Wantage (not just) Betjeman Festival

Jane Austen Evening
One ticket, two talks!
Nicola Cornick
Ashdown House and the
story behind Sense and
Sensibility
In January 1801,
Jane Austen wrote
in her letters:
“Eliza has seen
Lord Craven… The
little flaw of
Kevin Dutton
The Wisdom of
Psychopaths
Sponsor: Wantage Decorative
and Fine Arts Society.
11am Thursday 24 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Jenny Johns
Goblin Market by
Christina Rossetti
6.15pm Thursday 24 October
Wantage Library
Actress Jenny Johns trained
at Bristol Old Vic Theatre
school where she won the
Newton Blick Award 2011.
She has acted on stage, TV
and radio, recently playing
Lucinda Hawksley
The Mystery of
Princess Louise
7.30pm Thursday 24 October
Vale & Downland Museum
Descendant of
Charles Dickens
and distinguished
biographer,
Lucinda Hawksley
talks about Queen Victoria’s
artistic and tempestuous
daughter, Princess Louise.
What was so dangerous
about this royal that her life
has been documented more
by rumour and gossip than
hard facts? Lucinda reveals a
fascinating woman,
modern before her time,
whose story has been
shielded for years from
public view. £6
Michael Portillo
All Stops from
Westminster
Sponsor: Bushbuy Ltd.
2pm Friday 25 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Michael will be recalling
some of the characters and
events across his thirty years
in politics, and telling how
his life was diverted onto
a different track, making
railway journeys for BBC
television. £10
John Lloyd
The Big Book Supper!
Maria McCann
interviewed by Eliza Graham
Ace, King, Knave
plus a book discussion on
The Wilding
7.30pm (doors open 7pm)
Friday 25 October
Vale & Downland Museum
If you’re a book
group member or
just a book lover,
this event is for
you! Take up the
Festival Challenge to read
Maria McCann’s novel,
The Wilding in advance and
grab the chance to ask this
acclaimed historical novelist
about her work. During the
first half of the evening, Maria
will talk about her latest book,
Ace, King, Knave with
novelist Eliza Graham. After
supper, join in our festival
book discussion on The
Wilding. Advance booking
essential. £12 (including one
course supper, excluding
drinks)
8pm Saturday 26 October
Old Mill Hall, Grove
A welcome return of
this notorious 1920s
entertainment with poems
by Edith Sitwell and music
by William Walton. The
programme also includes
some songs by Lord Berners
and other composers of that
time. £10
The Newport and
District Male Voice
Choir (Salop) plus
Wantage Male Voice
Choir in A Grand
Charity Concert
In aid of Helen &
Douglas House
In memory of Barbara Cooper
7.30 Saturday 26 October
Wantage Civic Hall
A programme of favourite
songs plus the World Premier
of new musical settings of
John Betjeman’s Wantage
Bells and A Shropshire Lad. £8
Tickets available from
Helen & Douglas House Shop,
Wantage: 01235 764849
Bretts Pharmacy:
01235 763941
Festival Literary Lunch
Frances Osborne
Women who Break
the Rules
Sponsor: Grove 2000
12 for 12.30pm
Sunday 27 October,
Bistro 14
Frances Osborne,
bestselling author
and biographer,
talks about why
she likes women
Alison Weir
Elizabeth of York –
the first Tudor Queen
4pm Sunday 27 October
Vale & Downland Museum
Celebrated
historian and
novelist Alison
Weir talks about
her forthcoming
biography of Elizabeth of
York, daughter to Edward IV,
sister to the Princes in the
Tower, wife of Henry V11 and
mother of Henry V111. Alison
will reveal intriguing new
insights into her fascinating
and often poignant story,
showing that the traditional
perception of Elizabeth of
York should now be revised.
£8
Mike Read
An evening with Mike
Read and his Songs
In aid of Oxfordshire Age UK
7.30pm Sunday 27 October
Shush, The Venue
Wantage
(not just)
2013
Sponsor: Richmond,
Letcombe Regis
who break the rules and the
real stories behind her First
World War and suffragette
novel, Park Lane. £25
Menu choices must be given
at the time of booking.
