festival of literature - The Blenheim Palace Literary Festival

Transcription

The Blenheim Palace Festival
of Literature, Film & Music
Thursday 24 – Sunday 27
September 2015
Box Office 01993 812291
(11am – 2.30pm)
blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com
festival of
liter ature
film & Music
Thursday 24 – Sunday 27 September 2015 The ultimate boutique literary festival
festival of
liter ature
Courtyard of The Feathers hotel, Woodstock
film & Music
Featuring Orhan Pamuk • Dr Maki Mandela • Antony Beevor • Sir Karl Jenkins • Maureen Lipman
Alexander Armstrong • Prince Asserate • Sue MacGregor • Paul Gambaccini • Bel Mooney
Max Mosley • Douglas Hurd • Alfred Brendel • Claudia Roden • John Suchet • Daphne Selfe
Peter Hennessy • Dan Jones • Gino D’Acampo • Daniel Finkelstein • Michael Billington
Box Office 01865THE
305305
• blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com
PROGRAMME
AT A GLANCE
THE PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE
Thursday 24th September
12pm
12pm
2pm
2pm
4pm
4pm
Maki Mandela
James Russell
Dan Jones
Jonathan Fenby
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Beth Powning, Michael Crummey,
Serge Patrice Thibodeau and Sue Goyette
6pm Orhan Pamuk
8pm Claudia Roden Dinner
Saturday 26th September
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
The Feathers Hotel
11am
12pm
2pm
4:30pm
Alexander Armstrong
Alfred Brendel
Gino D'Acampo
Martin Jennings, Jamie Muir
and Ed Taylor
6pm Karl Jenkins
7.30pm Literary Salon Dinner
Blenheim Palace
St Mary Magdalene Church
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
La Galleria Restaurant
Sunday 27th September
Friday 25th September
10.30am Jonathan Fenby, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
and Gwenan Edwards
10.30am Asfa-Wossen Asserate
12pm Dermot Turing and Gordon Corera
12pm Ann Treneman and Peter Brookes
2.15pm Special Guest and Peter Hennessy
4pm Paul Gambaccini
4pm Andrew Lambert
5.45pm John Suchet
5.45pm Hugh Purcell
6pm Patrick Gale
7pm Antony Beevor – Black Tie Dinner
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
10am Two Earnest:
A reworking of Oscar Wilde
10.30am Sonia Purnell
11am Jonathan Bate
12pm Bel Mooney
12.30pm Max Mosley
2pm Shaun Evans, Russell Lewis
and Dan McCulloch
2pm Michael Billington
2pm Madeleine Shaw
3pm Andrew Gant
4pm Daphne Selfe
4pm Douglas Hurd
5pm Maureen Lipman, Jeremy Robson,
Jacqui Dankworth, Charlie Wood,
Julian Siegel and Oli Hayhurst
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Festival Director’s Welcome
A very warm welcome to the 2015 festival
which has been widened to include film,
television and music – art forms which have
all been enriched and inspired by literature.
We are hugely grateful to our Royal Patron,
HRH The Duke of Gloucester, for initiating
the lecture series that will bear his name
each year and to our most distinguished
inaugural lecturer.
The ITV Network have arranged four
outstanding preview screenings of major
autumn programmes with casts and crew.
We greatly appreciate the support of Richard
Klein, director of factual/broadcast ITV plc
and his colleagues.
The festival sees a host of celebrated
international speakers this year, including
Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, Dr Maki
Mandela, Antony Beevor, Prince Asserate, Sir
Karl Jenkins, Alfred Brendel and four leading
writers from Canada’s Atlantic coast.
The festival is indebted once more to HSBC
and its chief executive, Antonio Simoes, for
their foundation sponsorship; to our long
established partners HM Government of
Gibraltar; English Heritage and The Oxford
Times; to our new partners the Rosewood
London Hotel; to Owen Mumford for
sustaining our Marlborough School Festival
and for the continuing generosity of our
patron donors, Ian and Carol Sellars,
Eileen and Munir Majid and Desmond and
Fiona Hayward.
Every year our speakers enthuse about the
great beauty of the festival’s magnificent
backdrop of Blenheim Palace for which
we thank Their Graces, The Duke and
Duchess of Marlborough and the estate
team.
The historic town of Woodstock offers
festival-goers the opportunity to meet and
talk with novelists, historians and writers
in historic hotels, inns, restaurants and
cafes – an atmosphere heavy with autumn
wood smoke and unique to Britain’s
ultimate boutique literary festival.
We look forward to a memorable and
engaging weekend with you all.
SALLY DUNSMORE Festival Director
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HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO
Royal Patron of The Festival
In recent years the festival has featured an increasing number of
international speakers and events and the 2015 roll call is the most
impressive to date.
I am particularly pleased that my inaugural lecture will see a figure of
such distinction in discussion with Lord Hennessy.
Blenheim Palace has provided the backdrop for many motion pictures
(from the 1930s onwards), so it is appropriate that the festival’s remit
has been extended to include both film and music, art forms that have
been reflected in so many ways in literature over the past century.
RICHARD
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Blenheim Palace
When war broke out in Europe, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, a military genius,
was chosen as leader of the allied troops. During 1702 and 1703 Marlborough defended
Holland from invasion from the French. In 1704 a decisive battle took place near a small
village called Blindheim in Bavaria, Blenheim in English, where Marlborough won a great
allied victory over the forces of Louis XIV. In reward, Queen Anne granted Marlborough the
Royal Manor of Woodstock and signified that she would build him there a house to be called
Blenheim. Sir John Vanbrugh was appointed to design Blenheim Palace and Capability
Brown landscaped the park, creating the great lake over which Vanbrugh’s Grand Bridge
now stands.
Blenheim Palace is one of the largest finest private houses in England, a world heritage site
set in 2100 acres of parkland. Its stunning formal gardens include the Italian Garden, the
Water Terraces, Rose Garden, Arboretum and Maze. It is home to the 12th Duke of
Marlborough and was the birthplace in 1874 of Sir Winston Churchill.
Guided tours of the palace run throughout most of the season and ‘Blenheim Palace:
The Untold Story’ tells the story of the last 300 years through the eyes of the servants.
General Information
Opening times: the palace, park and formal gardens open daily until 2nd November.
From 5th November to 14th December, the palace and formal gardens are closed on
Mondays and Tuesdays. The park is open all year except on Christmas Day.
The park opens at 9.00am: the formal gardens at 10.00am and the palace at 10.30am.
Last entry to the park and palace is at 4.45pm. The palace closes at 5.30pm and the park and
gardens close at 6.00pm.
www.blenheimpalace.com
Tickets for festival events at Blenheim Palace on all 4 days, Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th September,
include free entry to the grounds and gardens on the day of the ticket (price normally £13.80).
3
Festival Patrons, Sponsors and Partners
Royal Patron
We should like to thank the following for their most generous support of the festival:
HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO
Partners
Sponsors
Patrons
His Grace The Duke of Marlborough
The Rt. Hon David Cameron MP
Lord Fellowes
Ben Okri
Felicity Bryan
David Freeman
Professor Martin Kemp
Ian and Carol Sellars
Eileen and Munir Majid
Blenheim Palace Literary Festival
Sponsor of the festival green room
Festival Hotel
Broadcast Television Partner
Chairman Bruce Thew
Deputy Chairman and Co-founder Jill Dunsmore
Festival Director and Co-founder Sally Dunsmore
School Events Sponsor
Special Adviser Tony Byrne
Festival Administrator Louise Croft
Cultural Partner
Publicity
Joe Ogden, Four Communications
(0)20 3697 4261 (media enquiries only)
Green Room Manager Rachel Byrne
Regional Magazine Partner
Digital Strategy and Website
Festival London Hotel Partner
Festival Dinners Administrator Alex Oakes
Patron Donors
Graphic Design Stafford & Stafford
Website and Content Editor Derek Holmes
Website Design Bear Ram Elk
Organisation Support Francie Von Schonfeld
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Regional Media Sponsor
Desmond and Fiona
Heyward
Lawers to the Festival
Sponsors
Associates
City Audio Visual
The Marlborough School
KT Bruce Photography
Save the Children Bookshop
Wake up to Woodstock
Woodstock Bookshop
We should also like to thank all the voluntary
festival stewards for their time and generous
support throughout the festival.
New Brunswick, Canada
Festival Bookseller
The festival on-site bookseller is
Blenheim Palace Retail who provide
speakers’ books at all festival venues.
