Southwold Festival of Words & Ideas

Ways With Words Southwold Festival of Words & Ideas

7–11 November 2019

wayswithwords.co.uk

Words of Welcome

W

e are

thrilled to be back beside the seaside for the 2019 Ways With Words Festival.

Vincent Van Gogh once said “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.” In these times of uncertainty it is easy to feel adrift.

We invite you to leave the safety and sanctuary of the shore and come to the festival to share ideas, to connect to other like-minded souls and sometimes to be challenged.

We have history on offer and will be discussing the life and times of Thomas Cromwell and Wallis Simpson, we will journey behind the scenes of World War II, the holocaust and the crusaders. There will be philosophy on offer to stretch our brains, we will engage with the issues of coastal erosion and climate change and we shall journey from the rainforest to the Fens. Brexit and Trump will be unpacked, there will be comedy to enjoy and we will have some belly laughs amidst the political turmoil.

There is much more besides so do dive into the programme and see what floats your boat.

Leah Varnell Managing Director

² wayswithwords ³ @Ways_With_Words µ wayswithwordsfestival With thanks to

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Adnams Hotels

#www2019

Southwold Books

Official Festival Bookseller

Book tickets online at wayswithwords.co.uk

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Festival Facts On Friday 8th November from 6–7.30pm Adnams invites all festival-goers to call in to the Cellar & Kitchen Store on Victoria Street for a browsing drinks reception.

All of the festival events (except events 21 & 22) take place in the Southwold Arts Centre (aka St Edmund’s Hall) which is situated on Cumberland Road, IP18 6JW. Events 21 & 22 will take place in St Edmund’s Church.

There is on-road parking around the Arts Centre and the town’s car parks are approximately a 10 minute walk.

There will be a small café running upstairs at the Arts Centre during the festival serving hot drinks, cakes, soup, and snacks.

Perfect for Christmas shopping

Southwold Books Official Festival Bookseller

Join us at the festival events for signings page 4

The bar will be serving drinks during the interval for the evening events.

Keke Keukelaar

THURSDAY 7th NOVEMBER

Nicholas Crane

Julian Baggini

Nicholas Crane

Howard Jacobson

Where are We?

1

1.30pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

Late Flowering Love £12

We are all geographers: human beings who care about the places we think of as ‘home’ – our habitat.

With our contemporary narrative of climate change, geopolitics, population growth, migration and dwindling resources, author and presenter of the BBC’s Coast, Nicholas Crane, makes the compelling case that never has geography been so important.

You Are Here: A Brief Guide to the World (W&N)

Julian Baggini 3.15pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

3

5.00pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Booker Prize winning author, Howard Jacobson, discusses his funny, irreverent and tender new novel Live A Little – a story of love in your nineties. He offers insights into how this novel came about and why he decided to write about finding love in later life.

“Just look at the way he makes the English language dance for us… the characters, as they converse, striking sparks off one another.”

Spectator

Live a Little (Jonathan Cape)

The Philosopher’s Map

2

Howard Jacobson

£12

One of the great mysteries of human history is that written philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. Philosopher and author, Julian Baggini, explores some of the philosophies of the world, offering insights into commonalities and differences in how we think.

How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy (Granta)

THURSDAY Day Ticket: £30 Book tickets online at wayswithwords.co.uk

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Jeff Overs

FRIDAY 8th NOVEMBER

Henry Hemming

Simon Heffer

Henry Hemming

Juliet Blaxland in conversation with Wendy Holden

A Propaganda Campaign Like No Other

4

10.00am

| Southwold Arts Centre £12

Using music, props and an audience game, espionage historian Henry Hemming tells the eye-opening story of how the British used ‘fake news’ to bring the United States into the Second World War. He explains how British agents, led by spymaster William Stephenson, used ‘dirty tricks’ to help entice the US into the war and how MI6 worked with the White House in an attempt to provoke Hitler into declaring war on the US.

Our Man in New York: The British Plot to Bring America into the Second World War (Quercus)

Simon Heffer

The Tumultuous Great War Years

5

11.45am

| Southwold Arts Centre £12

In 1914 a society that had adopted liberal values found itself forced to adapt to total war. In the next five years both men and women were conscripted to fight and work; England experienced its first air-raids; rationing of food was introduced; wages and taxes rocketed; death cut through society, creating hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans. Simon Heffer tells the story of these tumultuous years.

Staring at God: Britain in the Great War (Random House Books) FRIDAY Day Ticket: £50 page 6

Juliet Blaxland

House on the Edge of the Cliff

6

1.30pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Juliet Blaxland has documented a year of living on the edge of a crumbling cliff in East Bavant, Suffolk.