History
Poetry & Music
History
6pm Friday 25 October
Wantage Civic Hall
John Lloyd CBE is a writer,
presenter and radio & TV
producer best known for
starting The News Quiz, To
The Manor Born, Not The
Nine O’Clock News, Spitting
Image, Blackadder and QI. He
has worked in broadcasting
for 40 years and, for more
than a quarter of that time,
has lived three and a half
miles east of Wantage. John
will speak frankly about
the stars who have, slightly
annoyingly, outshone him in
his career and unveil many,
daringly modern definitions
from his latest book, Afterliff,
a dictionary of ‘things there
should be words for but
aren’t!’ £8
Richard Baker,
Margaret Bateman
The Pavlova Ensemble
‘Façade’
Julia Reynolds,
Grahame O’Connor,
Songs by Lord Berners
Festival Finale
Interviewed by Mary Loudon
2.30pm Thursday 24 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Best-selling
author Lesley
Lokko’s latest
novel is an epic
tale of three
women whose lives
interweave over decades. In a
gorgeous beachfront mansion
in Martha’s Vineyard, two
women have left their young
children in the care of their
life-long friend. By the end of
the afternoon, one of the
children is missing. £6
Media & Meanings
Talk & Quiz
Lesley Lokko
Little White Lies
11am Friday 25 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Last year, the
Friends of the
Vale &
Downland
Museum
successfully
bid online for
two paper silhouette pictures
and book on sale in an
Amsterdam art-house auction.
The three prized items were
the work of Victorian artist,
Jane Elizabeth Cook (née
Robbins) who was a
well-known portrait painter
before her marriage to the
Headmaster of King Alfred’s
Grammar School. Bill Fuller
describes the life of this
remarkable lady who, having
painted European royalty and
mixed in Court circles, settled
in Wantage and used her
considerable artistic talent to
help fund school buildings. £6
Sponsor: NFU Mutual Wantage
Poetry & Music
Jane Austen was
a regular visitor
to London and three of the
houses where she stayed
with her banker brother
Henry are still in existence.
Writer and historical novelist
Louise Allen will take us on
an illustrated journey through
the London that Jane Austen
knew and in which she set so
many memorable scenes.
Tea Party Event ticket: £10
7.30pm Thursday 24 October
The Bear Hotel
Journalist and
comedy writer
Marcus Berkmann
discusses men in
middle age. A
Shed of One’s Own is about
humiliation, loss of dignity,
crushing disappointment and
aching knees. It is also about
liberation, loss of fear, the
abnegation of ambition and
the pleasure of inactivity.
Expect a humorous take on
Mid-Life without the Crisis!
The talk is followed by a fun
festival quiz. £8
Sponsor: Wantage Decorative
and Fine Arts Society.
John Lloyd
Afterliff of QI
Fiction & Food
Who was the real
Jane Austen? A
spinster who sat
in a vicarage
confining her
novels to the small
canvas of village life? Or a
woman who knew the
turbulent world around her
and who took the bold
decision to remain unmarried
and fashion herself as a
professional writer?
Best-selling biographer Paula
Byrne talks about the forces
that shaped the interior life of
Britain’s most beloved novelist
by focusing on objects that
conjure up key moments in
Austen’s life and work.
Evening Event ticket: £10
Louise Allen
Jane Austen’s
London
7.30pm Wednesday 23 October
Vale & Downland Museum
Business
Paula Byrne
The Real Jane Austen:
A Life in Small Things
1pm Thursday 24 October
King Alfred’s Head
(Bar available)
Dan Thompson
artist and writer,
author of
Pop-up Business
for Dummies and
spokesman for the Empty
Shops Network, discusses
declining town centres and
possible radical solutions. £6
Sponsor: Charles Lucas &
Marshall –Solicitors
Bill Fuller
So who was Jane Cook?