Festival Online Bookseller
Front cover photo and all Blenheim images
by kind permission of Blenheim Palace
Woodstock and other photos by kind
permission of KT Bruce
www.ktbrucephotography.com
and Oxford Picture Library www.cap-ox.com
All other photos individually credited
where known
For information on sponsorship opportunities
for the 2016 festival, please contact Tony
Byrne at [email protected] or on
07801 287510
Programme printed by
Oxuniprint, the printing division of
Oxford University Press
Prestige Publishing Partner
The festival is produced by Iconic Programmes Ltd
Registered office Greyfriars Court, Paradise Square,
Oxford, Oxon OX1 1BE
Company number 07180906
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HSBC and The Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature, Film & Music
HSBC is delighted to once again sponsor the
Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature, Film & Music,
supporting the series of talks and events on
‘leadership’ and ‘women in society’, past, present
and future.
Our continued association with the festival reflects
HSBC’s commitment over the past 150 years to
encourage the exchange of ideas, helping to build
connections, open up opportunities and strengthen
relationships.
This year’s festival reflects its increasing focus on
events from a wide creative field. We look forward
to welcoming visitors to the talks, debates and events
taking place over four unforgettable days.
ANTONIO SIMOES
Chief Executive of HSBC Bank plc
6
,       , 
.
Box Office 01993 812291 • www.blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com
THURSDAY 24th SEPTEMBER
Maki Mandela talks to John Battersby
Mandela: Life, Legacy and Art
12 noon / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
Dr Maki Mandela, the eldest daughter of Nelson Mandela, talks to leading South
African journalist John Battersby about her father’s life and legacy and about the
works of art that he created in later life.
Makaziwe ‘Maki’ Mandela is the daughter of Nelson Mandela and his first wife,
Evelyn Mase. She worked closely with the South African government on her
father’s memorial celebrations in Johannesburg and on the funeral in his
ancestral home, Qunu. Nelson Mandela is perhaps the most famous statesman
of the latter part of the 20th century. He also took up art in later life, and Maki
Mandela will talk about the works of art he produced that included sketches of
Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, and the famous Hand of Africa.
Maki Mandela was educated at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. In
1993, she earned a PhD in anthroplogy at the University of Massachusetts,
USA. She is a businesswoman and founder of the House of Mandela wine label.
She has worked at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Development
Bank of Southern Africa.
Battersby is a former editor of The Sunday Independent in Johannesburg and
former correspondent for the New York Times and the Christian Science
Monitor. He gained a reputation for analysing and interpreting the complexities
of transition, reconciliation and reparation at the end of apartheid. He is the
former UK country manager of Brand South Africa, which promotes the
country’s image for trade, tourism and investment. Battersby knew Nelson
Mandela during his years as a foreign correspondent and interviewed him many
times.
Maki Mandela
Presented by
Sponsored by
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James Russell introduced by Steven Parissien
Jonathan Fenby
The Compton Verney Lecture: Ravilious – The Watercolours
The Revolution to Charlie Hebdo: A History of Modern France
12 noon / Blenheim Palace: Marlborough Room / £12
2pm / Blenheim Palace: Marlborough Room / £12
Writer and curator James Russell introduces his
new and definitive guide to one of the finest
painters of the 20th century, Eric Ravilious.
Journalist and author Jonathan Fenby explains
200 years of tumultuous events that make
France both proud of its past and a prisoner of
its history.
Russell is the first writer to produce a full-length
critical study of the watercolours of the British
artist and designer. The work coincided with a
Ravilious exhibition curated by Russell at
Dulwich Picture Library, which ran until August
31. Ravilious had a prolific career that spanned
times of war and peace. At the outbreak of
World War II he was assigned to the Royal Navy
as a war artist. He witnessed the Allied invasion
and retreat from Norway and his works
James Russell
included a watercolour of HMS Ark Royal
in action. He also painted classic landscapes of Sussex and the South Downs.
Russell writes and lectures
widely about 20th-century
British painting and design.
His works include a fourvolume series Ravilious in
Pictures and ones devoted to
Edward Seago, Peggy Angus
and Paul Nash. He will be
introduced by the director of
Compton Verney, Dr Steven
Parissien.
Leadership in Society
Fenby journeys from the first French revolution
of 1789 through defeat at Waterloo in 1815,
bloody civil disorder, and three invasions by
Germany to today’s home-grown Islamic
extremism that culminated in the attacks on
the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine. Fenby’s
account in The History of Modern France:
From the Revolution to the Present Day comes
out of half a century of close observation of the
Jonathan Fenby
country. This included spells as Paris bureau
chief for Reuters and The Economist and writing about France for many other
publications. He explains how France is now confronted by deep economic and
social challenges and faces an existential
problem over Europe.
Fenby is a former editor of both The Observer
and the South China Morning Post. He is
author of 18 books including On the Brink: The
Trouble with France and The General: Charles
De Gaulle and the France He Saved. The
French government awarded him its highest
civil honour, the Légion d’Honneur, and the
Ordre National de Mérite for his contribution to
understanding between Britain and France.
Sponsored by
Presented by Compton Verney
13
Dan Jones talks to Paul Blezard – The English Heritage Lecture
Magna Carta – The Making and Legacy of
the Great Charter
What is Englishness?
4pm / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
2pm / Blenheim Palace: The Orangery / £12
Leading journalist and
commentator Yasmin AlibhaiBrown takes a fresh look at
‘Englishness’. Is it possible to
create a new national
consensus on ‘Englishness’,
one not based on religion but
on the shared values of all the
different traditions that make
up the English population?
Bestselling historian, journalist and broadcaster Dan Jones brings
to life the Magna Carta on the 800th anniversary of its signing in
1215.
The Magna Carta was the first time the subjects of a king had
forced their ruler to agree to a limit on his powers. Jones explains
how the Magna Carta came to be granted, what it meant in its day
and what it should mean for us today.
Jones is author of The Sunday Times bestsellers The Plantagenets
and The Hollow Crown. He writes for leading national newspapers,
and he has presented television programmes for the BBC and
Channel 5 – including Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty: The
Plantagenets and Great British Castles. Here he talks to journalist
and author Paul Blezard.
Jones will be introduced by Anna Eavis, curatorial director of
English Heritage.
Photo: KT Bruce
The previous English Heritage lectures have been delivered by:
HRH The Duke of Gloucester (2011)
John Julius, Viscount Norwich (2012)
Dr Simon Thurley (2013)
Dr Paula Byrne (2014).
Dan Jones
Presented by
Paul Blezard
Why is it that some children of parents who settled in
England by choice or who sought refuge in this
country are attracted by the ideology of the so-called
Islamic State. And what is the role being played by
social media in turning hearts and minds? What will
it mean to be English in 20 years?
Alibhai-Brown is one of the UK’s leading
commentators on race, multiculturalism and human
rights. She is an award-winning journalist who writes
for national newspapers and is often seen and heard
on television and radio. She won the George Orwell
Prize for political journalism in 2002 and the Emma
Award for journalism in 2004. Alibhai-Brown is
author of Exotic England: The Making of a Curious
Nation, No Place Like Home, the acclaimed The
Settlers’ Cookbook: A Memoir of Migration, Love and
Food and Who Do We Think Are? Imagining the New
Britain.
Supported by
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Beth Powning, Michael Crummey, Serge Patrice Thibodeau and Sue Goyette. Chaired by Thomas Hodd
History and Place in Atlantic Canada
Canada’s Frye Festival brings four leading writers
from Canada’s Atlantic coastline to discuss the
history, culture and landscape of the region they
describe in their novels, poetry and travelogues.
This is a unique opportunity to hear four of Canada’s
best-known writers who are making a rare visit to the
UK for the festival. Beth Powning, Michael Crummey,
Serge Patrice Thibodeau and Sue Goyette have
shaped the literature of Canada’s east coast and their
work has resonated across the world. The history of
Atlantic Canada, for a long time a British colony,
means arrivals and departures and comings and
goings are a major theme of its literature. The
authors will talk about history, mythology of place
and identity – all themes that link their work.
Powning’s latest novel is A Measure of Light, the
story of a Puritan who flees persecution in 17thcentury England, only to find the Puritan
establishment of Massachusetts just as vicious.
She was awarded New Brunswick’s LieutenantGovernor’s Award for High Achievement in EnglishLanguage Literary Arts in 2010.
Crummey is a poet, short story writer and novelist. His
novel Galore won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize
for Best Novel. His latest novel is Sweetland, a story
about one man’s struggle against the forces of nature
and the ruins of memory.
Thibodeau is a poet and essayist. His collection of
sensitive and precise observations of a walker inspired
by the mascaret – or tidal bore – of the Petitcodiac River,
One, won the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award
for Poetry.
