Boswell Book Festival 8– 10May 2015
Lovereading is proud to be sponsoring a talk by Antony Quinn - author of Curtain Call, his much-praised thriller (recently a Book at Bedtime on Radio 4) - who will be in conversation with renowned biographer Selina Hastings on Sunday 10 May at 12pm. Fabulous Joanna Lumley, world famous crime writer Ian Rankin, and world best-seller Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans will head the cast of stars talking about their lives at this year’s Boswell Book Festival, the world’s only Festival of biography and memoir which for the first time is being held at Dumfries House over the weekend 8-10 May 2015.
Ayrshire is well represented in the line-up which attracts thousands of local book lovers as well as many from all over Scotland and the UK. Kilwinning’s Man Booker nominated Andrew O’Hagan will be a hot favourite with his stunning new book The Illuminations which transports its readers from Saltcoats to war-torn Afghanistan. Cumnock’s internationally renowned composer James MacMillan will reveal the words and music that have influenced the course of his life and in a year where we mark the 200th anniversary of The Battle of Waterloo, the current Duke of Wellington who also has Ayrshire roots, will talk about his illustrious ancestor.
Other authors include the legendary Scottish war hero Captain Eric ‘Winkle’’ Brown who at 96 makes an especially poignant appearance during what is VE Day weekend. Naturalist Sir John Lister-Kaye, military historian Allan Mallinson, the great Irish historian Professor Roy Foster, award-winning biographer Selina Hastings, neurosurgeon Dr Henry Marsh and ‘queen of baking’ Sue Lawrence as well as many others leave us in no doubt that we have yet another brilliant weekend in store.
A programme of satellite events include several Boswell highlights with Yale University’s Boswell expert Dr Gordon Turnbull on hand to talk about how Ayrshire liked to party in the Eighteenth Century at Auchinleck House and Dumfries House, where there will be special Festival tours running over the weekend. Ayr’s Waterstones bookshop will be at Dumfries House where the cafés and restaurant will be open all hours to feed hungry book lovers.
Wisdom and wit are always high on this unique Festival’s agenda as is fun and laughter. True to form the Festival delivers both with an Opening Night Gala in the company of legendary star of stage and screen, John Standing who will talk about his life interspersed with singing the songs of Noel Coward and Cole Porter. “This is going to be a cascade of name-dropping,” Standing warns at the start of the show as his sparkling anecdotes conjure up Peter O’Toole, Frank Sinatra and Stewart Grainger, not forgetting Maggie Smith and Judy Dench to name but a few.
The Grand Festival Finale embraces the spirit of biography so famously invented by James Boswell and celebrated by Ayrshire’s Abaracadabarets James Drife, Walter Nimmo and Sophie Stoddard. But not as one may imagine. In a rollicking world premiere performance of ‘Get a Life!’ Their delicious romp through their very own James Boswell Songbook creates a hilarious end to the Festival.
For more information and to book tickets visit: https://www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk/
Claim a 10% discount on tickets for Lovereading members at
CRIMEFEST 14-17th May 2015
WHERE THE PEN IS BLOODIER THAN THE SWORD
CRIMEFEST ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED 2015 LINE-UP AND PROGRAMME
Lee Child, Maj Sjowall, James Runcie and Sophie Hannah are among the top names set to speak at this year’s CrimeFest convention in Bristol, 14-17th May. The UK’s biggest crime fiction convention will see over 400 authors, agents, publishers and crime fiction fans from across the globe descend on the city for a jam-packed four days, including over fifty curated panels and speaking events. The international Bristol-based event runs across four days at the Marriott Royal Hotel, and has been named as one of the best festivals in the world by The Guardian. The event has featured in The Independent’s ‘The 50 Best Festivals’ and is one of the most popular dates in the crime publishing calendar.
Lee Child, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers, will be in conversation with Maj Sjowall, often considered the founder of Scandinavian crime fiction. Child described the opportunity to interview Sjowall a ‘pleasure and a privilege’. James Runcie, author of the Sydney Chambers mysteries, recently dramatized for ITV as Grantchester will be interviewed alongside Catherine Aird, the 2015 recipient of the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger Award for excellence in crime writing. To celebrate 125 years of Agatha Christie, Sophie Hannah, author of the recent Poirot novel The Monogram Murders and Mathew Pritchard, Christie’s own grandson and Chairman of Agatha Christie Limited will be in conversation with John Curran.
Representing his CrimeFest co-hosts Myles Allfrey and Donna Moore, Adrian Muller said: ‘Every year we are told that the convention was the best one yet, which creates an enormous pressure to maintain the quality for the one to come. But a large part of CrimeFest’s success is due to the enthusiasm our delegates bring to the event. It is amazing how many of them sign up the preceding year without even knowing which authors will be attending. That kind of support is what keeps CrimeFest going’.
The convention also includes a Pitch an Agent strand, a literary agent speed-dating session where unpublished authors can present their ideas in a Dragon’s Den style session. Those wishing to pen their own crime novel can take part in a Crime Writing Day, which includes sessions with agents and editors, optional manuscript assessments and a workshop with bestselling crime writers M. R. Hall and William Ryan.
This year’s panels include ‘Crime Pays in Audio’ with Doctor Who companion Freema Agyeman representing narrators of audiobooks; explorations of sex in crime fiction and the Euro Noir phenomenon with Barry Forshaw; and, in association with the International Thriller Writers, Lee Child battles it out with Chris Ewan, Tom Harper, Zoe Sharp and Yrsa Sigurdardottir to discover ‘Brains or Brawn, Who Kicks Best Ass’.
Lovereading have teamed up with Crimefest and members can claim a 10% discount on a Full CrimeFest Pass using the link: https://crimefest2015.eventbrite.co.uk/?discount=lovereading.
For further information visit: www.crimefest.com
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