Motoring & LeisureEventsEvents in Wales & WestBath Literature Festival announces its programme for 2008 Bath Literature Festival announces its programme for 2008
07/01/2008
Sarah LeFanu, the Artistic Director of the much-acclaimed annual Bath Literature Festival, has today revealed highlights of next year’s festival, which will run from Saturday 23rd February to Sunday 2nd March. She has taken the theme of 'Origins and Identities' as her starting point, addressing in the widest possible way issues of where we come from and what it is that makes us who we are.
An impressive line-up, including novelists, poets, historians, politicians, philosophers, biographers and scientists, will explore the many ways in which we define ourselves – through gender, culture, geography, through our relationships and in terms of class, religion and race. The political campaigner, novelist and historian, Tariq Ali, will set the scene as he opens the festival with a keynote address considering this theme.
Many of the big issues of our time – death, money and power, the corruption of politicians, the cult of celebrity – are addressed in Terry Pratchett’s brilliantly insightful Discworld books. This master chronicler of our life and times and storyteller par excellence will be kicking off the celebrations marking the 25th year of Discworld in Bath.
Booker prize winner Ben Okri will be talking about his latest novel, Starbook; Martin Amis will be returning again to his recurring theme of the events of 9/11; biographer Hermione Lee will be discussing her latest work on Edith Wharton; Joanna Trollope will be talking about her new novel, Friday Nights; and there will be a series of (very different) events about food featuring the actor Steven Berkoff, Bee Wilson, Andrew Simms and Fairtrade founder and director, Harriet Lamb.
Sarah LeFanu has programmed a number of distinct ‘strands’ running through the festival which link a number of events on a common theme, these include: Writers of the World, Wild Places, Intimate Lives, and The World Today.
The Bath Big Read has become a hugely popular annual feature and Margaret Drabble’s The Sea Lady has been chosen as the 2008 Bath Big Read. Reading groups and individuals across the region will take part and come together with the author to discuss the novel during the festival.
Other highlights include: festival commissions from three poets, Gillian Clarke, Stewart Conn and Tim Liardet; the Bath Little Read, a special keepsake booklet celebrating the range and diversity of the 2008 festival; the brand new Poetry Taxi (an opportunity to enjoy a unique personal poetry performance on the streets of Bath); and family events.
The Bath Literature Festival will run from Saturday 23rd February until Sunday 2nd March inclusive. Tickets are available from the 2nd January 2008 from Bath Festivals Box Office, 2 Church Street, Abbey Green, Bath, BA1 1NL. Tel: 01225 463362 Fax: 01225 310377 or Email: boxoffice@bathfestivals.org.uk. Or visit the website linked at the bottom of this page.