Goyette is an award-winning author of four collections of
poetry. The most recent is Ocean, a finalist in the 2014
Griffin Poetry Prize, in which an offbeat cast of
characters give absurd explanations for common and
uncommon occurrences, while the ocean lurks in the
background.
Discussions will be chaired by critic and academic
Professor Thomas Hodd, who teaches Canadian
literature at Université de Moncton, and reviews for
Canadian newspapers.
The Frye Festival exists to feed imaginations. It is an
annual celebration of books and ideas that takes
place in Moncton, New Brunswick, on Canada’s
Atlantic coast. Named after literary critic Northrop
Frye, the festival welcomes more than 40
francophone and anglophone writers from Canada
and abroad every year, making it Canada’s only
bilingual literary festival.
There will be an opportunity to meet the writers after
the discussion at a drinks reception included in the
price for event.
Reception sponsored by The Canadian High
Commission.
Photo: Peter Powning
Beth Powning
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Michael Crummey
Serge Patrice Thibodeau
Sue Goyette
Thomas Hodd
Orhan Pamuk talks to Boyd Tonkin
A Strangeness in my Mind
6pm / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
Nobel-prize-winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk talks to The
Independent journalist and chair of judges for the 2016 Booker
international prize Boyd Tonkin about his new and ninth novel A
Strangeness in My Mind – an unforgettable love story and a modern
epic. It is a rare opportunity to hear one of the world’s most influential
writers.
The novel’s hero is a street seller of a traditional Turkish beverage
Mevlut Karataş. The story follows the love between Mevlut and his
girlfriend and Mevlkut’s life over four decades selling at nights on the
streets of Istanbul and working in various jobs by day. He witnesses
the transformations in Turkey, all the time wondering what is the
‘strangeness’ in his mind that makes him different to all the others.
Pamuk was the second youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize
for Literature when he won the award in 2006. His books have been
translated into 46 languages and he is also the holder of The Peace
Prize, the most prestigious award in Germany in the field of culture,
along with many other international literary awards.
Pamuk’s many celebrated works include The White Castle, Snow and
The Museum of Innocence. His work often focuses on the tensions
between Western and Eastern values and is also characterised by a
fascination with literature and the arts.
Orhan Pamuk
Tonkin is senior writer and columnist at The Independent and former
literary editor at the newspaper. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC
arts programmes and has been a judge on the Booker, Whitbread
and Commonwealth prizes.
Supported by
Boyd Tonkin
Eileen and
Munir Majid
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The Literary History of The
Feathers, the Festival Hotel
Claudia Roden
Dinner in Honour of Orhan Pamuk
The Feathers Hotel, Woodstock / 8pm / £130
Includes drinks reception, dinner, wines and coffee. Dress code – casual
The beautiful dining room of the hotel will be the setting for a dinner in honour of
Nobel Prize winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.
The menu, devised and overseen by the legendary cookery writer Claudia Roden,
will bring together dishes from Turkey, North Africa and the Mediterranean.
Photo: Tony French
Roden was born and brought up in
Cairo. Her bestselling A Book of
Middle Eastern Food revolutionised
attitudes to the cuisine of the Middle
East when it was published in 1968.
Her work has always been
characterised by a particular interest
in the social and historical
background to the food she is writing
about and has received great critical
acclaim. Other works include
Mediterranean Cookery with Claudia
Roden and The Food of Spain.
Roden is winner of many awards,
including six Glenfiddich awards, two
Andre Simon awards, four World
Gourmand awards, the James Beard
Best Cookbook of the Year award in
the USA, and the National Jewish
Book Award in the USA.
Claudia Roden
Woodstock
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Supported by
The Woodstock Literary Institute was founded
in 1852 as a lending library, with an initial
60 subscribers. For over 40 years the institute
was housed in the red-brick Georgian building
on Market Street which now forms the
entrance to The Feathers hotel.
When the institute finally closed in 1894, the
books and fittings were bought by the town
council and formed the basis of the first free
public lending library in Woodstock. The
library opened in the Town Hall in 1898.
The Water Gardens, Blenheim Palace
FRIDAY 25th SEPTEMBER
Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate
King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Haile
Selassie of Ethiopia
10.30 / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate talks to historian and commentator
Victoria Schofield about his colourful new biography of the life of his
great-uncle Emperor Haile Selassie.
Asserate spent his childhood and adolescence in Ethiopia and was
educated at the German School. He fled the 1974 revolution to Europe
to continue his studies at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and the
university of Tübingen and finally received his PhD in history from the
University of Frankfurt. He knew the emperor well and gained an
intimate insight into life in his controversial court. Selassi was a
descendant of King Soloman and fought with the Allies against
Mussolini’s Italy during the Second World War. He was a reformer and
an autocrat and a forerunner of African independence.
Asserate has lived in Germany since the 1970s. He is a corporate
consultant and the author of the critically acclaimed German
bestsellers Manieren (Manners) and Deutsche Tugenden (German
Virtues). He is also the founder of Pactum Africanum, a German
charitable foundation that promotes understanding between the
Abrahamic religions.
Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate
Schofield is a historian and commentator on international affairs. She is
author of the first complete biography of Field Marshal Earl Wavell and
has published the first in a two-volume official history of The Black
Watch.
Sponsored by
Victoria Schofield
Haile Selassi and General Franco
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Jonathan Fenby, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.
Chaired by Gwenan Edwards
Breaking News: A Review of Today’s
Newspapers
10.30 / Blenheim Palace: Marlborough Room / £12
Well-known journalists Jonathan Fenby and Yasmin
Alibhai-Brown review the day’s newspapers with BBC
presenter Gwenan Edwards. Expect some expert opinion
and lively discussion about current affairs.
Fenby is a former editor of The Observer and of the South
China Morning Post. He has written several popular books
about China, including The Penguin History of Modern
China and Will China Dominate the 21st Century, and a
series of books on French history including his latest, The
History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the
Present Day. He speaks about the history of France at
another festival event on Thursday.
Alibhai-Brown is one of the UK’s leading commentators on
race, multiculturalism and human rights. She writes for
national newspapers and is often seen and heard on
television and radio. She won the George Orwell Prize for
political journalism in 2002 and the Emma Award for
journalism in 2004. Her latest book is Exotic England, The
Making of a Curious Nation and she also appears at a
festival event on the nature of Englishness.
Edwards has presented television news programmes
including Wales at Six on ITV and Newsroom South East
on the BBC. She has also reported from across the world
for BBC World News. Edwards has presented and
reported for a number of well-known television
programmes including Watchdog on
BBC1 and the BBC Proms.
Supported by
24
Dermot Turing and Gordon Corera. Chaired by Paul Blezard
From Turing to Today: The Changing Face of the Spy
in the Internet Age
12 noon / Blenheim Palace: Gallery / £12
Alan Turing’s nephew Sir John Dermot Turing and security
correspondent for BBC news Gordon Corera look at Turing the man
and his genius in breaking the Nazi codes in World War II and at
how his legacy and the Internet age has bred a new kind of spy. Who
are these people working in the shadows today to spy on extremists,
businesses and governments?
Dermot Turing’s new biography of his uncle, Prof: Alan Turing
Decoded, takes a look at the short 42-year life of a man widely
regarded as a war hero badly mistreated by his country – a story that
gained new prominence from the recent hugely successful
Hollywood movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict
Cumberbatch as Turing. Dermot Turing uncovers the real man
behind the stories and looks at his wartime work after 1942, which
was kept even more secret than the Enigma work.
Dermot Turing
Corera’s Intercept: The Secret History of Computers and Spies tells
the story of computers and spies from the work of Turing and his
colleagues at Bletchley Park to the present day. Corera uncovers the
true stories about the new spies that have begun to dominate in the
decades following Turing and the work at Bletchley Park. These are
the hackers and spies of the modern internet age who are using
computers to shape our future.
Dermot Turing works for the law firm, Clifford Chance, where his
focus is on regulation, insolvency and risk management for financial
institutions. He is a trustee of Bletchley Park. Corera is security
correspondent for the BBC. He has presented major documentaries
on cyber security and is author of The Art of Betrayal: Life and Death
in the British Secret Service and Shopping for Bombs: The Rise and
Fall of the AQ Khan Network. In 2014 he was named Information
Security Journalist of the Year at the BT Information Security and
Journalism awards
Gordon Corera
Sponsored by
Ann Treneman and Peter Brookes.
Chaired by Daniel Finkelstein
Special Guest Talks to Peter Hennessy
Pencils Sharpened: The Satirists’ Take on
Recent Politics
The Inaugural Duke of Gloucester Lecture
One of Britain’s most prominent politicians talks to
contemporary historian Lord Peter Hennessy about
his life, career and influences. This is a unique
opportunity to hear this special guest in
conversation with the leading chronicler of our age.
