Sunday 7th – Saturday 13th November The Seventeenth BRIDPORT Literary Festival 2021 Main Festival sponsor: www.bridlit.com www.kitsonandtrotman.co.uk LEGAL ADVICE AND SERVICES FOR LIFE • PROPERTY • WILLS & PROBATE • FAMILY MATTERS • BUSINESS & AGRICULTURE • DISPUTE RESOLUTION • EQUINE MAIN SPONSOR OF BRIDPORT LITERARY FESTIVAL BRIDPORT 01308 427436 | BEAMINSTER 01308 862313 LYME REGIS 01297 442580 | WEYMOUTH 01305 341400 KT Literary Festival Print.indd 1 12/07/2021 11:41 The Electric Palace The 17th Bridport Literary Festival welcomes all those who read books and love literature. It is almost two years since we had to bide by the constraints of Covid 19 and, consequently, all our lives have been changed www.kitsonandtrotman.co.uk in one way or another. We tried hard to keep BridLit afloat The Bull Hotel last year but managed only one day of ‘live’ events. It proved, however, to be the sunniest of November days and those who LEGAL ADVICE AND came to listen to Raynor Winn, Barney White-Spunner and Robert McCrum were delighted. This year we are optimistic that, as we become liberated, we will be able to socialise and SERVICES FOR LIFE enjoy the programme of events we have lined up for you. • PROPERTY • WILLS & PROBATE • FAMILY MATTERS Our authors include Emma Soames who has edited the war Sladers Yard • BUSINESS & AGRICULTURE • DISPUTE RESOLUTION • EQUINE diaries of her mother, Mary Soames, Churchill’s youngest child; Lord Hain in conversation about his memoirs of a childhood in Pretoria and a career in politics; Marina Wheeler and her recollections of her mother’s family and home in India and hear our Guest Speaker, Sir Peter Westmacott, the distinguished diplomat at the George Millar Literary Dinner. Tithe Barn Symondsbury President: Lord Fellowes of West Stafford Festival Patron: Sir Michael Holroyd CBE Patron of the Friends: Kate Adie CBE Trustees: Deirdre Coates – Chair Kate Hobbs Richard King Venetia Ross Skinner The Bridport Bookshop Philip Sturrock MBE Sarah Wild Festival Director: Tanya Bruce-Lockhart The Team: Tanya Harley Joanna Jacobson Tom Hughes Graham Shackleton BRIDPORT . T S Lisa Wilcock 6 K 6 P C 0 A R To A35, 3 R A A Lyme Regis B Margery Hookings EAST ST. B3162 A35 B3162 WEST ST. Tourist The Bull To Hotel P Information Dorchester Adrien Munden Centre Bridport The Arts Centre CHANCERY Bookshop LANE Diana Clarke 5 SO FOLLY MILL LANE E 3 NDRY LAN U GU The Electric A T MAIN SPONSOR OF BRIDPORT LITERARY FESTIVAL H Palace Karen Mackay S T . URCH ST CH Annette Smallwood P B 3 1 5 To Antonia Squire 7 BRIDPORT 01308 427436 | BEAMINSTER 01308 862313 West Bay SEE INSET MAP LYME REGIS 01297 442580 | WEYMOUTH 01305 341400 www.bridlit.com Box Office: Bridport Tourist Information Centre Follow us on facebook The Town Hall, South Street DT6 3LF 3 and twitter @BridLitFestival Tel: 01308 424 901 Reg. Charity No: 1147075 KT Literary Festival Print.indd 1 12/07/2021 11:41 Sunday 7th Nov Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 PERFECT PITCH LAW IN A AN ENTERTAINMENT 100 pieces of classical music TIME OF CRISIS IN WORDS AND to know and love What is the right relationship MUSIC Tim Bouverie between the law and politics, judges and politicians? Harbottle and Jonas An Illustrated Talk with Music Dave and Freya are both Nearly all of us have the Jonathan Sumption partners in life and in music. In conversation capacity to enjoy classical This dynamic duo combine with Howard Davies music but too often we are the richness of traditional folk put off by not knowing where Brexit, the possible break- with their own original and to look, or what we are up of the UK, pandemics powerful song-writing. They actually looking for. We need – this is a country in crisis. have developed a distinct a guide to help us navigate In crises the law sets the and compelling signature this artistic terrain. Historian boundaries of what the sound blending concertina, Tim Bouverie, drawing upon Government can and should harmonium, banjo, stomp his lifelong passion for music, do. But in a country without box, acoustic guitar and has selected 100 favourite a written constitution such cittern with their magical classical pieces from which as the United Kingdom, the and closely intertwined vocal he will introduce an eclectic precise limits between legal harmonies. We welcome them selection – audibly – to obligation and convention to Sladers Yard where they inspire and comfort; some can be hazy. What are the are joined by fiddle player are well known, some are limits of law in politics? Annie Baylis, to perform idiosyncratic, others just What is the relationship songs from their latest album secret gems that need to be between law and the On the Beacon which they brought out into the light. constitution? Is having a wrote during lockdown in