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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251025T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251025T160000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250605T115802Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250613T140113Z
UID:10000145-1761386400-1761408000@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:PBFA Dorchester Book Fair
DESCRIPTION:Independent sellers will be offering antiquarian & second hand books\, modern firsts\, signed editions\, prints\, maps and ephemera at the Dorchester book fair\, in the stunning Victorian Hall of the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery. Coinciding with the final day of the Dorchester Literary Festival – this is a new addition to a week packed with author talks and events\, which has become a calendar staple for book lovers on the South Coast. \n\n\n\nWhy not make a day of it and couple your visit with a tour of the Dorset Museum and Art Gallery\, including Thomas Hardy’s study and special collections library. \n\n\n\nOrganised by Endpaper Books. Members of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association | Instagram & Facebook @ endpaper_books \n\n\n\nEntry £1 – or download a complimentary ticket via the PBFA website – www.pbfa.org
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/pbfa-dorchester-book-fair/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T190000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250509T090203Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250910T112313Z
UID:10000129-1761069600-1761073200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Damien Lewis – SAS: The Great Train Raid
DESCRIPTION:So secret was this mission\, the SAS seizure of a train to raid deep into enemy territory to liberate a concentration camp\, that it wasn’t until 1968 – twenty-seven years after the formation of the SAS – that a short mention of it was made in the Rover and Wizard annual\, under the headline ‘Who Dares Wins’. No further published record exists. \n\n\n\nBest-selling author Damien Lewis has unearthed the full incredible story from long-hidden files and first hand-testimony\, his latest elite forces narrative delivering a scintillating tale of bravery\, daring and determination which simply beggars belief. This is the SAS at their very finest; there is no other mission like it from the Second World War.Damien Lewis is a number one bestselling author whose books have been translated into over forty languages worldwide. For decades he worked as a war and conflict reporter for the world’s major broadcasters\, reporting from across Africa\, South America\, the Middle and Far East and winning numerous awards. His books include the World War Two classics The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare\, SAS Nazi Hunters\, SAS Ghost Patrol\, SAS Band of Brothers and SAS Forged in Hell. A dozen of his books have been made\, or are being made\, into movies or TV drama series and several have been adapted as plays for the stage. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has recently been released as a Guy Ritchie movie of the same name. He has raised tens of thousands of pounds for charitable concerns connected with his writings. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/damien-lewis-sas-the-great-train-raid/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T170000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250509T085945Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250527T152055Z
UID:10000121-1761062400-1761066000@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Peter Ross – Upon a White Horse
DESCRIPTION:Beautiful and strange\, ancient monuments have long captured our attention and curiosity. We stand in awe before them\, asking who created the Uffington White Horse – and why? What was it like to live in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall? What stories would the towering megaliths of Stonehenge and Avebury tell if they could speak? \n\n\n\nUncovering the enduring mystery of ancient sites\, award-winning writer Peter Ross once again invites readers to sit beside him as he celebrates their influence on art\, culture and society\, explores the way their meaning has evolved over time and simply delights in their magic. \n\n\n\nCombining historical research and archaeological insights with stories from people to whom these sites are particularly important\, Upon A White Horse journeys into the deep past of Britain and Ireland’s ancient landscapes. \n\n\n\nPeter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow. His writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland’s National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards\, and his most recent book\, Steeple Chasing\, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was selected as Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month. He is also author of the collections Daunderlust and The Passion Of Harry Bingo. He lives in Glasgow. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/peter-ross-upon-a-white-horse/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T150000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250509T085539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250515T163826Z
UID:10000112-1761055200-1761058800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Minette Walters – The Players
DESCRIPTION:A bold and brilliantly inventive historical novel\, set in the reign of James II at a time of rebellion and unrest\, from a 25-million-copy bestselling author. \n\n\n\nEngland\, 1685. Decades after the end of the civil war\, the country is once again divided when Charles II’s illegitimate son\, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth\, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle.Armed only with pitchforks\, Monmouth’s army is quickly defeated by King James II’s superior forces and charged with high treason. Those found guilty will be hanged\, drawn and quartered.As Dorset braces for carnage\, the redoubtable Lady Jayne Harrier and a small group of trusted allies – including her courageous son and the independent-minded daughter of a local lawyer – contrive ways to save men from the gallows.Compelling and powerful\, The Players is a story of guile\, deceit and compassion during the dark days of The Bloody Assizes. Secrets are kept and surprising friendships formed in a dangerous gamble to thwart a brutal king’s thirst for vengeance… \n\n\n\nMinette Walters is one of the world’s bestselling crime writers and has sold over 25 million copies of her books worldwide. She has won the CWA John Creasey Award\, the Edgar Allan Poe Award in America and two CWA Gold Daggers. The Players is her fourth historical novel. She lives in Dorset with her husband. \n\n\n\nMinette Walters will be in conversation with Lulu Taylor. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/minette-walters-the-players/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250509T085247Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250515T163559Z
UID:10000143-1761048000-1761051600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Simon Bradley – Bradley’s Railway Guide
