new courtyard bedrooms, with events in the Great Hall and the White Hart.

You’ll be welcomed by the warmth of the Dartington atmosphere, inspired by the location, regaled with tales of Dartington’s history, wined and dined by the awardwinning team and spoilt by Santa, who’s planning a special stop-off to South Devon this year.

For more details and booking enquiries contact us on 01803 847147 or email bookings@dartingtonhall.com

Dartington is a registered charity No. 279756

Joanne Harris

Michael Frayn

A.C.Grayling

Claire Tomalin

Peter Hennessy

Simon Jenkins

Ed Vulliamy

Fiona MacCarthy

Mark Easton

Simon Armitage

David Lammy

Marina Lewycka

Sunday 15 July – Great Hall #125 10am Great Hall £9

Michael Frayn Farce, Fiction and Other Writing Challenges

#126 11.30am Great Hall £9

Simon Jenkins The Best . . .

#127 1pm Great Hall £9

Peter Hennessy Punching Above Our Weight

When Michael Frayn was interviewed recently he couldn’t remember whether he was to talk about the transfer of his play ‘Noises Off’ to the West End, the season of his plays in Sheffield, his new novel, ‘Skios’, or his two new theatrical productions.

Such are his huge achievements it might have been any of these.

Sir Simon Jenkins, Chair of The National Trust, talks about bringing National Trust houses to life.

He is an enthusiast for England’s architectural heritage. His recent book, ‘A Short History of England’, gives a definitive account of our remarkable past while in ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’, he turns to more of his favourite buildings.

In his latest book, ‘Distilling the Frenzy’, Britain’s leading contemporary historian revisits and reviews the grand themes that have run throughout the 20th and 21st century. He examines our ability to punch above our weight in matters political and military.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #131)

#128 2.30pm Great Hall £9

Marina Lewycka Tractors, Caravans, Glue, Pets

#129 4pm Great Hall £9

Philip Hensher and Zaved Mahmood Fiction and Memoir

Whatever Marina Lewycka’s subject she tells her stories with a brilliant combination of irony, farce and wit. Yet the humour is combined with serious thoughts as she demonstrated recently on BBC television’s Question Time. Expect laughter and challenges when she introduces her latest novel, ‘Various Pets Alive and Dead’.

Novelist Philip Hensher tackles narrative ventriloquism in ‘Scenes from Early Life’, a fictionalised memoir of his husband, Zaved Mahmood. Shortly after Mahmood’s birth, East and West Pakistan split during a vicious war of independence that led to millions of innocent deaths and the emergence of a new country, Bangladesh. ‘Scenes from Early Life’ is part novel, part biography and part history of a brutal civil war. They talk together about the book and the life that inspired it.

Sunday 15 July – Great Hall #130 5.30pm Great Hall £9

A.C. Grayling The Good Book: A Secular Bible

#131 8pm Great Hall £9

Ways With Words Question Time What do we Believe?

Drawing on the wisdom of 2,500 years of contemplative, non-religious writing A.C. Grayling has created a secular bible which offers inspiration, encouragement, and consolation for the non-religious. A.C. Grayling was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London until 2011. Now he is Master of the New College of the Humanities.

A lively and opinionated panel will discuss issues and ideas that matter to everyone.

The panel will include novelist Marina Lewycka, philosopher A.C. Grayling, the counterextremist Maajid Nawaz and the liberal rabbi David J. Goldberg.

Questions should be submitted to the Ways With Words office during the festival in person or in advance by email to admin@wayswithwords.co.uk.

The particular focus will be on the ideas and beliefs that shape the way we are.

Day Ticket: £45 (not including #131)

Sunday 15 July – The Barn – Global Stories #132 Hsiao-Hung Pai and Marina Lewycka 10am China’s Migrant Workers 11am For 2 years, journalist Hsiao-Hung Barn Pai travelled across China to examine £14 the treatment of workers in an to include expanding and often exploitative talk and film industrial landscape. Here she talks with Marina Lewycka about Chinese factories, the Olympic construction site, and mass suicides at the Foxconn complex.

11.30am 1pm Barn

#133 2.30pm Barn £9

Rabbi David J. Goldberg Questions, Answers and Views on Judaism Today

#134 4pm Barn £9

Maajid Nawaz Radical: A Journey from Islamist Extremism

#135 5.30pm Barn £9

Noo Saro-Wiwa Returning to Nigeria

Film – Ghosts (cert. 15) After a short break this powerful film, based on the reporting of HsiaoHung Pai, will be shown. ‘Ghosts’ tells the story of the Morecambe Bay cockle-picking tragedy, and the ongoing plight of Chinese migrant workers, the many dangers they face and the few rights they enjoy.