Meditating upon that which is being gradually lost to the eroding cliff edge, she “creates the perfect metaphor for our undeclared and unwinnable war with nature.” Robert Davidson. The Easternmost House was shortlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2019.

The Easternmost House (Sandstone Press)

Dan Jones

FRIDAY 8th NOVEMBER

Dan Jones

Diarmaid MacCulloch

Dan Jones

Diarmaid MacCulloch

Wars for the Holy Lands

7

3.15pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

That Ruffian Thomas Cromwell £12

Historian and broadcaster, Dan Jones, tells the colourful story of the Crusades – the sequence of religious wars fought across the high medieval period in which armies from European Christian states attempted to wrest the Holy Land from Islamic rule. He tells a tale soaked in Islamic, Christian and Jewish blood and recounts events that have left an enduring imprint on relations between the Muslim world and the West.

8

5.00pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Thomas Cromwell is one of the most notorious figures in English history. For a time, the self-made ‘ruffian’ was ruthless and a master manipulator.

Diarmaid MacCulloch sets out Cromwell’s true place in the making of modern England and Ireland, for good and ill.

Thomas Cromwell: A Life (Allen Lane)

Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Land (Head of Zeus)

FRIDAY Day Ticket: £50 Book tickets online at wayswithwords.co.uk

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SATURDAY 9th NOVEMBER

Deborah Moggach

John Hemming

John Hemming

Into the Rainforest

9

10.00am

| Southwold Arts Centre £12

Explorer and former director of the Royal Geographical Society, John Hemming traces the pioneering humanitarian work of the Villas Boas brothers. In 1945 they joined Brazil’s first government-sponsored expedition into the Amazonian rainforest and proceeded to make ‘first contacts’ with isolated indigenous people there.

John Hemming discusses how the brothers changed attitudes to native peoples and helped protect the world’s surviving tropical rainforests.

People of the Rainforest (Hurst Publishers)

Deborah Moggach

Growing Old

10

11.45am

| Southwold Arts Centre £12

Deborah Moggach, bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever, discusses her latest novel The Carer, which explores the idea that life most definitely does not stop for the elderly – it just moves onto a very different plane, full of surprising twists and turns.

The Carer (Tinder Press) SATURDAY Day Ticket (not including event 14): £50 page 8

Gavin Esler

Gavin Esler

Revealed: How Brexit Will Change Britain

11

1.30pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Will Brexit boost jobs? Or wreck the NHS? And what about food shortages? Journalist and former presenter of Newsnight, Gavin Esler, takes a nononsense look at the most momentous change in British life for decades. From the food markets of Kent to NHS operating theatres to the boardrooms of big employers, he calculates the impact of Brexit on the UK.

Brexit Without the Bullshit (Canbury Press)

SATURDAY 9th NOVEMBER

Anna Pasternak

Christopher Somerville

Anna Pasternak

Wallis Simpson: England’s Scapegoat

12

3.15pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Wallis Simpson is known as the woman at the centre of the most scandalous love affair of the 20th century. Bestselling biographer, Anna Pasternak, seeks to redeem a woman wronged by history offering illuminating new information from those who were close to the couple.

Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (William Collins)

Christopher Somerville

Dom Joly

Dom Joly

Three Men on a Camel ...

Without the Camel

14

8.00pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Comedian Dom Joly was born in Beirut, lived through the civil war and went to school with Osama Bin Laden before moving to the UK. To mark his fiftieth birthday, he and two friends return to the region and learn about the Middle East, religion, friendship and growing old disgracefully.

The Hezbollah Hiking Club: A Short Walk across the Lebanon (Constable)

The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals

13

5.00pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

When travel writer, Christopher Somerville, set out to explore Britain’s cathedrals, he found his fixed ideas of cathedrals as great unmoving bastions of tradition shaken to the roots though conversation with believers and non-believers, architects and archaeologists, clergy and the cleaners.

Ships of Heaven (DoubleDay)

SATURDAY Day Ticket (not including event 14): £50 Book tickets online at wayswithwords.co.uk

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Jim Al-Khalili

A. C. Grayling

A.C. Grayling

Great Minds

15

10.00am

The History of Philosophy (Viking)

Jim Al-Khalili

From Science to Sci Fi 11.45am

| Southwold Arts Centre £12

In his latest work, ‘Sunfall’, acclaimed physicist and presenter of Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, Jim Al-Khalili, imagines the earth in 2041 which features impending environmental armageddon, catastrophic weather, technological failure, and governmental cover-ups. He discusses the cuttingedge science and dazzling technologies that he drew on and details the facts and the fiction behind his debut novel.