DESCRIPTION:A Journey Through Two Centuries of British Railway History 1825–2025.In 1825 the Stockton & Darlington company strode into history with the opening of the world’s first public steam railway. What the S&DR had pioneered soon picked up speed\, transforming lives and landscapes\, connecting far-flung corners of the nation and creating its own distinctive environments and working worlds. \n\n\n\nThis ambitious and lavishly illustrated volume brings the story of Britain’s railways to life\, spanning two centuries of achievement and change. Full of colour and incident\, it is an exhilarating journey through time and space\, revisiting favourite themes and introducing unfamiliar stories and places. \n\n\n\nSimon Bradley is joint editor of the celebrated Pevsner Architectural Guides\, to which he has contributed a number of notable revised volumes. He started trainspotting aged eleven\, and his interest in railways has broadened and endured. He is also the bestselling author of The Railways: Nation\, Network and People and St Pancras Station. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/simon-bradley-bradleys-railway-guide/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251021T113000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250509T084757Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250522T161300Z
UID:10000142-1761042600-1761046200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Terri Apter – Grandparenting: On Love and Relationships Across Generations
DESCRIPTION:One in three people over the age of 50 has grandchildren. These grandparents are the first generation to be both psychologically aware and very hands on\, playing an integral role in their grandchildren’s lives. When a child becomes a parent themselves\, existing family structures are radically altered. Old tensions between parents and their adult children may come into sharp relief while new relationships with in-laws must be navigated carefully. \n\n\n\nGrandparenting is the book for grandparenting in the modern age. In this warm\, wise guide to being a modern grandparent\, leading psychologist Terri Apter builds on cutting edge research as well as her own experience of being a grandparent. Drawing on case studies from across the world\, the personal stories of so many different individuals give a real insight into the many problems that can arise in families. With an increase in divorce and in different family configurations\, Apter’s book addresses many of the issues that can arise in more complicated family situations\, exploring the psychological forces that bring generations together and set barriers between them. This innovative book is for grandparents and their adult children to help them become the best grandparents and parents that they can be. \n\n\n\nTerri Apter is a psychologist\, writer and Fellow Emerita of Newnham College. She is the author of many critically acclaimed books on family dynamics\, including Altered Loves: Mothers and Daughters During Adolescence (a NYT Book of the Year)\, and The Confident Child (winner of the Delta Kappa Gamma International Educator’s Prize). Her reviews and articles have appeared in the Guardian\, TLS\, Financial Times\, New York Times Book Review\, and Psychologist and she is a regular blogger for Psychology Today. \n\n\n\nTerri Apter will be in conversation with Dr Helen Thomas. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/terri-apter-grandparenting-on-love-and-relationships-across-generations/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T190000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250508T142215Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250724T105416Z
UID:10000113-1760983200-1760986800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Natasha Solomons – Cleopatra
DESCRIPTION:From the international bestselling author\, an unmissable new retelling of the life of one of the most captivating and misrepresented female figures in history. A story of female power and vulnerability\, of love and loss\, fierce friendship and terrible betrayal. It’s time to meet the real Cleopatra.Cleopatra\, Egyptian Princess\, grows up the favoured daughter of the Pharoah\, hiding amongst the scrolls in the great library of Alexandria with her beloved slave Charmian\, longing for the chance one day to write her own story. Then\, when her father dies\, willing that Cleopatra rule with her selfish brother Ptolemy\, danger stirs. As the young Egyptian Queen sails the Nile to greet her people\, he plots todestroy her and take the throne for himself. But while Ptolemy has the power of Egypt behind him\, Cleopatra has her wits. And when the great Caesar arrives from Rome\, she realises he could be the key to her salvation – though courting this powerful man could cost her everything. Can Cleopatra save her life\, her throne\, her beloved Egypt and finally command her own history? \n\n\n\nNatasha Solomons is the author of seven internationally bestselling novels\, including Mr Rosenblum’s List\, The Novel in the Viola\, which was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club\, and I\, Mona Lisa. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in Dorset with her family. \n\n\n\nNatasha Solomons will be in conversation with Lulu Taylor. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/natasha-solomons-cleopatra/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T170000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250508T141700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250522T160631Z
UID:10000141-1760976000-1760979600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Meg Clothier – The Shipping Forecast
DESCRIPTION:There’s a sea lover in every Brit. The Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4 has been keeping people up to date with the latest changes to British weather for a century – seafarers and armchair travellers alike. Since its first broadcast\, the programme has captured the hearts and imaginations of this island nation\, as well as providing a real and important service for those who might otherwise fall prey to storms and gales.The only official book celebrating the centenary\, The Shipping Forecast takes you to the heart of what this enduring programme means to the nation. Meg Clothier\, journalist and sailor\, brings you on a fascinating exploration of our British maritime history\, taking you from stormy weather up above to the seabed far below and from fishing boats to the art\, songs and poems inspired by the forecast. \n\n\n\nWhether you’re a long-time fan of this universally beloved British institution or a newer weather enthusiast\, this joyous book invites you to sail away into the enchanting world of the forecast and is the perfect companion for anyone curious about our great British skies and seas.Meg Clothier studied Classics at Cambridge\, sailed from England to Alaska\, and worked as a journalist in London and Moscow. She has published three historical novels and also Sea Fever: A Seaside Companion\, a book full of marine lore and seaside charm\, with her brother\, Chris. She lives on the sunny side of the Quantock Hills with her husband\, two children and an improbable amount of vegetables. \n\n\n\nMeg Clothier will be in conversation with Jenny Devitt. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/meg-clothier-the-shipping-forecast/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T150000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250508T141502Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250724T105304Z