Fiction & Food
[email protected]
A subversive
but affectionate
spoof of the life and times of
Lydia Bennet Wickham, the
notorious minor character
in Jane Austen’s Pride
and Prejudice. Lizzie’s
silly little sister is now
sophisticated and nineteen.
Her disappointing husband
has conveniently died at
Waterloo. Penniless but
ambitious, what is she to do?
Dan Thompson
Lunchtime Business
Lecture
Marcus Berkmann
A Shed of One’s Own
plus fun festival quiz!
Politics & Railway
www.jgodfreyandsonfuneralservices.co.uk
Transport and Travel
Classic and general
Fiction
History and Biography
Children’s Literature
Sports, Maps and
more...
Jean Burnett
Who Needs
Mr Darcy?
Grace Morgan in The Archers.
Here she presents a dramatic
reading of Christina Rossetti’s
poetic masterpiece. £8
(including drinks and nibbles)
History
01235 767165
Poetry and Plays
Art and Music
Folio Society books
Natural History and
Gardening
Architecture and
Archaeology
3.15pm Wednesday 23 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Fiction
21 Mill Street
Wantage
Oxon, OX12 9AB
Sponsor and Catering:
Delicious of Wantage
In this groundbreaking
adventure into the world
of psychopaths, renowned
psychologist Kevin Dutton
reveals a shocking truth:
beneath the hype and the
popular characterisation,
psychopaths have something
to teach us. £6
Poetry & Drinks
Ware Road
Stanford in the Vale
Oxon, SN7 8NY
having a mistress now living
with him at Ashdown Park
seems the only unpleasing
circumstance about him.” The
mistress was Harriette
Wilson, one of the most
notorious courtesans of the
Regency age. At Ashdown
House, Jane Austen’s world of
country parsonages collided
with Craven’s considerably
less respectable existence.
The results may well have
inspired Sense and Sensibility.
Novelist and historian
Nicola Cornick explores
the surprising connections
between the Craven and
Austen families.
Non-Fiction
One of the largest collections of
second hand books south of Hay-on-Wye.
We have books for everyone:
Fiction, Fact, Food & Tea
766625
Regent Books
• 24 hours 7 days a week personal
service and support
• A private Chapel of Rest, Pre-Paid
Funeral plans
• Memorial Stones & Grave
Maintenance
01367 718998
WANTAGE
History & Literature
An Independent family run business spanning four generations
LL
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FUNERAL SERVICES
REG
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J GODFREY & SON
HOPPING
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Jane Austen Tea Party
Two talks, one ticket
and tea!
Betjeman
Literary
Festival
Another fantastic festival of
words, music and food –
featuring authors, poets,
and celebrities...
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In this intimate and relaxed
presentation for our end
of festival celebration,
Mike Read, popular Radio
DJ, writer, journalist and
television presenter talks
about his life, his songs and
famous people he has worked
with, and performs some of
his favourite songs. £8
www.wantagebetjeman.com
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TOWN CENTRE
3pm Sunday 20 October
Vale & Downland Museum
Contemporary poetry,
alive and kicking, written
and performed in the Vale!
Featuring members of
Charlton Poetry Group, Ready
Salted and Wantage Poetry
Club. £4
Poetry Reading
Peter Wyton and
Robin Gilbert
The History Men
4pm Sunday 20 October
Vale & Downland Museum
The Wantage
Grand Poetry Slam!
Organised and introduced by
Anna Saunders
Brought to you by Cheltenham
Poetry Festival.
7.30pm Sunday 20 October
The Bear Hotel
Fasten your seat belts and
hold on to your hat for the
Wantage Slam. Come see
some of the finest slam stars
in the UK do battle for the
Wantage Cup. Cheer on your
favourites or simply sit back
and watch smart-talking,
quick-rhyming slam-champs
in a fast and furious spoken
word stand-off! Expect poetic
justice, rhyme and very little
reason, along the way! £8
Peter Tickler
Writing the Perfect
Crime – an interactive
workshop
4pm Monday 21 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Ever thought of writing a
crime novel? Crime writer
Peter Tickler invites you
to a workshop where you
get involved, but only as
seriously as you want. Leave
the session with a spring in
your step and maybe even
the germ of a book in your
head. £6
Richard Baker
Jim Mitchell
Grahame O’Connor
A celebration of John
Masefield,
‘The Sailor Poet’
7.30pm Monday 21 October
St John Vianney Church
Richard Baker (Narrator).