Hsiao-Hung Pai

Day Ticket: £35

David Goldberg, Rabbi Emeritus of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, has progressive and provocative views on religion today. In his latest book he takes on the relationship between Judaism, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism to ask some complex questions. Who is a Jew? How do we talk about Israel? Is it more difficult to be a Muslim than a Jew in the 21st century?

Maajid Nawaz was born and raised in Essex, but by the time he was a teenager was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Muslim group, from which he helped to write and circulate aggressive anti-West messages. Today he discusses the transformation that led to his full renouncement of Islamist ideology.

Noo Saro-Wiwa was brought up in England and reluctantly dragged to Nigeria by her parents every summer. After her father, the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, was murdered there, she stayed away for 10 years.

She talks about his life and her return to a chaotic, eccentric, corrupt, wild and beautiful country.

Sunday 15 July . . . but also FAMILY MATTERS: Have Your Say

#137 1pm Upper Gatehouse £6

4pm Dukes Room All Welcome

Gaby Hinsliff Work and Life: What Balance?

5.30pm and 8pm, Upper Gatehouse

For most families, it remains the ultimate dilemma: how to balance a happy, healthy family life with the demands and rewards of work.

When former Political Editor of The Observer, Gaby Hinsliff realised that she couldn’t continue to work 60hour weeks, spend time with her child and expect to stay happily married, there was only one solution. She quit.

Now she encourages working parents to rethink traditional set-ups, to the mutual benefit of the whole family.

A comedy infused, musically enhanced, interactive poetry cabaret, hosted by poet and wordsmith Matt Harvey and ably hindered by his nemesis and one man house band, Jerri Hart. The audience will be invited to contribute to a crowd-sourced poem – recent subjects have included ears, sheds and potato mashers!

BBC Radio 4 are recording two shows.

Tickets are free, but issued via the BBC Audiences website. Please apply to that site for the show you’d like to come to. www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/tickets/radio

Lynn Knight Adoption

5.30pm - 7pm: Matt and Jerri will be joined by guest poets Caroline Bird and Mark Gwynne Jones.

Lynn Knight tells the remarkable story of the three adoptions within her family: her great-grandfather, was given away when his parents left for America in 1865; her great-aunt, rescued from an Industrial School in 1909; and her mother, adopted as a baby in 1930. Is family love and loyalty possible regardless of blood ties?

8pm - 9.30pm: Matt and Jerri will be joined by two guests: the poet, playwright and bold theatremaker Molly Naylor, and the performance poet, Jonny Fluffy Punk.

The programmes will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during the autumn.

Auction for the Bursary Fund The Ways With Words Bursary Fund raises money to enable young people to attend the festival free of charge.

Bid in advance (wayswithwords. co.uk), during the festival (go to the box office for details) or come and bid on the day – always exciting and unpredictable!

Matt Harvey & Jerri Hart

#136 11.30am Upper Gatehouse £6

WONDERMENTALIST CABARET for BBC Radio 4, with MATT HARVEY

BAILLIE GIFFORD BOOK 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

A proud tradition of literary sponsorship continues Here at Baillie Gifford, we take great pride in our sponsorship of events at some of the country’s most prestigious literary festivals, so we are especially delighted to be sponsors of The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival at Dartington Hall, Devon.

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.

Baillie Gifford is one of the UK’s largest investment trust managers. Our free tri-annual Trust magazine offers you an engaging and insightful overview of the investment world along with details of our book festival activity throughout the UK. To find out more and to take out a subscription for Trust magazine, please visit us at www.bgtrustonline.com/dartington or call 0800 280 2820 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 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.

With thanks to . . .

Lord Hattersley, Festival President Title Sponsor Event Sponsors

Whilst You’re Here . . .

Dartington Hall and its immediate environment has many things to offer as well as the full programme of events.

The Ship Studio

Official Bookselling Partner

In the courtyard at Dartington will be open each day from 10am - 5.30pm.

Here you will find stalls selling second hand and antiquarian books and quality locally made crafts.

The Publishers

AA Publishing, Acumen, Allen Lane, Allison and Busby, Alma Books, Arrow, Atlantic Books, Atria Books, Aurum Press, Biteback, Bloomsbury Publishing, Bodley Head, Chatto & Windus, Cinnamon Press, Constable and Robinson, Cornerstone, Ebury, Elliott & Thompson, Faber & Faber, Fairfield Books, Fig Tree, Fourth Estate, Granta Books, Guardian Books, Halsgrove Publishing, Hammer Publishing, Harper Collins, Harper Press, Harvill Secker, Haus Publishing, Head of Zeus, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Education, I.B. Tauris, John Murray, Litfest & Smith/Doorstop, Little, Brown Book Group, Lund Humphries, Messum’s, Michael Russell Publishing Ltd, No Exit Press, Orion Publishing Group, OUP, Oversteps Poetry, Palgrave Macmillan, Penguin General, Penguin Press, Pocket Books, Profile Books, Random House, Random House Business, Sceptre, Short Books, Simon & Schuster, Sphere, Thames and Husdon, Transworld Publishers, Union Books, University of Chicago Press, Verso Books, Viking, Vintage, Virago, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, WH Allen