UID:10000133-1760968800-1760972400@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Geoffrey Guy – Quantum Biology
DESCRIPTION:Drawing on the latest international research\, leading physician and healthcare expert Professor Geoffrey Guy examines how quantum phenomena affect processes as diverse as the functioning of the brain and the body’s approach to combating inflammation and disease. He shows how we may need to rethink the ways in which energy and information are carried round our nervous system. \n\n\n\nThis groundbreaking book assesses the implications for cancer treatment and mental disorders and reopens discussion of areas such as light therapy. It also raises questions about the potentially damaging effects of space travel on astronauts’ health and how they might have to be mitigated.Key to the author’s approach is his ability to explain lucidly our current knowledge while drawing in cutting-edge research. Written for the general reader\, but with a scope and depth that will satisfy medical professionals\, Quantum Biology reveals the latest findings from this most fascinating medical frontier.Professor Geoffrey Guy has 40 years’ experience in medical research. As chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals plc\, he was physician in charge of over 300 clinical studies. The author of more than 70 scientific publications and of A Worthwhile Medicine\, he is Visiting Professor at the Universities of Buckingham and Westminster and chairman of The Guy Foundation. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/geoffrey-guy-quantum-biology/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250508T141122Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250522T101433Z
UID:10000111-1760961600-1760965200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Barnaby Rogerson – The House Divided: Sunni\, Shia and the Making of the Middle East
DESCRIPTION:At the heart of the Middle East\, with its regional conflicts and proxy wars\, is a 1400-year-old schism between Sunni and Shia. To understand this divide and its modern resonances\, we need to revisit its origins: to become familiar with ‘The House’ of Prophet Muhammad\, the accidental coup after his death that set aside the claims of his son Ali\, and the slaughter of Ali’s son Husayn at Kerbala. These events\, known to every Muslim\, continue to influence Middle East politics. \n\n\n\nThe House Divided follows these narratives through the first caliphates and the medieval empires forged by Arabs\, Persians and Turks\, to the contemporary Middle East. It shows how a dynamic range of identities – fuelled as much by ethnic\, dynastic and national rivalries as by religious differences – have shaped the region. In 1979 this already complex world was jolted by the seismic shift of three revolutions – in Iran\, Mecca and Afghanistan – whose effects are still being played out. Rogerson’s original and intimate approach takes the modern chessboard of nation states and looks at each through its particular perspective: of empires and occupiers\, minorities and resources\, sheikhs and imams. The result is a book of wide-ranging empathy\, understanding and insights.Barnaby Rogerson has been travelling the Islamic world for the last forty years\, first as a young man writing guidebooks\, then as a journalist\, and finally as a writer of histories. He is publisher of the acclaimed travel list\, Eland Books. His books include The Prophet Muhammad: a Biography\,The Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad and The Last Crusaders. \n\n\n\nBarnaby Rogerson will be in conversation with Allan Mallinson. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/barnaby-rogerson-the-house-divided-sunni-shia-and-the-making-of-the-middle-east/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/House-Divided-Jkt-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251020T113000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20250508T140115Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250515T162854Z
UID:10000140-1760956200-1760959800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Mark Urban – Tank
DESCRIPTION:“Tanks are like dinner jackets”\, an Australian general once commented – “you don’t need them very often\, but when you do\, nothing else will do.”An authoritative history of the tank and the remarkable individuals who designed them and fought in them\, from a former officer and best-selling historian.Tanks are the ultimate embodiment of industrial age warfare. In the popular imagination\, they represent both a terrifying beast of destruction and a potent symbol of liberation.The technology behind these war machines has evolved relentlessly\, and yet the coming of the information age has led many to predict that drones\, missiles\, and Artificial Intelligence have made the tank obsolete. Time and again\, however\, tanks have continued to shape – and be shaped by – battles around the world\, from their introduction in 1916\, through the Second World War and tank-on-tank fights in 1990s Iraq\, to the current conflict in Ukraine.In Tank\, best-selling historian and former officer in the Royal Tank Regiment\, Mark Urban draws on wide-ranging accounts from soldiers\, designers\, and politicians\, from Winston Churchill to Volodymyr Zelensky\, to tell the remarkable story of one of the most important developments in military history. Through the ten most important vehicles ever made\, Urban chronicles the incredible advances in tank technology – starting with the Mark IV\, the first British tank to be used in large numbers in WW1\, and following the story through the T-34 and Tiger to the M1 Abrams\, a product of huge American Cold War investment that is still used to this day.Officially supported by The Tank Museum and using never-before-seen archival sources\, interviews and declassified documents\, this is a fascinating history of the vehicle that changed conflict forever. \n\n\n\nMark Urban is a writer and columnist for the Sunday Times\, specialising in defence and foreign affairs. Until 2024\, he was the Diplomatic Editor of BBC’s Newsnight programme. He formerly served in the British Army\, both in the Royal Tank Regiment and in the Territorial Army. He is the author of several books\, including Red Devils\, Task Force Black (his deep-dive look at the SAS in the Iraq War\, which was a Sunday Times number one bestseller) and The Skripal Files\, a Sunday Times Best Politics Book of 2018. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00 (£8.00 Students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/mark-urban-tank/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Tank.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241016T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241016T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240515T140716Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240828T180521Z
UID:10000062-1729080000-1729083600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Anne Somerset – Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers
DESCRIPTION:Anne Somerset masterfully traces Victoria’s political evolution\, from headstrong teenager to seasoned octogenarian. This book demonstrates her passionate involvement in state affairs\, and casts fresh light on her relationships with her ten prime ministers. \n\n\n\nVictoria herself acknowledged that when it came to ‘likes and dislikes’ of her prime ministers\, ‘she had them very strongly’. She showed girlish adoration for her first Prime Minister\, the worldly-wise Lord Melbourne\, whose delightful conversation and kindly guidance enchanted her. Later in her reign\, Benjamin Disraeli – who flattered her shamelessly\, tirelessly praising her sagacity and judgement and filling her life with ‘poetry\, romance and chivalry’ – became her favourite. While she developed a powerful bond with several of her Prime Ministers\, in other cases the relationship fell little short of mutual detestation. Victoria’s keenest antipathy was reserved for Disraeli’s great rival\, the Liberal William Gladstone. When he became prime minister for a fourth time at the age of 82\, Victoria declared it ‘a bad joke’ that this ‘dangerous old fanatic’ should be ‘thrust down her throat’. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers charts the bitter clashes and affectionate interactions Victoria had with her ten premiers in often hilarious detail. Drawing extensively on unpublished sources such as material from the Royal Archives and never-before-seen prime ministerial papers\, it casts a fresh and highly illuminating perspective not just on Victoria\, but on the exceptionally able politicians who served her in government. \n\n\n\nAnne Somerset was born in 1955 and read History at King’s College\, London. Her first book\, ‘The ‘Ladies-in-Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day’\, an acclaimed biography of Elizabeth I in 1991\, then ‘Unnatural Murder: Poison in the Court of James I: The Overbury Murder’ in 1998 and ‘The Affair of the Poisons: Murder\, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV’. Her most recent work is Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/anne-somerset-queen-victoria-and-her-prime-ministers/
LOCATION:The Dorford Centre\, 2 Bridport Road\, Dorchester\, Dorset\, DT1 1RR\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T170000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240515T140716Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240702T143814Z
UID:10000060-1729008000-1729011600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Sir Robin Niblett – The New Cold War
DESCRIPTION:How the contest between the US and China will shape our century \n\n\n\n\n\nAn urgent and essential assessment of the global contest between the US and China\, and how looking to history will help us to navigate it\, from former Director of Chatham House \n\n\n\nWe have entered a new Cold War\, even if most people choose not to admit it. The contest between America and China is global and unbridgeable\, and it encompasses all major instruments of statecraft: diplomacy\, technology\, military power\, intelligence\, trade and investment. It has its tinder box: Taiwan. And both protagonists are working hard to draw allies and friends to their side from east and west\, north and south. \n\n\n\nWe stand at its beginning. But this Cold War is nothing like the last\, which defined the second half of the twentieth century. We need new ideas to navigate its risks and to avoid a globally devastating war. \n\n\n\nIn this short\, urgent book\, Robin Niblett argues that only by looking back can we heed the warnings and learn the necessary lessons to guide us through this new reality: he goes through the ten ways in which the new cold war is different\, and offers five new rules for navigating it. How we manage this contest will determine not only whether there is still space for international cooperation to deal with our many global challenges\, from the climate emergency to the technological revolution\, but also who gets to dominate the twenty-first century and\, quite simply\, the course of all our futures. \n\n\n\nSir Robin Niblett is a leading expert on international relations. He is a distinguished fellow at Chatham House\, after spending 15 years as its director and chief executive until 2022\, and senior adviser at Hakluyt\, the British strategic advisory firm. He is also engaged by the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC\, where he was Executive Vice President for ten years. He has served as chair of several World Economic Forum councils\, and advises governments and private institutions. His writing has appeared in many publications and books\, but this is his first solo book. \n\n\n\nSir Robin Niblett will be in conversation with Jo Durrant \n\n\n\nThis event is kindly sponsored by Michael and Eve Bonham Cozens \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/sir-robin-niblett-the-new-cold-war/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T150000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240604T150306Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240702T143537Z
UID:10000096-1729000800-1729004400@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Tim Spicer – A Suspicion of Spies
DESCRIPTION:The compelling first biography of Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale – a ruthless and effective spymaster whose career spanned the Russian Revolution to the Cold War and beyond. A Suspicion of Spies is filled with stories of adventure\, bravery\,and glamour\, revealing the complicated intrigues of the world of British intelligence. A lifelong friend of Ian Fleming\,Biffy is considered to be the blueprint for James Bond. \n\n\n\n1916\, Russia. A 16-year-old Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale is working for his father\, taking submarines from Vladivostok to St Petersburg for the Russian Imperial Navy. He takes a submarine out for sea trials along with a naval dockyard crew he’d never met before. Spotting a group of German ships\, he gives the order to attack and sinks four of them. On returning to Kronstadt\, breaking free from an anti-submarine net with just 30 minutes of oxygen left\, he opens the hatch to find every gun in the port facing him and his crew. Fluent in Russian\, he quickly defuses the situation. For this action he is awarded by Tsar Nicholas II the Order of St. Stanislav and the Order of St. Anne\, imperial Russia’s highest knighthood for military valour and ‘bravery in battle’. \n\n\n\nBiffy\, born and raised in Odessa\, soon learnt to operate at all levels of Odessan society. Clearly highly intelligent\, by 16 he was studying Naval Architecture and Naval Engineering in St Petersburg-broadening his education further in the waterfront barsof both Odessa and St. Petersburg. \n\n\n\nAged 18\,he was engaged by Naval Intelligence as an interpreter on account of his language skills\,English\, Russian\, French\, Polish and German. He would soon grow into a buccaneering member of the British Secret Intelligence Service in a career spanning forty years which Biffy described as ‘40 years of licensed thuggery.’ Biffy appears in over 60 books and websites and yet no one has ever written the story of his life. As Tim Spicer says\,‘He was rather like a ghost one knew was there but the apparition never stood still long enough for a clear view.’ Biffy was a lifelong friend of Ian Fleming and many attribute his influence to the creation of Bond.The tales of action and intrigue found in this comprehensive biography could be taken straight fromthe pages of From Russia with Love\, for which Biffy acted as consultant. \n\n\n\nLieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer OBE has led a life filled with action and adventure. During his twenty years in the British Army\, he saw active service in NorthernIreland\, the Falklands campaign\, the Gulf War and the Balkans\, as well as serving in the Far East\, Cyprus and Germany. Key appointments have included Chief of Staff of an Armoured Brigade\, Staff Officer at the Directorate of Special Forces and Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards\, among many others.Over the course of his illustrious military career\, Spicer has developed extensive knowledge of intelligence\, counter terrorism\, complex relations and protective security. In 2001 he founded the private security company Aegis\, which has counted the UK\, US and Italian governments among its clients. He is the author of An Unorthodox Soldier: Peace and War and the Sandline Affair\, a fast-moving account of his military life\, including the events surrounding his time in Papua New Guinea when he was captured and held at gunpoint\, as well as the notorious ‘Sandline Affair’ of 1996\, and A Dangerous Enterprise that charts the history of the little-known\, yet remarkable 15th Motor Gunboat Flotilla\, commanded directly by the Secret Intelligence Service. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/tim-spicer-a-suspicion-of-spies/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240515T140717Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240702T143311Z
UID:10000059-1728993600-1728997200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Jim Down – Life in the Balance
DESCRIPTION:A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care \n\n\n\n\n\nDr Jim Down brings us to the very heart of the intensive care unit – the section of the hospital where the sickest patients are brought to be cared for until their condition improves. With honesty\, humility and a streak of dark humour\, Dr Down describes the quietly heroic work of doctors and nurses on the ICU\, a place which sits at the cutting edge of medical technology and where a split-second decision can make the difference between life and death. \n\n\n\nFrom headline-grabbing cases like that of Alexander Litvinenko\, poisoned by Russian agents and admitted to Down’s ward\, to the appalling aftermath of a train crash\, and the mundane daily struggle to simply find enough beds\, Jim Down provides a unique insight into life on The Unit\, and the critical medicine doctors and nurses perform there. \n\n\n\nLife in the Balance offers the first real glimpse of intensive care medicine\, its immense challenges\, deleterious effects on doctors’ mental health and enormous rewards. Its profundity will make you reconsider the fragility of life and reframe your understanding of what it means to care. \n\n\n\nDr Jim Down is a consultant in critical care and anaesthesia at University College London Hospitals. He chairs the ICU consultants’ group\, the department of anaesthesia weekly scientific meetings\, and the UCLH Trust guideline committee. During the Covid-19 pandemic he worked on UCLH’s busy ICU ward\, and was interviewed by the BBC for a groundbreaking report depicting medics on the frontline. His account of that period\, Life Support\, was published in 2021. \n\n\n\nDr Jim Down will be in conversation with Dr Helen Thomas \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/jim-down-life-in-the-balance/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/LifeInTheBalance-High-Res-cover-scaled.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241015T113000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240515T140717Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240702T142527Z
UID:10000058-1728988200-1728991800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Nigel Toon – How AI Thinks
DESCRIPTION:Those who understand how AI thinks are about to win big. Leading British AI entrepreneur Nigel Toon explains why it’s so exciting and how it can be controlled. \n\n\n\nHow AI Thinks shows us how we can harness the electrifying intelligence of machines. Unlike other books on AI which often scare us\, through storytelling that shows us how we think\, Nigel Toon helps us understand AI and its incredible possibilities. He explains that AI is a tool that we can control and how it will augment our own amazing human intelligence. ‘In my role running an AI company\,’ says Nigel Toon\, ‘I am often asked about artificial intelligence\, but people are prone to say that they don’t understand it and fear it. AI is complex and so\, like other powerful tools that have come before\, our lack of understanding can easily lead us to think that it might present a threat to humanity. We need to learn more\, not just about the risks but also about the benefits that this important new technology can deliver\, because it will end up changing our lives and\, perhaps more importantly\, the lives of the next generation.‘Over the course of a career spent at the forefront of technology\, I have been directly involved in developing the underlying technology that makes AI work\, and I understand how this story will play out. I want to help you learn how AI thinks’. \n\n\n\nNigel Toon is a leading figure in AI and is often called upon to speak at major industry events. He has been recognized with numerous industry awards including\, ranked #1 on Business Insiders ‘100 most influential people shaping British technology’ and as one of the ‘Top 100 entrepreneurs in the UK’ by the Financial Times. \n\n\n\nNigel has a background as a technology business leader\, entrepreneur\, and engineer having been CEO at three successful VC-backed processor companies\, including Graphcore which he co-founded and which developed a new type of microprocessor to accelerate Artificial Intelligence. He was previously a senior executive at a major Silicon Valley\, publicly listed semiconductor company. He has served as a Board Member and Chairman for several technology businesses and currently sits as a Non-Executive Director on the board of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which is a non-departmental UK public body that directs over £8bn per year into research and innovation funding. He has also been a member of the UK Prime Minster’s Business Council. \n\n\n\nThis event is kindly sponsored by C P Fry \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/nigel-toon-how-ai-thinks/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/How-AI-Thinks-HB-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T190000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240515T140717Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240702T141443Z
UID:10000057-1728928800-1728932400@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Jack Cornish – The Lost Paths