Sunfall (Bantam Press) SUNDAY Day Ticket (not including event 20): £50 page 10

Francis Pryor

Francis Pryor

Infinite Vistas

| Southwold Arts Centre £12 17

The story of philosophy is an epic tale: an exploration of the ideas, views and teachings of some of the most creative minds known to humanity. A.C. Grayling presents his authoratitive and entertaining take on the epic intellectual journey we humans have taken. He asks what we have learnt from this body of thought and what progress is still to be made?

16

Peter Clark

Simon Weller

SUNDAY 10th NOVEMBER

1.30pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

The Fens are a distinctive, complex, man-made and little understood landscape. Distinguished archaeologist Francis Pryor has lived in, excavated, farmed and walked the Fen country for more than 40 years. Often regarded as a neglected backwater by those who don’t know them; Francis will offer a very different view of the Fens: that of a prosperous and vibrant land, from its levels and drains to its often surprising, architecture.

The Fens: Discovering Englands’ Ancient Depths (Head of Zeus)

Derek Tamea

SUNDAY 10th NOVEMBER

Wendy Holden

Robin Ince

Julia Neuberger

Robin Ince

Julia Neuberger

Laugh at Your Punch Line

18

3.15pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

On Antisemitism £12

Comedian, Robin Ince, uses his lifetime of stand-up as a way of exploring some of the biggest questions we all face. Offering personal insights and interviews with the world’s top comedians, neuroscientists and psychologists, he makes a hilarious and powerful call to embrace our inner experience – no matter how odd that may prove to be.

I’m a Joke and So Are You (Atlantic)

20

8.00pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Antisemitism has been on the rise in recent years, with violent attacks, increased verbal insults, and an acceptability in some circles of what would hitherto have been condemned as outrageous antisemitic discourse. Rabbi Julia Neuberger asks what constitutes antisemitism and builds a powerful argument for why it is so crucial to come to a shared understanding now.

Antisemitism: What It Is. What It Isn’t. Why It Matters (W&N)

Wendy Holden

A Lifetime with Bach

19

5.00pm

| Southwold Arts Centre

£12

Zuzana Ruzicková grew up in 1930s Czechoslovakia dreaming of Johann Sebastian Bach and the piano.

Wendy Holden explores how Zuzana’s childhood was torn apart in 1939 when the Nazis invaded and she was transported to Auschwitz and onto Bergen-Belsen.

With her, on every truck and train ride, was a slip of paper printed with her favourite piece of Bach’s music.

Wendy recounts that perilous journey, the hardships endured and restorative power of art and resistance.

One Hundred Miracles: A Memoir of Music and Survival (Bloomsbury) SUNDAY Day Ticket (not including event 20): £50 Book tickets online at wayswithwords.co.uk

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MONDAY 11th NOVEMBER

John Simpson

David Owen

John Simpson Friend or Foe

21

10.00am

| St Edmund’s Church

David Owen

Making Sense of Donald Trump £12

BBC World Affairs Editor for more than half his 52year career, John Simpson, has reported on major events all over the world. As a man who has seen many a real-life intrigue unfold in the halls of power, he explores the realm of murky Russian plots, conspiracies and assassinations in his latest work.

Moscow, Midnight (John Murray)

22

11.45am

| St Edmund’s Church

Recent leaders have been depressives, alcoholics, narcissists, populists and those affected by hubris syndrome and driven by their religious beliefs, such as Bush and Blair. But Donald Trump presents a completely different set of issues. Former Foreign Secretary, David Owen, analyses the mental and physical condition of political leaders, past and present, and explores how they paved the way for President Trump.

Hubris - The Road to Donald Trump (Methuen Publishing Ltd)

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£12

As well as running the festival at Southwold Ways With Words organises these popular events ...

Writing, painting and Italian language and culture holiday courses in Umbria, Italy 21–28 September 2019 28 September–5 October 2019

Words by the Water: A spring festival at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick 6–15 March 2020

A summer festival at Dartington Hall in South Devon 10–20 July 2020

And back in Southwold for Ways With Words 2020 5–9 November 2020 Full details on ouron cancellations, exchanges and lostvisit tickets policy at wayswithwords.co.uk page 13 For details all ourrefunds, events please www.wayswithwords.co.uk

Packages Ways With Words offers Bed & Breakfast packages (inclusive of tickets to events and an allowance for dining) at both the newly refurbished Swan Hotel and the everpopular Crown Hotel in Southwold.

The Swan package is for 4 nights B&B (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) and includes: n Tickets for all events during the festival except the evening events on Sat and Sun n A £50 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner (not including drinks at The Swan Hotel).