Writer Ann Treneman and cartoonist Peter Brookes
explore the subversive power of political satire with a
serious eye and a healthy dose of humour.
Treneman, The Times parliamentary sketch writer
and author of All in it Together: My Five Years
Stalking Dave and Nick, and multi-award-winning
The Times cartoonist Brookes, will share their own
unique interpretations of the General Election and its
fallout. And the event will include the live drawing by
Brookes of a cartoon.
Treneman has been parliamentary sketch writer of
The Times for ten years. All in It Together is her
hilarious take on the five years of the coalition
government from the AV referendum and the tuitionfee vote to the Scottish Referendum. No one is
spared, whether it be Cameron, Clegg, Miliband or
Farage. Brookes was voted cartoonist of the year at
the British Press Awards in six out of the last 13
years. His latest collection of hilarious and beautifully
crafted cartoons are published in Testing Times.
Ann Treneman
Peter Brookes
2.15pm / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British
History at Queen Mary, University of London, a
crossbench peer and a former lobby correspondent.
He spent 20 years as a journalist, variously working
for The Times, the Financial Times and The
Economist and co-founded the Institute of
Contemporary British History. He recently hosted two
series of Reflections, on BBC Radio 4, where he
asks senior politicians to reflect on their life and
times and the people who influenced their views.
Coat of Arms of HRH the Duke of Gloucester
This event will be introduced by HRH the Duke of
Gloucester, royal patron of the festival.
Lord Hennessy
25
The Gibraltar Lecture in the presence of HRH The Duke of Goucester, patron of ‘The Friends of Gibraltar’
Andrew Lambert – The Royal Navy and Gibraltar in World War II
4pm / Blenheim Palace: Gallery / £12
Naval historian Professor Andrew Lambert marks the 70th anniversary of the end of
World War II with a look at the part played by Gibraltar.
Lambert will focus on some of the key events involving Gibraltar and its naval base.
These included the sinking of the Bismark, the disabling of the French Vichy fleet at
Mers-El-Kebir in July 1940 by a British fleet from Gibraltar; relief convoys to Malta from
Gibraltar, particularly Operation Pedestal in August 1942, which broke the siege of
Malta; and the planning of Operation Torch – the invasion of North Africa – by General
Eisenhower in Gibraltar in November 1942 when the general became the only nonBriton to be appointed Commander-in-Chief, Gibraltar.
Lambert is professor of naval history at King’s College London. His books include
Nelson: Britannia’s God of War, Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain
Great and Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Exploration. His history of the British Navy,
War at Sea, was turned into a three-part television series on BBC 2.
The Gibraltar Lecture is delivered each year at the festival and takes the form of an
address, an ‘in conversation’ or a debate. It is devoted to matters of major cultural,
historical or international importance at the invitation of Her Majesty’s Government of
Gibraltar.
The Gibraltar Lecture in 2014 was delivered by Lord Carey.
The lecture will be introduced by
the Hon Fabian Picardo, QC MP
Chief Minister,
HM Government of Gibraltar
Andrew Lambert
Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Formidable and
escorting vessels approach Gibraltar during World War II.
Sponsored by
27
Paul Gambaccini talks to Daniel Finkelstein
John Suchet talks to Gwenan Edwards
Love, Paul Gambaccini: My Year under the Yewtree
The Last Waltz: The Story of the Strauss Dynasty
5.45pm / Blenheim Palace: Gallery / £12
One of Britain’s best-known and most respected
DJs and radio presenters Paul Gambaccini
gives Lord Daniel Finkelstein a no-holds-barred
account of the year he spent under a cloud of
suspicion before being told he would not face
historic sex assault charges.
Gambaccini was arrested in October 2013,
disgraced in the Press, had many personal
possessions confiscated and found himself
unable to work while having to pay thousands
in legal fees. His story is one of betrayal by the
country he had adopted and grown to love, of
the misadventures he had with the Crown
Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police,
and of how he fought back with the support of
his partner and true friends.
Gambaccini is the only presenter to have
broadcast regularly on BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and
4. He was a long-time presenter of Classic FM’s
The Classic Countdown and currently hosts
America’s Greatest Hits on Radio 2 and music
quiz Counterpoint on Radio 4.
Here he talks to Lord Finkelstein, politician and
former executive editor of The Times, and
someone who was critical of the time spent on
bail by Gambaccini.
Former television journalist-turned Classic FM
presenter John Suchet explains how the
Strauss family took Europe by storm in the
19th century.
Suchet shows how two generations of the
Strauss family came from nowhere to produce
hundreds of enduring melodies such as The
Blue Danube Waltz, Tales from the Vienna
Woods, Voices of Spring and The Radetzky
John Suchet March. He describes a family living in an era
of major upheaval and one that was also beset by tension, feuds and
jealousies. Suchet shows how, throughout this chaotic period, the Strauss
family composed waltzes that Austrian families danced and drank
champagne to as their country headed towards World War I.
Suchet is an award-winning television journalist who covered events such
as the Iran revolution and the Soviet investigation of Afghanistan for ITV and
presented News at Ten. He now presents Classic FM’s flagship morning
programme and is recognised as a leading authority on Beethoven. He has
published six books on Beethoven including a biography, Beethoven: The
Man Revealed.
Here he talks to BBC news presenter and
journalist Gwenan Edwards, whose credits
include the BBC Proms, Wales at Six on ITV,
and Newsroom South East and Watchdog on
BBC1.
In association with the Woodstock Music
Society.
Sponsored by
Supported by
28
Hugh Purcell talks to Sue MacGregor
Patrick Gale
A Very Private Celebrity: The Nine Lives of John
Freeman
A Place Called Winter
5.45pm / Blenheim Palace: Marlborough Room / £12
Novelist Patrick Gale talks about his
new and poignant historical novel of
love, relationships, secrets and escape
A Place Called Winter – a The Sunday
Times bestseller and a pick for the
BBC Radio 2 Simon Mayo Book Club.
6pm / St Mary Magdalene Church / £12
Journalist, biographer and former television producer Hugh
Purcell talks to radio presenter Sue MacGregor about the
polymath and forensic television interviewer John Freeman
who believed in changing his life – and his wife – every ten
years. There will be clips from some of Freeman’s famous
interviews, and stories, some never told before, about
interviewees such as Carl Jung, Edith Sitwell, Augustus John
and Evelyn Waugh.
Hugh Purcell
Purcell had a long career in radio and television and travelled
to California to interview Freeman in 1988 before the BBC
repeated Freeman’s famous interview series Face to Face. It
began a long fascination with the man who was at various
stages of his life a University of Oxford student, a war hero,
Member of Parliament, Government minister, television
interviewer of celebrities, broadcast executive, Ambassador to
the US and academic. Despite his celebrity, Freeman was
notoriously private and interviewed his famous subjects with
his back to the camera.
Freeman died at the end of last year, just short of his 100th
birthday, and Purcell has now published A Very Private
Celebrity: The Nine Lives of John Freeman, the
result of ten years of trying to get to the bottom
of Freeman’s enigmatic life and personality.
MacGregor is best known for her work
presenting Woman’s Hour and the Today
Programme on BBC Radio 4. In 2013, she
presented a radio programme that looked back
at archive recordings of Freeman’s Face to Face
interviews.
Sue MacGregor
Sponsored by
The novel is loosely based on a reallife family mystery. The story follows
shy and conventional Harry Cane who
is forced to abandon his wife and child
and emigrate to the newly colonised
Canadian prairies. He settles on a
homestead in a place called Winter,
which is a world away from his
previous life in a turn-of-the century
Edwardian suburb. Faced with
isolation in a harsh landscape and the
threat of war, madness and from a
magnetic and evil man, he discovers
an inner strength and capacity for love
beyond anything he knew before.
Gale was born on the Isle of Wight and
spent his infancy at Wandsworth
prison, where his father was governor.
He now lives in Cornwall and has
made a name as one of Britain’s bestloved novelists. His recent works
include A Perfectly Good Man, The
Whole Day Through and the Richard
and Judy bestseller Notes From An
Exhibition.
Patrick Gale
In association with The
Woodstock Bookshop
Woodstock
29
The Italian Gardens, beside The Orangery, Blenheim Palace
Antony Beevor
Ardennes 1944 – Hitler’s Last Gamble
Dinner hosted by Their Graces The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and Antonio Simoes, Chief Executive of HSBC Bank plc
in the Presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO and HRH The Duchess of Gloucester GCVO
7pm / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £150 / Dress code: Black tie
Join renowned military historian Antony Beevor for a
black tie literary dinner in the magnificent
surroundings of Vanbrugh’s Orangery and hear him
talk about the greatest battle of the war for Western
Europe.