DESCRIPTION:A History of How we Walk From Here to There \n\n\n\n\n\nA journey across Britain’s millennia-old network of pathways\, revealing key moments throughout our history. \n\n\n\nHundreds of thousands of miles of paths reach into\, and connect\, communities across England and Wales. By 2026\, 10\,000 miles of undiscovered footpaths around Britain stand to be lost. Jack Cornish has dedicated the last five years of his life to walking these forgotten routes\, and this book\, The Lost Paths\, is the result. \n\n\n\nFootpaths\, tracks\, country lanes and urban streets illuminate how our ancestors interacted with and shaped their landscapes in the pursuit of commerce\, salvation\, escape\, war\, and leisure. Paths are an often overlooked part of our everyday life and our country’s history\, crucial to understanding the cultural and environmental history of us in the landscape. \n\n\n\nAfter dedicating his time and energy to fighting for their survival\, The Lost Paths is Jack’s personal journey and exploration of the deep history of English and Welsh footways. This narrative history takes us through ancient forests\, exposed mountainsides\, urban back streets and coastal vistas to reveal how this millennia-old network was created and has been transformed. \n\n\n\nThis is a celebration of an ancient network and a rallying cry to reclaim what has been lost and preserve it for future generations. \n\n\n\nJack Cornish is head of paths at the Ramblers\, Britain’s largest walking charity\, withover 100\,000 members. In 2017\, he walked across the country from Land’s End to John O’Groats\, and is ten years into a (probably futile) attempt to walk every street in London. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/jack-cornish-the-lost-paths/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/The-Lost-Paths-cover.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T170000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240517T090740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240702T140711Z
UID:10000084-1728921600-1728925200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Gavin Pretor-Pinney – Cloud Spotting For Beginners
DESCRIPTION:An introduction to the wondrous world of clouds\, by the internationally bestselling founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and a prize-winning children’s book author and illustrator.Have you ever watched a cloud being born?Clouds come in all manner of shapes and sizes\, from low-lying Stratus to high-flying Cirrus via roll clouds\, banner clouds and tornados. This beautifully illustrated guide reveals the facts\, secrets and stories of all the major cloud types\, and how they shape the weather around them. We learn their fancy Latin names\, explore the parts of the sky where they like to hang out\, marvel at the ways they play with sunlight – and even visit them on other planets\, where they are sometimes made of acid.Cloudspotting for Beginners will inspire curious minds with a lifelong sense of meteorological wonder. \n\n\n\nGavin Pretor-Pinney is founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society\, which has more than 47\,000 members in 120 countries. He is the author of the internationally bestselling Cloudspotter’s Guide and Cloud Collector’s Handbook. His third book\, The Wavewatcher’s Companion\, won the prestigious Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. Gavin is a TED Global speaker with over 1.2 million views. He has presented television documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 and is a Visiting Fellow at the Meteorology Department of Reading University and winner of the Royal Meteorological Society’s Michael Hunt award. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/gavin-pretor-pinney-cloud-spotting-for-beginners/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cloud-spotting-for-beginners.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T150000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240515T140718Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241001T162653Z
UID:10000056-1728914400-1728918000@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Michael Peppiatt - Francis Bacon: a Self-Portrait in Words
DESCRIPTION:A new collection of letters\, statements\, studio notes and interviews reveals the innermost thoughts of Francis Bacon\, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. Expertly annotated by Michael Peppiatt\, the documents selected for Francis Bacon: A Self-Portrait in Words illustrate Bacon’s sharp wit and ability to express complex ideas in highly personal\, memorable language. Split into four sections – Statements\, Letters\, Studio Notes and Selected Interviews – the book includes a large selection of letters to friends\, patrons and fellow artists\, as well as Bacon’s artist statements\, lists of paintings under way\, intriguing notes and interviews\, many of which have only come to light since his death. Bacon’s letters mirror and reveal his dominant preoccupations at different points throughout his long career\, with most of them having never been published before. Recipients range from Lucian Freud to Graham Sutherland\, and collectors Robert and Lisa Sainsbury to gangster Ronnie Kray\, as well as to many close friends and Peppiatt himself. Together with photographs\, archive material and works by the artist are numerous reproductions of Bacon’s characteristic handwriting\, from the briefest jottings and notes to more extensive letters and statements. Bacon frequently came up with memorable epithets and definitions. He delighted in doing with words what he set out to do in painting: ‘I like phrases that cut me.’ Michael Peppiatt explores the personal legacy of one of the 20th century’s most important painters\, presenting a compelling verbal self-portrait that reveals both man and artist. \n\n\n\nMichael Peppiatt is a well-known writer and curator\, who began his career as an art critic in London and Paris in the 1960s. Described by The Art Newspaper as ‘the best art writer of his generation’\, his previous books include Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma\, Francis Bacon in Your Blood and Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/michael-peppiat-francis-bacon-a-self-portrait-in-words/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241014T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20240604T145418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241008T144011Z
UID:10000097-1728907200-1728910800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Martin Gayford – How Painting Happens (and why it matters)