The Crown package is for either: n 4 nights B&B (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) including: n Tickets for all events on Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun (except the evening events on Sat and Sun) n A £35 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner at the Crown Hotel (not including drinks at The Crown Hotel)

Booking Online Book online at www.wayswithwords.co.uk (from 17th September 2019)

Booking by Phone Tel: 01803 867373 Telephone lines are open from 10am–5pm, Monday-Friday. Please have your event numbers and your payment card ready before phoning. We accept Visa and Mastercard.

Booking by post Please complete the form opposite and send with cheque and stamped s.a.e to: Ways With Words Festival Box Office, Droridge Farm, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6JG Please make cheques payable to ‘Ways With Words’

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n First 3 nights B&B (Thurs, Fri, Sat nights), including: n Tickets for all events on Thurs, Fri, Sat (except the evening event on Sat) n A £35 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner at the Crown Hotel (not including drinks at The Crown Hotel) n Last 3 nights B&B (Fri, Sat, Sun nights), including: n Tickets for all events on Sat, Sun, Mon (except the evening events on Sat and Sun) n A £35 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner at the Crown Hotel (not including drinks at The Crown Hotel) Packages can be booked at any time using the form opposite or by telephone 01803 867373.

(NB. Our office will have limited opening during August)

Any postal bookings received before booking opens will be filed in order of receipt but will not be processed until booking opens.

Rover Tickets If you are not on one of the packages but would like to attend a lot of events you can buy a Rover Ticket which includes all events for the special price of £175.

Priority Booking Friends of Ways With Words can book tickets from Tuesday 17th September 2019.

Maximum 4 tickets per event For phone and postal bookings only.

General booking starts Tuesday 24th September.

Booking Form EVENT

eg

|

A. N. Author

PRICE No. £ 12

|

3

THURSDAY 7th NOVEMBER 1 Nicholas Crane | £12 | 2 Julian Baggini | £12 | 3 Howard Jacobson | £12 | ▲ Day Ticket (1–3) | £30 | FRIDAY 8th NOVEMBER 4 Henry Hemming | £12 5 Simon Heffer | £12 6 Juliet Blaxland | £12 7 Dan Jones | £12 8 Diarmuid MacCulloch | £12 ▲ Day Ticket (4–8) | £50

TOTAL

|£

|£ |£ |£ |£

SATURDAY 9th NOVEMBER 9 John Hemming | £12 | 10 Deborah Moggach | £12 | 11 Gavin Esler | £12 | 12 Anna Pasternak | £12 | 13 Christopher Somerville | £12 | 14 Dom Joly | £12 | ▲ Day Ticket (9–13) | £50 |

|£ |£ |£ |£ |£ |£ |£

SUNDAY 10th NOVEMBER 15 A.C. Grayling | £12 | 16 Jim Al-Khalili | £12 | 17 Francis Pryor | £12 | 18 Robin Ince | £12 | 19 Wendy Holden | £12 | 20 Julia Neuberger | £12 | ▲ Day Ticket (15–19) | £50 | MONDAY 11th NOVEMBER 21 John Simpson | £12 | 22 David Owen | £12 |

| £175 |

Events 1–22

Ticket Total

£

Add Annual Friends’ Membership (£20)* Tick here if already a Friend

Name

Postcode Tel.

|£ |£ |£ |£ |£ |£

R

Your Details Address

| | | | | |

ROVER TICKET

36

|£ |£ |£ |£ |£ |£ |£

E-mail

B&B Package Prices Prices are per person sharing twin / double.

Please circle the package you would like.

Swan

Crown

Crown

4 night

4 night

3 night

£862

£682

£473

£1312

£1022

£730

£972

£742

£518

single occ.

£1532

£1132

£815

Outstanding

£1162

£782

£548

single occ.

£1912

£1202

£865

Excellent single occ.

Fabulous

Single Room

please phone 01803 867373

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

TERMS & CONDITIONS

|£ |£ |£

Payment in full is required at the time of booking. Cancellations cannot be refunded. Customers are strongly advised to take out holiday insurance. 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 our website (wayswithwords.co.uk) for full details of our policy on cancellations, ticket refunds and exchanges, and on lost tickets.

Total

£

* Friends receive, by post, a printed copy of each programme for Ways With Words in Dartington, Cumbria and Southwold, newsletters and an invitation to the launch parties at Dartington and Cumbria as well as exclusive Friends’ only events.

Ways With Words Southwold 2019 Including:

Nicholas Crane Gavin Esler A.C. Grayling Wendy Holden

Howard Jacobson Dom Joly Jim Al-Khalili Diarmaid McCulloch ‌and many more

wayswithwords.co.uk

Deborah Moggach Julia Neuberger Anna Pasternak John Simpson