Hitler launched his last gamble in the forests and
gorges of the Ardennes on the Belgian/German border
in December 1944. The offensive involved more than
a million men. The generals doubted its success but
younger and more junior officers were desperate to
believe that it could save them from the Red Army
approaching from the East. Beevor explains how the
Ardennes was the battle that finally broke the German
fighting machine and paved the way for the Red
Army’s final onslaught on Berlin.
Beevor was educated at Winchester and Sandhurst.
He left the Army to write and his award-winning novels
and works of non-fiction have sold more than four
million copies. Stalingrad won the Samuel Johnson
Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the
Hawthornden Prize for Literature, and Berlin received
the first Longman-History Today Trustees’ Award. His
other well-known works include D Day – The Battle for
Normandy and The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939).
Dinner is preceded by a reception on the terrace of
the Duke of Marlborough’s beautiful Italian Gardens.
The price of this event includes reception, drinks,
dinner, wines and a copy of Ardennes 1944: Hitler’s
Last Gamble, which you can have signed by the
author.
Previous speakers at the festival dinner have been:
Richard Holmes (2008)
Andrew Roberts (2009)
Peter Snow (2010)
Sir Terry Wogan (2011)
Frederick Forsyth (2012)
Lucy Worsley (2013)
Sir Jonathan Miller (2014)
Antony Beevor
Sponsored by
33
SATURDAY 26th SEPTEMBER
Alexander Armstrong talks to Paul Blezard
ITV Preview Screening: Land of the Midnight Sun
11am / Blenheim Palace: Gallery / £12
Actor, comedian and television presenter Alexander Armstrong
discusses his new three-part ITV documentary and book, Land
of the Midnight Sun – recounting his epic 8,000-mile journey
around the Arctic – and introduces preview clips from the three
episodes before they are premiered on ITV.
Armstrong set off from Scandinavia for Iceland, Greenland,
Canada and Alaska. He learnt how to survive wildly
unpredictable weather and temperatures down to minus 40
degrees Celsius. Along the way he witnessed some of the
natural wonders of the world and found out why the region
holds such a magnetic lure for its inhabitants. Armstrong
praises the warmth of the welcome he received on a journey he
described as “always cold, often perilous, frequently hilarious”.
Armstrong rose to fame as one half of the comedy duo
Armstrong & Miller first on Channel Four and then in a Baftawinning version on the BBC. He is a frequent host on Have I
Got News for You and but is best-known as host of the hugely
successful BBC daytime quiz show Pointless. He has acted on
television in both straight roles and in sitcoms including Love
Life, Life Begins, Mutual Friends and Hunderby. Land of the
Midnight Sun will air on ITV later this year.
Alexander Armstrong
This event is chaired by Paul Blezard and lasts two hours.
In association with the ITV network
37
Alfred Brendel talks to Gina Thomas
Music, Sense and Nonsense
12 noon / Woodstock: St Mary Magdalene Church / £12
One of the world’s greatest living pianists Alfred Brendel reflects on music
and his work in conversation with journalist Gina Thomas.
Brendel is famous for his interpretations of the great composers Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Liszt. Although he had his first
piano lessons at the age of six, he had little formal training and regards his
unconventional musical background as an advantage. In a prolific career
that began in the 1950s, he has won countless awards for his recording,
including the Léonie Sonning Prize, the Siemens Prize and the Prix Venezia.
The conversation will be interspersed with excerpts from some of his bestknown recordings.
Brendel has now retired from the stage and has just published Music, Sense
and Nonsense: Collected Essays and Lectures. He is one of the world’s most
influential writers on music and the book brings together all of his published
essays and articles alongside some new previously unpublished material.
Here he talks to the UK cultural correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung Gina Thomas.
In association with the Woodstock Music Society.
Supported by
Gina Thomas
38
Woodstock
Alfred Brendel
Gino D’Acampo talks to Donald Sloan
ITV Preview Screening: Gino’s Islands in the Sun:
100 recipes from Sardinia and Sicily
2pm / Blenheim Palace: The Gallery / £12
Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo introduces some clips from his new television series
about the food of Sardinia and Sicily and talks food and Italy with the head of
Oxford Gastronomica Donald Sloan.
Neapolitan D’Acampo is one of the most popular chefs on British television, best
known for his prime time ITV series Gino’s Italian Escape. His many television
credits include Saturday Kitchen, Ready, Steady Cook and This Morning. His huge
popularity with viewers was demonstrated when he was voted King of the Jungle in
the popular reality television show I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here. In his
latest television series, he heads for Sicily and Sardinia to discover the authentic
and delicious Italian food and recipes from these islands.
D’Acampo was born in Naples and inherited his grandfather’s love of cooking. He
studied at the Luigi di Medici Catering College before working across Europe and
eventually settling in England. He has opened three My Pasta Bar restaurants in
London and later this year expands the concept into two new restaurants – in
Manchester and the West End.
Sloan is head of the Oxford School of Hospitality Management at Oxford Brookes
University and chair of Oxford Gastronomica, a specialist centre for the study of
food, drink and culture that works to enhance our relationship with food and drink
and to celebrate their place in our lives.
This event will last 2 hours.
In association with the ITV Network
Gino D’Acampo
Donald Sloan
39
Martin Jennings, Jamie Muir and Ed Taylor. Chaired by Paul Blezard
ITV Preview Screenings: In the Shadow of Mary Seacole
4.30pm / Blenheim Palace: Gallery / £12
Watch some preview clips of a new ITV documentary film about the creation of
Britain’s first statue of a named black woman in Britain – Crimean War heroine, Mary
Seacole.
The landmark statue will have a prominent position outside St Thomas’ Hospital,
London, opposite the Houses of Parliament, and the process of creating it has been
followed by ITV’s cameras for almost three years. The clips will be accompanied by
discussion between the sculptor Martin Jennings, film director Jamie Muir and
executive producer Ed Taylor.
Martin Jennings
Mary Seacole was born in Jamaica where she learnt to care for the sick and infirm
from her doctress mother. She married Lord Nelson’s godson, Edwin Horatio Hamilton
Seacole, who died eight years later. At 50 years of age she sought and was refused
permission to join Florence Nightingale to help with the treatment of injured soldiers.
Mary Seacole defied the racial prejudice she had encountered, and made her own
way to the battlefields to care for the sick and wounded.
The documentary sees presenter David Harewood follow sculptor Martin Jennings as
he produces his sculpture of Seacole. Discussions at this event will centre on the
making of the film and the controversy that the statue has generated amongst the
academic and nursing communities.
Jennings is a well-known sculptor whose works include the Betjeman statue at St
Pancras Station. Taylor is an executive producer at Potato (part of ITV Studios) and
former head of development at the BBC whose credits include How to Read a
Church, Britain’s Secret Treasures and Perspectives: Len Goodman on Fred Astaire.
Jamie Muir
Maquette of the Mary Seacole statue
Muir was part of the original South Bank Show team at ITV. He has directed episodes
of Simon Schama’s A History of Britain, Neil Macgregor’s Making Masterpieces, and
Russia - A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby.
Discussions will be chaired by writer and journalist Paul Blezard.
In association with the ITV network
Ed Taylor
40
Karl Jenkins talks to Gwenan Edwards
Still With the Music
Leading contemporary composer and musician Sir
Karl Jenkins talks about his life and the creative
process that has given him a huge international
following. He is one of the world’s most-performed
living composers.
Jenkins studied at the Royal Academy of Music
before becoming known as a jazz musician and then
going on to join the legendary progressive rock band
Soft Machine in the 1970s. He achieved further
fame as composer of music for advertising wellknown brands such as Levi and Pepsi in the 1980s,
but it was his Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary in 1994
that topped charts across the world and made him
an international star. Other well-known works
include The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and
Requiem.
Karl Jenkins
Still with Music is Jenkins’ new autobiography. He
was born and brought up in Wales and his early
music education came from his father, a teacher and
chapel organist and choirmaster.
Here he talks to television journalist and presenter
Gwenan Edwards, whose credits include the BBC
Proms Wales at Six on ITV, Newsroom South East on
the BBC and Watchdog on BBC1.
In association with the Woodstock Music Society.
Gwenan Edwards
Sponsored by
Woodstock
44
Literary Salon and Dinner
La Galleria / 7.30pm / £100 / Dress – casual
An evening of relaxed diverting conversation and wonderful Sardinian food
and wine at our traditional literary salon.