DESCRIPTION:In the words of the late Gillian Ayres\, this is a book about “what can be done with painting.” Drawing on decades of conversations with practicing painters\, acclaimed author Martin Gayford offers intimate insight into the practice\, meaning\, and potential of this timeless medium. \n\n\n\nAs a way of making images\, pigment applied to any surface from cave wall to canvas\, painting has been around for tens of thousands of years. Yet it has proved capable of endless renewal. Now in the third decade of the twenty-first century it is once more at the forefront of contemporary art. How Painting Happens will consider how and why this is so\, examining this perennial medium through the eyes of its exponents past and present. \n\n\n\nMartin Gayford will draw on interviews carried out over more than two decades with\, among many others\, Frank Auerbach\, Gillian Ayres\, Georg Baselitz\, Frank Bowling\, Richard Estes\, Lucian Freud\, Katharina Fritsch\, Rebecca Horn\, Shirazeh Houshiary\, Lee Ufan\, Paula Rego\, Bridget Riley\, Jenny Saville\, Frank Stella\, Hiroshi Sugimoto\, Wayne Thiebaud\, Luc Tuymans\, and Zeng Fanzhi. \n\n\n\nThese diverse artists talk about how they work\, the different routes by which they came to be painters\, their contemporaries\, and predecessors. With painters’ insight they discuss such previous exponents of the brush as Titian\, El Greco\, Edward Hopper\, Suzanne Valadon\, Petrus Christus\, Van Gogh\, Degas\, Klee\, and Delacroix. \n\n\n\nAltogether\, this book presents a fresh\, multidimensional perspective on the medium—so ancient and yet simultaneously so modern\, and still capable of doing things no other art form can. \n\n\n\nPraise for How Painting Happens:Critic and art historian Martin Gayford’s How Painting Happens (And Why it Matters) (Thames & Hudson) was hailed by Stephen Smith at the Financial Times: “Stimulating and sumptuously illustrated\, How Painting Happens is really two books in one\, a double-sided canvas. The ‘recto’\, as art world types would dub the ‘front’ side\, depicts humankind’s steady upward progress\, from scratches on a cave wall to the glorious\, inexhaustible possibilities of paint and beyond.” The Irish Times’ Gemma Tipton wrote that “How Painting Happens succeeds in providing keys to unlocking the puzzles of painting”\, as both a “erudite and insightful” read. Writing for the New Statesman\, Andrew Marr noted: “This is as clear a piece of writing about the experience of looking at a great painting as I have ever read.’  \n\n\n\nMartin Gayford is a writer and art critic. His books include Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud; Modernists and Mavericks: Bacon\, Freud\, Hockney and the London Painters; A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen and Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy\, both with David Hockney; Shaping the World: Sculpture from Prehistory to Now\, with Antony Gormley; Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud\, 1939-1954\, with David Dawson; and Venice: City of Pictures. \n\n\n\nKindly sponsored by Duke’s Auctioneers \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/martin-gayford-how-painting-happens/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T190000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230426T160619Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T153835Z
UID:10000031-1697565600-1697569200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Damien Lewis – SAS Great Escapes II
DESCRIPTION:Million-copy bestselling author Damien Lewis has established himself as one of the most popular WWII historians\, and this book builds on the success of SAS Great Escapes which has sold more than 40\,000 copies in just over a year.  SAS Great Escapes II reveals how SAS men crossed deserts\, evaded hunter forces and escaped through enemy lands\, overcoming insurmountable odds in WWII.  \n\n\n\nHe tells the stories of: \n\n\n\nLegendary SAS figure Bill Fraser and his six-man patrol\, listed as Missing in Action after failing to return from a desert raid. Nine weeks later they emerged from a death-defying trial\, being greeted as if they were ‘back from the dead’. \n\n\n\nThe eccentric yet gifted SAS commander Lord George Jellicoe and his small band of piratical raiders who attacked the heavily guarded German aerodrome at Heraklion\, Crete\, blowing up dozens of warplanes. \n\n\n\nMalcolm Pleydell\, the SAS medic who undertook a 1000-mile Saharan escape\, being hunted all the way\, facing horrific decisions as to who to save and who to abandon. \n\n\n\nSAS founder David Stirling who attempted  one of the most audacious missions of the war – to drive across the war-torn expanse of North Africa\, to link up with advancing American forces. \n\n\n\nJohn Tonkin commander of Operation Bulbasket\, a 40-strong party tasked to halt in its tracks the notorious SS Panzer Division Das Reich. \n\n\n\nHerbert Castelow who parachuted into France\, charged to sabotage a key airbase escaping on the local village butcher’s bike \n\n\n\nDamien Lewis’s extensive research captures these never-before-told stories\, relying upon the generous time\, help\, personal archives\, memorabilia and collections of the family members of those portrayed\, as well as individual interviews\, and access to newly-released wartime files held in the National Archives and elsewhere.  \n\n\n\nDamien Lewis worked as a war and conflict reporter for the world’s major broadcasters\, reporting from across Africa\, South America\, the Middle and Far East and winning numerous awards. His books include the World War Two classics The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare\, Hunting the Nazi Bomb\, SAS Nazi Hunters\, SAS Ghost Patrol\, SAS Italian Job\, SAS Band of Brothers\, SAS Brothers in Arms and SAS Great Escapes. Many of his books have been made\, or are being made\, into movies or TV drama series or adapted as plays for the stage. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is presently being filmed as a major movie directed by Guy Ritchie\, and starring Henry Cavill\, Alan Richson\, Henry Golding\, Eiza González\, amongst others. He has raised tens of thousands of pounds for charitable concerns connected with his writing. \n\n\n\nSponsored by Grassby & Sons \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/damien-lewis-sas-great-escapes-ii/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/SAS_Great-Escapes-2-jacket_.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T170000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230502T075129Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T153936Z
UID:10000016-1697558400-1697562000@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Peter Hart – Footsloggers
DESCRIPTION:The Ben Shephard Memorial Lecture \n\n\n\n\n\nAn Infantry Battalion at War\, 1939\n\n\n\nThe only way to truly understand what it was like to fight in the Second World War is to listen to the experiences of those men who were there. And often\, there was nowhere more dangerous than on the ground. \n\n\n\nIn Footsloggers\, Peter Hart reconstructs one infantry battalion’s war in staggering detail. Based on his interviews with members of the 16th Durham Light Infantry\, Hart bears witness not only to their comradeship\, suffering\, dreadful losses and individual tragedies\, but also their courage and self-sacrifice as they fought their way across North Africa\, Italy and Greece. It might be said that they were an ‘ordinary’ battalion\, but there was nothing ordinary about the experiences they collectively faced in the war against fascism. Most of the men were civilians until the onset of war threw them into the maelstrom; few of them ever considered themselves as natural soldiers. They had to learn from scratch the fundamentals of military discipline and acquire the manifold skills required of the infantryman. Some learnt quickly and prospered; far more struggled in this harsh environment\, enduring untold privations and humiliations. But most did in the end become effective soldiers\, capable of facing their opponentsserving the Third Reich. \n\n\n\nThis is a human look at the inhuman nature of war from the acclaimed author