Jim Mitchell (Baritone) and
Graham O’Connor (Pianoforte)
present a celebration in song
and poetry of John Masefield.
The evening includes song
settings by Gurney, Ireland,
Shaw and Warlock. £8
Military History
Evening at the Museum
One ticket, two talks!
7.30pm Monday 21 October
Vale & Downland Museum
Gary Sheffield
The First World War in
100 Objects
Gary Sheffield,
acclaimed military
historian and
Professor of War
Studies at Wolverhampton
University, talks about his
latest book on WW1.The First
World War in 100 Objects
traces its history through the
examination of iconic items
In his sixth
Warrior of Rome
novel, Harry
Sidebottom takes
us back to AD 264.The
Roman Empire is torn in two
and war threatens. On a
mission shrouded in secrecy
and suspicion, general Ballista
must journey The Amber Road
to the far north, back to his
original home and the people
of his birth. Yet not all
welcome Ballista’s return.
Does treachery pose the
greatest danger?
Evening Event ticket: £10
Kathy Haslam,
The Book and
William Morris
Sponsor: Wantage Decorative
and Fine Arts Society.
11am Tuesday 22 October
Wantage Civic Hall
From boyhood
to deathbed,
books were at
the centre of
William Morris’s world. Father
of the Arts & Crafts
movement, he was also
reader, author, poet,
calligrapher, collector,
designer, typographer and
printer. Kathy Haslam, Visitor
Experience Manager at
Kelmscott Manor, will look at
why books were of such
fundamental significance to
Morris, and at how they
informed some of his many
other activities. £6
Children’s
Poetry Out Loud
Competition Final
Sponsor: Regent Books and
Furniture
5pm Tuesday 22nd October
Wantage Civic Hall
School students aged 8 to 18
recite their favourite poems
in front of an audience and
compete to win prizes for
their schools! Free Entry
The Big Debate
Co-ordinated by David
Cooper, Ex-Head of English at
King Alfred’s School
6pm Tuesday 22nd October
Wantage Civic Hall
Pupils from local schools
debate the premise of Philip
Larkin’s famous poem ‘This be
the Verse’ (“They **** you up
your mum and dad”).
Expect a lively debate that
may make you look at
your parents (and perhaps
yourselves) in a new light!
Free Entry
Betjeman’s Archie and
Jumbo will be at
Tom Brown’s School
Museum, Uffington
weekends:
19 - 20 October
and 26 - 27 October
2pm - 5pm
Robert Harris
An Officer and a Spy
7.30pm Tuesday 22 October
Shush, The Venue
Best-selling author Robert
Harris discusses An Officer
and a Spy, a compelling
recreation of a scandal that
became the most famous
miscarriage of justice in
history. Compelling, too, are
the echoes for our modern
world: an intelligence agency
gone rogue, justice corrupted
in the name of national
security, a newspaper witchhunt of a persecuted minority,
and the age-old instinct of
those in power to cover-up
their crimes. £8
John Garvey
William Daniell’s Isle
of Skye and Raasay, an
Artists Journey in 1815
Sponsor: Wantage Decorative
and Fine Arts Society
11am Wednesday 23 October
Wantage Civic Hall
William Daniell
was an
accomplished
artist in oils
and watercolours and was
also highly skilled in the
magical process of aquatint
engraving. Author John
Garvey takes the audience
along the route of Daniell’s
journey in 1815, using the
artist’s words and those of
contemporary
travellers to
describe the
scenery and the
condition of the
people. £6
Fiction
Interviewed by Eliza Graham
2pm Tuesday 22 October
Wantage Civic Hall
England, 1942: a
world of conflict,
hardship and
subterfuge where
information is a
matter of life and death and
art has become a weapon.