Join a distinguished range of authors and writers appearing at the festival over
the weekend – with no table plans – to talk informally and enjoy a traditional
Sardinian supper cooked by Lucio and his chefs at La Galleria restaurant.
The price of the event includes full Sardinian menu and wine, featuring anti
pasti, main course, dessert and coffee.
Woodstock
Photo: courtesy of Wake up to Woodstock
Lucio, our host for the Salon Dinner
45
SUNDAY 27th SEPTEMBER
Performance Research Group
Sonia Purnell
Two Earnest: A Reworking of Oscar Wilde
First Lady: The Life and Wars of
Clementine Churchill
Festival service
10.30am / Blenheim Palace: Marlborough Room / £12
Shakespeare scholar Professor SirJonathan Bate will
preach at the festival service in St Mary Magdalene
Church.
10am / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, The Importance of
Being Earnest, is forcibly rewired for one table, two
actors, and three hats, in a gender-flexing assault on
Victorian family values. Cutting through swathes of
epigrams in cut-glass accents and half-cut song-anddance routines, this Performance Research Group
staging is both totally Wilde, and in deadly Earnest.
Wilde’s satire on Victorian values was first published in
1895 and its high farce and comedy were welcomed
by reviewers, although many remarked on the lack of
a social message. Its first run came to an abrupt end,
however, as revelations about Wilde’s double life as a
homosexual eventually led to him being imprisoned.
Today, The Importance of Being Earnest stands as
Wilde’s most popular and enduring play.
Performance Research Group is returning to
Blenheim for the fourth year following its hugely
successful productions of Shakespeare for Breakfast
(2014), A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (2013), and Macbeth
(2012). It is a practitioners’
collective of theatre
professionals and actors in
training, operating under the
auspices of the Guildford School
of Acting (GSA). The production
is directed by PRG’s artistic
director Jaq Bessell.
Biographer Sonia Purnell explains why Blenheim
Palace-born Sir Winston Churchill said his leadership
in World War II would have been impossible without
his wife Clementine beside him.
Purnell had access to rarely seen archives, letters
and diaries in the UK and US and collected new
testimony from members of the Churchill and
Roosevelt families and from surviving members of
the Churchills’ staff for her new biography of
Clementine Churchill. She sheds new light on a
complex woman who was trying to maintain her
identity while serving as conscience and adviser to
Britain’s great war leader. And she explains how
Clementine was involved in some of the war’s most
crucial decisions and how she charmed both
Britain’s allies and those working on the home front.
Purnell has worked as a Whitehall correspondent
and editor on both the Daily Telegraph and Daily
Mail. Her first book,
Just Boris: A Tale of
Blond Ambition, a
portrait of London
Mayor Boris Johnson
was longlisted for the
Orwell Prize.
Jonathan Bate
11am / St Mary Magdalene Church / Free
Bate is well known as a biographer, critic,
broadcaster and scholar with interests in
Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature,
Romanticism, biography and life-writing,
ecocriticism, contemporary poetry and theatre
history. He is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare
Company, broadcasts regularly for the BBC, and
writes for The Guardian, The Times, The Times
Literary Supplement and The Sunday Telegraph. His
latest works include Being Shakespeare, a one-man
play for Simon Callow.
Bate is Provost of Worcester College, Oxford.
No ticket is required for the service, which is free
and open to all.
Sponsored by
The performance lasts 90 minutes with no interval.
School presence supported by Owen Mumford.
Women in Society
Sonia Purnell
Jonathan Bate
Woodstock
49
Bel Mooney talks to Ernie Rea
Women in Society
Max Mosley
Bel Mooney’s Lifelines: Words to Help You Through
Formula One and Beyond
12.30pm / Blenheim Palace: Orangery / £12
One of Britain’s best-known writers, Bel Mooney offers some advice on getting
through the tough times we all face at some point in our lives.
One of the most influential figures in Formula One history and a formidable
campaigner for the right to privacy Max Mosley talks about his compelling and
controversial new memoir.
Mooney has been a journalist and broadcaster for more than 40 years. For the
last ten years, she has been writing a column (first for The Times and now for
the Saturday edition of the Daily Mail) advising readers on relationship and
emotional issues. Her valuable insights into marital breakup, grief and family
problems are complemented each week by a short opinion column in which she
shares a wide range of personal thoughts on the human condition. Her new
book is an uplifting anthology that draws on the column, incorporating some of
her columns, answers to specific problems and inspiring quotations from the
page. The extracts are prefixed by a long, wide-ranging essay reflecting on what
being an advice columnist has taught her – and how we all need to accept
change in our lives. As wise as it is honest, Bel Mooney’s Lifelines shares some
of the life experiences that have taught the author about the workings of the
human heart.
Mooney has written for many
publications including the Daily Mirror,
The Sunday Times, The Times and
Daily Mail. She has also written 25
books including six novels and many
books for children including the ‘Kitty
and Friends’ and ‘Bonnie the dog’
series.
Mosley talks about a life that has seen him constantly in the public eye since he
was a few weeks old when his parents, Diana and Oswald, were interned during
the Second World War for their political beliefs. A promising career as a lawyer
was cut short when he took up motor racing as a driver and then team owner. In
partnership with Bernie Ecclestone, he became one of the most influential people
in Formula One. He famously took on the might of the News of the World for
invading his privacy and won his court case. He has since become a formidable
campaigner on privacy and pursued further privacy cases.
Mosely was president of FIA, the governing body of motor sport, between 1993
and 2009 during which time he championed greater safety and green
technologies. Prior to that he led the March Formula One team. After he decided
to take the News of the World to court, a friend of Rupert Murdoch asked Bernie
Ecclestone: “Does Max know what he’s
taking on?” Ecclestone replied that he
did, but he was not sure about Murdoch.
With News UK back in the spotlight,
Mosley will undoubtedly have views on
the return of Rebekah Brooks.
Here she talks to radio presenter Ernie
Rea, who presents BBC Radio 4’s faith
discussion programme, Beyond Belief,
and is a frequent presenter on Pick of
the Week.
Sponsored by
Bel Mooney
50
Supported by
Max Mosley
Ian and
Carol Sellars
Shaun Evans, Russell Lewis and Dan McCulloch
ITV Preview Screening: Endeavour – Raising the Bar on the Murder Mystery Genre
Endeavour star Shaun Evans joins writer Russell Lewis and producer Dan
McCulloch to introduce some preview clips of the third series of the
Morse prequel drama and discuss its phenomenal success. The three will
discuss how they have gone about raising the bar for the television
murder mystery genre in this new series of Endeavour and how you keep
pushing the envelope to keep the viewer engaged.
Endeavour follows the early career of the younger Morse in
Oxford in the 1960s. The series began with a feature
length film to mark the 25th anniversary of Morse.
Its success led to two series of the drama. The
second attracted a peak audience of seven million
and was one of the best performing dramas on the
channel. The climax of series two found Morse in
prison and framed for the murder of Chief Constable
Rupert Standish after unearthing corruption at the
heart of the city’s police. His boss, DI Fred Thursday
was hanging on to life after being shot in the chest.
The new series has been written by Lewis and
Endeavour creator and Inspector Morse writer
Russell Lewis. Author of the Morse novels Colin
Dexter has again acted as consultant. It stars Evans
as Endeavour and features four episodes set in
1967. The big theme is change in the world and
change for Endeavour and those most dear to him.
In association with the ITV network.
51
Madeleine Shaw
Get the Glow: Recipes to Nourish you
from the Inside Out
2pm / Blenheim Palace: Indian Room / £12
Shaw says that eating foods that don’t contain
refined sugar combined with thinking positively can
help to heal gut issues and increase vitality. Her
recipe book Get the Glow features 100 wheat-free
and sugar-free recipes that are easy to make and
feature ingredients from local supermarkets.
Madeleine Shaw
52
The 101 Greatest Plays: From Antiquity to
the Present
Michael Billington
Renowned theatre critic
Michael Billington
explains to author and
journalist Paul Blezard
how he chose the 101
greatest plays written
from the time of the
Greeks to the present day
and why they made his
final list.
Billington has been theatre critic of the Guardian
since 1971 and of Country Life since 1986. His
choices are sure to provoke debate. He puts them
into context with extended essays on their
significance and performance history. And he
questions what makes a great play? Do
circumstances and the passage of time change what
makes a great play? Are there common factors
through the centuries? Michael Simkins, who played
Dr Lionel Mead in the television series Doctors, and
stage, film and television actress and graduate of
Oxford School of Drama Amy Enticknap will read
excerpts from selected plays.
Billington is Britain’s longest-serving theatre critic. He
has written biographies of Harold Pinter and Peggy
Ashcroft, critical studies of Tom Stoppard and Alan
Ayckbourn, and a survey of post-war British drama.
