The Litfest Big Read: A. M. Dassu
A story of survival, of family, of bravery and sudden reversals of fortune. In a world where we are told to see refugees as the ‘other’, this story will remind readers that ‘they’ are also ‘us’. ...
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March 2021
The Litfest Big Read: Matt Haig
Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. ...
How We Live Next: Health – Sir Michael Marmot
Sir Michael Marmot is the author of the widely respected Marmot Review (2010), the recommendations of which have been adopted by three-quarters of English councils. He argues that taking action to reduce health inequalities is a matter of social justice. ...
Jackie Morris & Shaun Tan
This event will feature two fantastic recent recipients of the Kate Greenaway medal for illustration: Jackie Morris (the winner in 2019 for the The Lost Words, a collaborative project with author Robert MacFarlane) and Shaun Tan (the 2020 winner for Tales from the Inner City, a remarkable collection of illustrated short fiction). ...
How We Live Next: Environment – Fatima Ibrahim
Faced with the challenge of global warming and consequent climate change, which we ourselves have caused, humanity is at a fork in the road and needs now to alter course if it is to avoid disaster. But how is that change to be achieved and what will the consequences be? ...
The Lost Spells: Jackie Morris
In this not to be missed event, Jackie Morris will discuss this next stage of her creative partnership with Robert Macfarlane, the process of creating The Lost Spells and the importance of our relationship with the natural world which underpins the book. ...
How We Live Next: Work – James Suzman
The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn't always the case: for 95% of our species’ history, work held a radically different importance. How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? ...
How We Live Next: Social Justice – Johny Pitts
What happens when your Dad’s an African-American soul star and your Mum’s a music-loving girl from working-class Sheffield? Are your roots on the terraces at a Sheffield United match, or in the stylings of a Spike Lee film? For Johny Pitts, whose parents met in the heyday of Northern Soul, how he navigates his black roots has always been an issue, but this diverse heritage has attuned him to every aspect of Britain’s unequal society. ...
How We Live Next: Panel Discussion with A.C. Grayling
Following the four talks on Health, Environment, Work and Social Justice, the panel, including an educator, a manufacturer, a doctor and a politician, will discuss these key issues and how they might affect us at a local level, chaired by philosopher and writer A.C. Grayling. ...
Litfest International Fiction Book Club: Andrey Kurkov – Grey Bees
In the no-man’s-land between loyalist and separatist forces, lies the Ukrainian village of Little Starhorodivka. Thanks to the sporadic violence and constant propaganda of the on-off war only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and his school-days ‘frenemy’, Pashka. But now that winter’s over, how is Sergey going to get his bees through the battle lines to feast on the pollen beyond? ...
Reading the City: The Book of Ramallah
The Palestinian city of Ramallah is a place of countless contradictions; defiant in its resistance against the Israeli occupation, but frustrated and divided by its own secrets and conservatism. Through humour, and precious moments of intimacy, however, these stories give us a glimpse of life inside this city of refuge, and provide an image of hope in an impossible situation. ...
Sarah Hall in Conversation
Sarah Hall is one of the most highly praised novelists writing in Britain today and has twice been winner of the BBC Short Story Award. Born in Carlisle, most of her novels are set in the northwest, including Haweswater (2002) and The Wolf Border (2015), while her short stories have won her wide recognition as a doyenne of the form. ...
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