Loosely based on the lives
of four painters of the time,
Warpaint is a compelling
tale of truth and lies….
Art historian Alicia Foster
discusses her first novel. £6
Fiction
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Biography
Harry Sidebottom
The Amber Road
Alicia Foster
Warpaint
Art History
2pm Monday 21 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Unsure of all the publishing
options and how to go
about it? Robert Bullard,
a journalist-turned-writer,
editor and book coach, will
navigate you through this
minefield. His practical advice
session will include: the pros
and cons of self-publishing,
common mistakes to avoid,
new opportunities, as well
as how to impress agents/
publishers. £6
6pm Monday 21 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Alison
Thompson will
explain what
Attention
Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder is and
how it affects children,
families and the wider
community. She will share
some of the lessons she learnt
whilst bringing up her son,
who has the condition. Alison
will also talk about why she
decided to write a book, and
about the self-publishing
process. £6
Debate Performing Poetry
Poetry Reading
Vale Poets
Robert Bullard
Self-Publish or
Publisher?
like the Zeppelin and Winston
Churchill’s cigar, to personal
objects which tell the
poignant stories of individuals
and official documents,
medals and badges.
Art History
Jenny Lewis is a poet,
playwright and teacher of
poetry at Oxford University.
She will discuss her
exploration of her father’s
role as a soldier in the South
Wales Borderers in Iraq
(Mesopotamia) in WW1 and
read from her new pamphlet
which arose out of a series of
workshops at the Ashmolean
Museum to mark the 10th
anniversary of the 2003 UK/
US invasion of Iraq. £4
Publishing
Photo: Helen Peacocke
5pm Sunday 20 October
Vale & Downland Museum
11am Monday 21 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Lord Berners (1883-1950)
disguised his intelligence
and work ethic behind layers
of obfuscation. His music,
his writing and his painting
demonstrate wit and hard
work. An introduction to
this fascinating and complex
man who delighted in many
masks. £6
Poetry & Music
Poetry
Photo: Mark Bassett
Poetry
Sponsor: Wantage Decorative
and Fine Arts Society
Poetry Reading
Jenny Lewis
Now as Then:
Mesopotamia-Iraq
Sponsor: Wantage Decorative
and Fine Arts Society.
Alison Thompson
The Boy From Hell: Life
with a Child with ADHD
Lloyd Shepherd
The Poisoned Island
2pm Wednesday 23 October
Wantage Civic Hall
London 1812: Decades after
the first voyage of Captain
Cook, a new ship returns
to London from the Pacific,
crammed with botanical
specimens and laden with
Tahitian mysteries. When
days after the ship’s arrival,
some of its crew are found
dead – their throats slashed,
their faces frozen in terrible
smiles – John Harriott,
magistrate of the Thames river
police, puts his constable
Charles Horton in charge of
the investigation… Historical
thriller writer Lloyd Shepherd
talks about his latest novel. £6
The Festival
is pleased to
support visits to
local schools by
Mary Hooper and
Diana Moore
More events
overleaf...
For more information contact: James Hart
32 East Lockinge, Oxfordshire, OX12 8QG
Robert Harris
Tel 01235 833946 or 07539 207048
design [email protected]
SEE
UFFINGTON
2pm Sunday 20 October
Vale & Downland Museum
Fiona Sampson is
Professor of Poetry
at the University of
Roehampton. She has
received the Newdigate
Prize, a Cholmondeley
Award and Writer’s
Awards from the Arts
Councils of England and of
Wales as well as prizes in
Macedonia and the US. Fiona
reads from her new collection
and talks about a special kind
of ‘writing home’. £4
Sarah Foot
King Alfred the
Educator
7.30pm Saturday 19 October
Vale & Downland Museum
King Alfred of
Wessex is best
known today
as the king
who successfully defeated the
Vikings and saved England
from Danish conquest. His
defensive strategy for
securing his kingdom’s future
security involved reforming
the army and building fortified
sites around the realm, but
also a major educational
reform designed to restore the
population’s faith.