Andrew Gant talks to Adrian Daffern
O Sing Unto the Lord: A History of English
Church Music
Composer, choirmaster, teacher and writer Andrew
Gant talks to Canon Adrian Daffern about his new
account of English church music from its Anglo Saxon
Saxon
origins origins
to the present
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today.
Guards’ Chapel, Worcester College Oxford, and Her
Majesty’s
Chapel Royal.
Hechoirs
led the
Chapel The
Royal at
Gant
has directed
leading
including
the funeral
of Queen
Elizabeth
the Queen
and
Guards’
Chapel,
Worcester
College
Oxford,Mother
and Her
Majesty’s
the marriage
Chapel
of Prince
Royal.William
He ledand
the Kate
Chapel
Middleton
Royal at in
the
2011.
funeral
He lectures
of Queen
in Elizabeth
music at St
thePeter’s
QueenCollege
Motherand
and
the
St Edmund
marriageHall
of Prince
in Oxford,
William
and
is author
Christmas
and
Kate of
Middleton
in Carols:
2011.
From
VillageinGreen
He
lectures
musictoatChurch
St
Peter’s
Choir. College and St Edmund
Hall in Oxford, and is author of
Daffern is team rector of the
Christmas Carols: From Village
benefice of Blenheim. He was
Green to Church Choir.
canon residentiary at Coventry
Daffern
Cathedral
is for
team
seven
rector
years.
of the
Andrew Gant
benefice of Blenheim. He was
In association with the
canon residentiary at Coventry
Woodstock Music Society.
Cathedral for seven years. The
Woodstock
Chapel Choir of Jesus College
Photo: Katie Vandyck
There was a time when Shaw used to wake up
feeling bloated and unhealthy because of a diet she
was brought up on of rice cakes and fruit. However,
a spell helping to run a health café on Bondi Beach
in Sidney, Australia, was a revelation. She began to
eat meat and good fats and within a week or two her
vitality and health returned. She is now a trained
nutritional health coach, food blogger and creative
cook based in
London. Her healthy
recipes include easyto-prepare dishes
such as Thai Coconut
Prawn Soup With
Courgetti and Raw
Chocolate Peanut
Butter Brownie Cake.
Michael Billington talks to Paul Blezard
– The University of Worcester Lecture
Photo: Natasha Billington
Nutritional health coach Madeleine Shaw shows how
eating well can become a way of life and make you
healthier and happier.
Daphne Selfe talks to Lucia van der Post
Women in Society
Douglas Hurd
Women in Society
The Way We Wore: A Life in Clothes
Queen Elizabeth II: The Steadfast
Britain’s oldest supermodel Daphne Selfe talks about her extraordinary life from
being a young model in post-war Britain to still being in demand today in her late
eighties.
Former Foreign Secretary Lord Douglas Hurd
looks at the life and role of Britain’s reigning
monarch Queen Elizabeth II and the way she
has adapted to changing times over her 60year reign.
Selfe’s memoir, The Way We Wore, is the story of a lifelong affair with clothes and
fashion that stretches from the party frocks of her 1930s childhood to the pages
of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. She has been photographed by Mario
Testino, Nick Knight and David Bailey and has modelled for high fashion and for
the high street. What is so remarkable is that she is still in high demand today.
Her recent fashion campaigns have included ones for footwear maker Vans and
the store & Other Stories and for the Trafford Centre in Manchester.
Selfe grew up in the Home Counties before being sent to boarding school during
the Second World War. She won a local magazine cover girl competition at the age
of 21 before training to be a model at the Gaby Young Agency in London.
Photo: Alistair Guy
The Queen becomes Britain’s longest-serving
monarch in September 2015 and Hurd
shows how she has stood as a lasting symbol
of stability, continuity and public service
through a period of vast change. Hurd has
seen the Queen at close quarters, most
notably as Home Secretary and then on
overseas tours as Foreign Secretary. He also
brings a historian’s perspective to his new
book Queen Elizabeth II: Penguin Monarchs:
Douglas Hurd
The Steadfast Queen. In it, he portrays a
woman who is deeply conservative by nature but with an acceptance of modern
life and an awareness that things must change for things to stay the same.
Hurd was MP for mid-Oxfordshire and then Witney
between 1974 and 1997. In a distinguished
parliamentary career he held many cabinet roles
including Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. He is also
an author of political thrillers and non-fiction
including biographies of Robert Peel and Disraeli.
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
Daphne Selfe
53
FESTIVAL CLOSING EVENT
Maureen Lipman, Jeremy Robson, Jacqui Dankworth and Charlie Wood
New Blues in the Park: An Original Programme of Poetry, Humour, and Songs Inspired by the
Jazz Greats
5pm / Blenheim Palace: The Orangery / £15 – £20
Actress Maureen Lipman, poet Jeremy Robson, and acclaimed jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth return by popular request
to Blenheim for more poetry, wit and music following their hugely successful concert last year. For this special event
Dankworth will be joined by her husband, the acclaimed pianist-vocalist Charlie Wood, saxophonist Julian Siegel and
bassist Oli Hayhurst.
Lipman will join Robson in reading some of Robson’s poems along with some of her own brilliantly witty monologues
(and perhaps a taste too of her popular Joyce Grenfell show), and Dankworth and Wood will sing duets of classic songs
of the last 100 years inspired by great musical partnerships and composers.
Robson initiated and participated in the highly popular Poetry and Jazz in Concert events that featured many leading
poets and musicians. Described by The Times as ‘a champion of poetry’, Robson’s latest moving and often witty
collection, Blues In the Park was described by Lipman as ‘a marvellous wry observation of the sweet, sour, and savoury
in life’. He will include some new poems in tonight’s event.
Maureen Lipman
Olivier-award-winning actress Lipman recently starred in the West End production of Harvey. This autumn she will be
appearing on television as presenter of Treasures of Britain. She will also be appearing in two sit-coms, The Job Lot and
Bull, and begins work in a new musical in October. Lipman is versatile, witty, and greatly loved and she has played many
leading theatrical and televison roles, as well as being the author of a number of bestselling books.
Dankworth is one of the UK’s most highly regarded vocalists. Her concert appearances and her stylistically diverse
recordings showcase her effortless mastery of a wide spectrum of genres. Known primarily as a jazz singer, Dankworth
also draws on soul and blues influences.
Wood is an American singer/songwriter and pianist whose eclectic musical style incorporates elements of jazz, blues,
traditional R&B and popular music.
Jacqui Dankworth
Charlie Wood
Siegel is one of the most highly sought-after saxophonists and has worked with many of the top figures in music. He won
the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best Instrumentalist and his quartet CD Urban Theme Park won the London Jazz Award.
Hayhurst, a brilliant and award-winning bassist, has also performed
and recorded with a long and diverse list of famous artists.
Sponsored by
This event lasts two hours including
a 30-minute drinks interval.
Festival London Hotel Partner
Jeremy Robson
55
The Marlborough School, Woodstock, at the Festival
All School Events Sponsored by Owen Mumford
Melanie King
Book Club: The Book Thief
Marlborough School
In association with the 2015 Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature,
Film & Music, local author Melanie King will host a book club for 25
year-12 and 13 students from the Marlborough School in Woodstock.
This year’s book club will discuss the book, The Book Thief by Markus
Zusak (2005).
Here is a small fact – you are going to die.
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has
never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster
family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a
concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story
of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
Some important information – this novel is narrated by death.
It’s a small story, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical
Germans, a Jewish fist fighter and quit a lot of thievery.
Another thing you should know – death will visit the book thief three
times.
The King Prize for
Creative Writing
The King Prize is a creative writing prize
of £100 awarded for a short story
between 750 and 1,000 words. Offered
by two local authors, Melanie and Ross
King, it runs in conjunction with the 2015
Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature
Film & Music. The prize is open to
students from The Marlborough School in
Woodstock, who are in years 11, 12 and
13 in September 2015.
The entries will be judged by Melanie and
Ross King; a representative of Owen
Mumford, one of the festival sponsors;
and an external judge also linked to the
festival. The winner will be presented with
a cheque for £100 by Melanie King at a
school assembly scheduled during the
festival. All entries will be published in a
school publication.
Melanie King
Woodstock Parish Church
This event has been specially organised for students at The Marlborough School, Woodstock, and there are no tickets available for the general public.
59
Jonathan Pocock ‘Tumbler of Roses’ oil on canvas 40x40cm
Gallery Hours: Monday – Sat 10.00am-5.30pm
Sunday 11.00am-5.00pm
Iona House Gallery, 4 High Street, Woodstock, Oxford OX20 1TF
01993 811464 [email protected]
www.ionahousegallery.org
HOW TO GET TO THE FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL VENUES
By Road Woodstock is 8 miles north-west of Oxford on
the A44 Evesham Road and approximately an hour’s
drive from both London and Birmingham.