constitution a hindrance or a their home on Dartmoor. Time: 10.30 am help in a time of crisis? Time: 12 noon Tickets: £12 Time: 12.30 pm Tickets: £12/25 Venue: Electric Palace Tickets: £12 Venue: Sladers Yard, Sponsored by: Johnnie and Sophie Boden Venue: Electric Palace West Bay Sponsored by: Sponsored by: Soixante 4 Denotes an Illustrated Talk Event 4 Event 5 BIOGRAPHIES OF BIRDS THE LOST HOMESTEAD A family event with Stephen Moss Marina Wheeler Stephen Moss In conversation with Susannah Simons An Illustrated Talk This is a story about loss and new beginnings, Over recent years, best selling nature writer personal and political freedom. Its central and broadcaster, Stephen Moss has published event is the Partition of British India in 1947 biographies of some of our best loved birds – The when Marina’s mother and her Sikh family Robin, The Wren, The Swallow and that most were forced to flee their home, never to majestic of birds, The Swan. He traces the life return. Some years after Partition, the family cycle of the swan from its arrival in the UK in was again ‘displaced’ this time by choice Spring to its extraordinary migration to warmer when Marina’s mother, Dip Singh, married climates, and its place in popular culture, myth Marina’s father, the distinguished British and literature across the centuries. Moss will journalist, Charles Wheeler, when he was the also touch on his timely works: The Accidental BBC’s South East Asia Correspondent based in Countryside and Skylarks with Rosie which has Delhi. The book is a timely read. It touches been nominated for the Wainwright Prize and on global themes that strongly resonate will also reveal his Twelve Birds of Christmas. today; political change, religious extremism, migration, minorities, nationhood, identity Time: 3.00 pm and belonging. Tickets: £12 per adult and £2 for accompanied children 16 yrs Time: 5.30pm and under Tickets: £12 Venue: Electric Palace Venue: Electric Palace Sponsored by: Sponsored by: 5 Monday 8th Nov Event 6 Event 7 Event 8 VICTOIRE THE NIGHT SHE FRONTIERS OF A Wartime Story Of DISAPPEARED KNOWLEDGE Resistance, Collaboration What we know about and Betrayal Lisa Jewell Science, History and the Mind Roland Philipps THE FIRST DAY In conversation OF SPRING A. C. Grayling with John Dean An Illustrated Talk Nancy Tucker Roland Philipps relates the In recent times, humanity has In conversation learnt a vast amount about incredible story of heroism, with Sally Laverack complicity and survival the universe. But through Lisa Jewell’s latest bestseller about the charismatic double- remarkable successes in tells what happens when agent who plays a major role acquiring knowledge we have a teenage single mother in WWII – Agent Victoire. learned how much we have disappears without trace. Paris, half–occupied by yet to learn: the science we Where do you start to search? Nazi Germany in 1940, was have, for example, addresses also half governed by the Nancy Tucker’s debut novel just 5% of the universe; pre- collaborationist Vichy regime. explores nature or nurture history is still being revealed These were dark days for and the devious mind of the and the neurosciences of mind France and also for Britain, child on child murderer. and brain are just beginning. The celebrated polymath and isolated and under threat of A lively discussion on the invasion. Yet Mathilde Carre philosopher A.C. Grayling issues involved in writing seeks to answer three crucial – codenamed ‘the Cat’ – is psychological thrillers is driven by a sense of destiny areas: science, history and irresistible. How easy is it psychology. that will be her nation’s to get behind the criminal saviour. Victoire is the story of mind; why are women This is a special event where we a passionate, courageous spy. writers so successful at welcome staff and students from Time: 10.00 am this genre of fiction; why Sir John Colfox School Tickets: £12 are readers so addicted to Time: 2.00 pm the‘whodunnit? Venue: The Bull Tickets: £12 Ballroom Time: 12.00 noon Venue: The Bull Sponsored by: Tim Clarke Tickets: £12 Ballroom Venue: The Bull Sponsored by: Siobhan and 6 Ballroom Charles Blundell Event 9 Event 10 BLACK AND BLUE MARY CHURCHILL’S WAR One Woman’s Story of Policing and Prejudice The Wartime Diaries of Churchill’s Youngest Daughter edited by her daughter Parm Sandhu In conversation with Stuart Prebble Emma Soames In conversation with Susannah Simons At the point of her retirement from the Metropolitan Police Service in 2019, Parm Mary Churchill’s diaries provide a unique, Sandhu was the most senior BAME woman in front-row view of the great events of war, as the capital’s police force. She was the only non- well as exchanges and intimate moments with white female to be promoted from Constable her father.