Ways With Words’ Patrons:

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

The Shops at Dartington A short walk from the festival site you will find shops selling Craft and Glassware, Farm Foods, Stationery and Gifts. There’s even the Venus Café and Take Away and the Haven Spa should you fancy a bit of non-word-related pampering.

(Open Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.30pm and Sun, 10am - 5pm)

High Cross House Recently reopened by the National Trust this treasure of a Modernist house, designed by Lescaze in 1932 and inspired by the De Stijl movement and Le Corbusier, is not to be missed.

(Open Wed - Sun, 10.30am - 5pm)

Good, Close and Best Friends: Colin Goldsmith, Marlene Eyre, Pamela Harding, Elaine D. Moss, Moira Sykes, John & Brenda Wynn

Ways With Words Staff

Box Office Manager: Bryony Tilsley Production Assistant: Francesca Ellis Programme Assistants: Lizzie Rusbridger & Thalia Allington-Wood Administrative Assistant: Alice Ling Venue Managers: Jess Morris, Ben Long, Caroline Wilson, Charlie Ansell 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 Oliver Edwards

Wordquest Devon – Storytrail Using the concepts behind Dartmoor Letterboxing and geocaching, five boxes have been hidden around the formal gardens at Dartington. Each box holds a book containing a story in progress – find a box and add your own sentence, in the manner of ‘chain stories’.

Pick up your map from the Ways With Words Box Office in the Welcome Centre or download it at www.wordquestdevon.info

General Information – Travelling to Dartington

Coming up at Ways With Words

•

Over the next few months Ways With Words will be popping up around the country as our literary charabanc rolls into a town near (or not so near) you.

• •

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.

Join us as we head to the capital for Words in the Park, a brand new literature festival at Opera Holland Park (18 - 20 May) with Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Marr, Sophie Dahl, A.S. Byatt, Sandi Toksvig and more . .

Or for a week’s writing and painting holiday course in Umbria, Italy.

(22 - 29 Sept. & 29 Sept. - 6 Oct. 2012)

Parking Parking is limited at Dartington Hall.

Please leave plenty of time to get to your event as you may need to park at a distance from the venues.

Wheelchair access There is wheelchair access to the Great Hall, Barn and Upper Gatehouse, but please make sure you 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.

Or on the east coast of Suffolk in the renowned town of Southwold for a 5-day festival (8 - 12 November 2012)

Hearing difficulties 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.

Or back in Dartington (5 - 15 July 2013) All details on www.wayswithwords.co.uk or phone 01803 867373

Feeding the Whole Person For the whole of the festival the courtyard will be transformed into a food court serving a selection of fresh, locally sourced, homemade delights.

Dartington’s caterers will be introducing the Smoked Fish Bar serving locally smoked fresh and shell fish alongside a Laurent Perrier champagne and wine bar.

The Roundhouse CafĂŠ has undergone a refurbishment this year and will be open from 8am until 9pm serving teas, coffees and a range of homemade salads, sandwiches and baguettes alongside West Country cakes.

The food court will consist of varied menu choices including a noodle bar, Kenniford Farm hog roasts, hot wraps, a daily barbecue, mussels and frites and other daily specials.

Alongside the food court there will be a coffee shop open from 8am - 8pm serving a range of teas and coffees (and takeaway breakfast items until 10.30am) plus salads, cakes and various Continental and British filled breads.

The White Hart Bar and Restaurant will be open daily for a selection of locally sourced foods with a British theme.

(Lunchtime table reservations phone 01803 847111) We look forward to welcoming back the Ways With Words Festival and hope you will all enjoy our extended offering this year.

Tariq Ali Simon Armitage Joan Bakewell Charley Boorman Sarah Bradford Craig Brown Jung Chang Julian Clary Anita Desai Jenny Eclair Michael Frayn A.C. Grayling Monty Halls Jeremy Hardy Peter Hennessy Siri Hustvedt Alex James P.D. James Simon Jenkins David Lammy Hilary Mantel Bob Marshall-Andrews Paul Mason John McCarthy Michael Palin Tom Parker Bowles Arthur Smith Shane & Timothy Spall Claire Tomalin Jeremy Vine Ed Vulliamy Fay Weldon – and many more

01803 867373 wayswithwords.co.uk