From the South From M40 Junction 8, take the A40.
After approximately 9 miles, at the Pear Tree interchange
take the A44, signposted Evesham and Woodstock.
4
6
From the North From M40 junction 9, follow the A34
towards Oxford for approximately 5 miles. At the Pear
Tree interchange take the A44 signposted Evesham and
Woodstock.
Courtyard
To reach central Woodstock, use postcode OX20 1SL for
internet searches or satellite navigation.
By Rail The nearest main line station is Hanborough, 2
miles from Woodstock, on the Paddington to Hereford
line (1 hour 15 mins). Taxis should be ordered in
advance. Oxford station is 8 miles away.
By Bus The number S3 bus runs from the Oxford Bus
Station to Woodstock at approximately
30-minute intervals. For details of times see website:
www.stagecoachbuses.com/oxford
Parking in Woodstock There is a public car park, the
entrance is in Hensington Road. Parking is also available
at Blenheim Palace during the festival (£3). However,
parking is free for ticket holders to main Blenheim
Palace festival talks on the day they take place. Access
to the Blenheim Palace car park is through the
Hensington Gate entrance on the A44. Parking is
available from 9am – 5.30pm. (Please note: cars must
leave Blenheim by 5.30pm). There is later parking for
palace ticket holders for evening events.
66
3
2
5
1
Café
and shop
1 The Orangery
2 Campaign Rooms
Entrance
3 Marlborough Room
4 The Indian Room
5 Spencer Churchill Room
6 The Gallery
Festival venues
Blenheim Palace
BOOKING INFORMATION
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OR
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TICKETS
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??FESTIVAL
????
Parking
Lane (restricted widths)
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To
Chipping by
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Sponsored
by
Sponsored
Sponsoredbyby
Sponsored
The festival is a ‘ticketless’ event. Festival-goers will
??? an email confirmation and no physical tickets
???
receive
will
???? be posted to those who have booked. On the door,
we will ask for the named holder of the booking and
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check it against our record. There is no need to bring
Sponsored
Sponsored
byby
print-outs
of
your email.Tickets can be bought as
follows:
P
ONLINE Please visit
www.blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com Tickets can be
booked up to one hour before the event.
OX
3
FO
RD
2
4
1
ET
PARK STREET
RE
1
ST
MARKET STREET
The Woodstock
Bookshop
HE
N
N
SI
G
N
TO
RO
AD
IN PERSON Feathers Hotel, 16-20 Market Street,
Woodstock OX20 1SX.
TELEPHONE The Feathers will operate a daily
telephone box office on 01993 812291 between
11am and 2.30pm
The Bear Hotel
HIGH STREET
To Oxford
OXFORD ROAD
P
Festival venues Woodstock
1 Blenheim Palace
Pedestrian Access –
Park Street
2 Blenheim Palace
Vehicular Access –
Oxford Road
1 St Mary Magdalene Church
2 The Feathers Hotel
3 Marlborough School, Shipton Road
4 La Galleria Restaurant
Denotes events in Woodstock town venues
2
FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE A walk-up box office at Blenheim
Palace will be open throughout the festival.
Festival box office opening hours are
• Thursday, September 24, 10.30am-6pm
• Friday, September 25, 10am-6pm
• Saturday, September 26, 10am-4.30pm
• Sunday, September 27, 9.30am-5pm
Immediately before events: Bookings can be made
online or from the festival box office up to one hour
before each event. Any remaining places will be sold
on the door.
Tickets for festival events at Blenheim Palace on all 4 days,
Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th September, include free
entry to the grounds and gardens on the day of the ticket
(price normally £13.80).
67
BOOKING INFORMATION
Note: We strongly recommend that all festival-goers
purchase their tickets well before the events as the
festival box office can get very busy. Our new box
office system means you will not require a physical
ticket. Your details will be recorded on the door of the
event as long as you book online or through the
festival box office up to one hour before.
OUR NEW BOX OFFICE
DISABLED ACCESS
All venues have disabled access with the exception of
The Feathers hotel and La Galleria.
For the first time, we are able to integrate pre-festival
and on-festival ticket sales, a major improvement for
the festival administration. There is no queuing to
pick up tickets and we can quickly access customer
booking details and more easily contact you in the
event of last-minute cancellations or changes.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unless otherwise stated, events last approximately
one hour.
Tickets are not refundable. However, in the event of
sold-out events, the festival can occasionally refund
or exchange tickets. All requests for refunds or
exchanges should be made to the point of sale (see
below).
The Blenheim Palace Literary Festival reserves the
right to alter the programme or substitute writers if
circumstances so dictate.
All details are correct at the time of going to press.
Festival telephone number
07444 318986
68
The festival has a new box office developed for us by
the leading online ticket agency WeGotTickets. Online
sales are made through WeGotTickets online booking
system. In-person and telephone sales are made
through the festival’s own box office system
developed for us by WeGotTickets.
Finally, it is better for the environment. We have no
need to print tickets and deliver them. Nor is there
any need for you to print out your email confirmation.
We will have your name on the door and will simply
check for it when you arrive. It is rare that we require
any form of identification but, if we do, a bank card
or driving licence will suffice.
As always, please make sure you arrive in plenty of
time, particularly for the big events, which often
sell out.
The WeGotTickets system is very flexible. For
example, if you are buying tickets for someone else,
you can reallocate them through your WeGotTickets
account or through the point of sale if you bought at
The Feathers or through the festival box office. If you
do have any issues with your booking, you should
refer in the first instance to the point of sale, ie
WeGotTickets, The Feathers, or the festival box office
in Blenheim Palace.
Refunds for cancelled talks can only be made through
the original point of sale.
You can find out more about how the online ticketing
system works at www.wegottickets.com/faqs
Box Office 01865THE
305305
PROGRAMME
AT A GLANCE
12pm
12pm
2pm
2pm
4pm
4pm
Maki Mandela
James Russell
Dan Jones
Jonathan Fenby
6pm Orhan Pamuk
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
The Feathers Hotel
11am
12pm
2pm
4:30pm
Alexander Armstrong
Alfred Brendel
Gino D'Acampo
and Ed Taylor
6pm Karl Jenkins
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
and Gwenan Edwards
4pm Paul Gambaccini
4pm Andrew Lambert
5.45pm John Suchet
5.45pm Hugh Purcell
6pm Patrick Gale
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
10am Two Earnest:
11am Jonathan Bate
12pm Bel Mooney
12.30pm Max Mosley
and Dan McCulloch
2pm Madeleine Shaw
3pm Andrew Gant
4pm Daphne Selfe
4pm Douglas Hurd
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
The Blenheim Palace Festival
of Literature, Film & Music
Thursday 24 – Sunday 27
September 2015
Box Office 01993 812291
(11am – 2.30pm)
blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com
festival of
liter ature
film & Music
Thursday 24 – Sunday 27 September 2015 The ultimate boutique literary festival
festival of
liter ature
Courtyard of The Feathers hotel, Woodstock
film & Music
Featuring Orhan Pamuk • Dr Maki Mandela • Antony Beevor • Sir Karl Jenkins • Maureen Lipman
Alexander Armstrong • Prince Asserate • Sue MacGregor • Paul Gambaccini • Bel Mooney
Max Mosley • Douglas Hurd • Alfred Brendel • Claudia Roden • John Suchet • Daphne Selfe
Peter Hennessy • Dan Jones • Gino D’Acampo • Daniel Finklestein • Michael Billington
Box Office 01865THE
305305
PROGRAMME
AT A GLANCE
12pm
12pm
2pm
2pm
4pm
4pm
Maki Mandela
James Russell
Dan Jones
Jonathan Fenby
6pm Orhan Pamuk
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
The Feathers Hotel
11am
12pm
2pm
4:30pm
Alexander Armstrong
Alfred Brendel
Gino D'Acampo
and Ed Taylor
6pm Karl Jenkins
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
and Gwenan Edwards
4pm Paul Gambaccini
4pm Andrew Lambert
5.45pm John Suchet
5.45pm Hugh Purcell
6pm Patrick Gale
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
10am Two Earnest:
11am Jonathan Bate
12pm Bel Mooney
12.30pm Max Mosley
and Dan McCulloch
2pm Madeleine Shaw
3pm Andrew Gant
4pm Daphne Selfe
4pm Douglas Hurd
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace

festival of literature - The Blenheim Palace Literary Festival

Transcription

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