This talk by Canon Sarah
Foot, Regius Professor of
Ecclesiastical History at the
University of Oxford will
focus on Alfred’s work in
translating ‘those books
most necessary for all men
to know’ into English and his
commitment to the restoration
of Christianity among his
people. £6
Poetry Reading
Fiona Sampson
Coleshill
Mary Gifford
The Eccentric
Lord Berners
Military History
GROVE
TO TOM BROWN’S
SCHOOL MUSEUM
2pm & 4pm
Saturday 19 October
Meet at the King Alfred
Statue, Wantage Market
Place
Join local historian and
raconteur, Bill Fuller, on a
45 minute stroll following
in the footsteps of John
Betjeman. This tour will
combine Bill’s extensive
knowledge of Old Wantage
with little gems of the
day to day life of the
Betjemans, who
moved to Wantage
in 1951. The walk
ends with an
included beer, wine
or soft drink at Sir
John’s favourite local
pub The Shoulder of
Mutton. Suitable for
an adult audience.
Advance booking
essential. £4
£8 for entry to all poetry
events in the museum
Writing Workshop
TO OLD
MILL HALL
Bill Fuller
Betjeman Town Walk
3pm Saturday 19 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Elijah’s Mermaid
merges the
respectable worlds
of Victorian art
and literature with
a far more sinister demimonde. This novel begins
with the story of Pearl; a
web-toed child who is found
half-drowned and floating
in the Thames and is hauled
out to be raised in a brothel.
There, she is pampered
and protected until puberty
approaches and she realises
that she is to be auctioned off
to the highest bidder… £6
Peter Wyton, former Poet
Laureate of Gloucestershire,
and Cheltenham Poetry
Festival co-Director Robin
Gilbert celebrate the joys of
history in verse. Join them for
a rumbustious progress down
countless millennia! You’ll go
home much the wiser about
our planet’s amazing and
sometimes perilous past. £4
Poetry Stand-up
This year’s sponsors: Bushbuy Ltd., Charles Lucas & Marshall, Delicious of Wantage, Grove Business
Centre, Grove 2000, NFU Mutual Wantage, Regent Books and Furniture Wantage, Richmond
Letcombe Regis, Vale of White Horse District Council, Wantage Decorative and Fine Arts Society.
Town Walk
After the success of last year’s Festival, we’re delighted
to be back with another exciting line-up of nationally
and locally recognised writers, poets and performers.
As well as the public programme, this year we’ve added
some writer-talks and a workshop for local schools.
We’re also welcoming our new Festival Bookseller,
Alison Jinks from Wallingford Bookshop who will
be running a book-stall in the museum 10am - 4pm,
Monday 21 - Saturday 26 October. Alison will also
arrange the book signings after author events.
I would like to thank my fellow committee members
and festival stewards for their enthusiasm, commitment
and time and all our generous sponsors for helping to
fund events. We hope you enjoy our Festival!
Jim Mitchell Festival Artistic Director
Although now most famous
for his poetry, Sir John
Betjeman’s great passion
was churches. For over fifty
years his guide, regularly
updated, has been the most
distinguished book on the
best churches to visit. This
new edition covers over
2,500 of the very best
churches in England and
Wales. Fully revised by
bestselling author Richard
Surman, this is the most
complete guide to Britain’s
church heritage. £6
Sunday 20 October
Festival Poetry Day
Poetry
to the third
Wantage (not just) Betjeman Literary Festival
1pm Saturday 19 October
Wantage Civic Hall
Essie Fox
Elijah’s Mermaid
Poetry
Welcome
Richard Surman
Not Just Betjeman’s
Churches
Fiction
Betjeman
Literary
Festival
Programme of Events...
History
2013
(not just)
Photography
Tickets (unless otherwise indicated)
can be obtained from:
Vale & Downland Museum,
Wantage tel 01235 771447
or www.wantagebetjeman.com
Info [email protected]
Jim Mitchell tel 01235 767975
Wantage