of At Close Range and Burning Steel. \n\n\n\nPeter Hart was the oral historian at the Imperial War Museum for nearly 40 years. A prolific military history author\, he has appeared in various television programmes\, acted as a guide for the army\, runs his own battlefield tour company and has a successful weekly podcast series Pete & Gary’s Military History. \n\n\n\nBen Shephard (1948-2017) was a writer\, historian\, lecturer and TV producer – The World at War and The Nuclear Age. Ben had a lifelong interest in the history of psychiatry and he studied the psychological effects of war in a series of highly regarded books\, A War of Nerves – about PTSD\, After Daybreak – the liberation of Belsen and The Long Road Home – the resettlement of displaced persons after WW2. This lecture remembers Ben’s life and work. \n\n\n\nSponsored by Sue Shephard \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/peter-hart-footsloggers/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Footsloggers-cover-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T150000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230216T104227Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230918T150348Z
UID:10000004-1697551200-1697554800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC – Unlawful Killings
DESCRIPTION:Detailing six high profile murder and manslaughter cases over which they have presided\, an Old Bailey judge reveals the inner workings of a crown court and how we should all be invested in the judicial process that transforms so many ordinary lives. \n\n\n\n\nEvery day in the UK lives are suddenly\, brutally\, wickedly taken away. Victims are shot or stabbed. Less often they are strangled or suffocated or beaten to death. Rarely they are poisoned\, pushed off high buildings\, drowned or set alight. Then there are the many who are killed by dangerous drivers\, or corporate gross negligence. There are a lot of ways you can kill someone. I know because I’ve seen most of them at close quarters. \n\n\n\n\nAs one of just a few judges licensed to try murder cases at the Old Bailey\, the author has presided over many of the high-profile cases that all too often grab our attention in dramatic media headlines – for every unlawful death tells a story. But\, unlike most of us\, a judge doesn’t get to turn the page and move on. Nor does the defendant\, or the family of the victim\, nor the many other people who populate the court room. \n\n\n\nPeeling apart six dramatic murder and manslaughter cases\, Unlawful Killings removes this distinction between ‘them’ and ‘us’. By detailing the inner workings of the Old Bailey and UK law\, the author makes clear that each of us has a vested interest in what happens in the court room – especially when it comes to the death of a fellow human being. Any one of us could end up in the witness-box or even in the dock. And yet most people have only the sketchiest idea of what happens inside a Crown Court. \n\n\n\nWhen Wendy Joseph move to the Old Bailey in 2012 she was the only woman amongst 16 judges and the third woman ever to hold a permanent position at the Old Bailey. \n\n\n\nWendy Joseph will be in conversation with Jason Goodwin. \n\n\n\nSponsored by Michael and Eve Bonham Cozens \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/her-honour-wendy-joseph-kc-unlawful-killings/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/unlawful-killings-jkt.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230216T104017Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230918T150010Z
UID:10000003-1697544000-1697547600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Joanna Quinn – The Whalebone Theatre
DESCRIPTION:A ravishing coming-of-age story set in the shadow of an oncoming war\, The Whalebone Theatre fizzes with invention and compassion as an ‘unmarriageable’ girl elects to defy convention and find her own path through life. \n\n\n\n\n“Maudie\, why are all the best characters men?”Maudie closes the book with a clllump. “We haven’t read all the books yet\, Miss Cristabel. I can’t believe that every story is the same.” \n\n\n\n\nCristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story\, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman\, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor. \n\n\n\nBut from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset\, and twelve-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own\, she is determined to do things differently. With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests\, Cristabel and her siblings\, Flossie and Digby\, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic\, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors\, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid. \n\n\n\nBut as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches\, jolting their lives on to very different tracks\, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict\, they must each find a way to write their own. \n\n\n\nJoanna Quinn grew up in Dorset where the best-selling Whalebone Theatre is set. She has worked in the charity sector and journalism. The Whalebone Theatre is her first novel and was a book club pick from the Queen Consort’s Reading Room. \n\n\n\nJoanna Quinn will be in conversation with Helen Stiles \n\n\n\nSponsored by the Thomas Hardy Society \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/joanna-quinn-the-whalebone-theatre/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/whalebone-theatre.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231017T113000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230502T162036Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T154241Z
UID:10000018-1697538600-1697542200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Anna Kent – Frontline Midwife
DESCRIPTION:Anna Kent has delivered babies in war zones\, caring for the most vulnerable women in the most vulnerable places in the world. At twenty-six years old\, not yet a fully-trained midwife\, she delivered a baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch; the following year\, she would be responsible for the female health of 30\,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to the UK to work for the NHS\, she soon learned that even at home the right to a safe birth was impossible to take for granted. \n\n\n\nIn Frontline Midwife\, Kent shares her extraordinary experiences as a nurse\, midwife and mother\, illuminating the lives of women that are irreparably affected by compromised access to healthcare. This is at once an astonishing story of the realities of frontline humanitarian work\, and a powerful reminder of the critical\, life-giving work of nurses and doctors at home and around the world. \n\n\n\nAnna Kent will be in conversation with Dr Helen Thomas \n\n\n\nSponsored by Summer Lodge \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/anna-kent-frontline-midwife/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Frontline-Midwife-jkt.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T193000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230502T162108Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T154327Z
UID:10000015-1697479200-1697484600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Poetry Slam with Angie Porter
DESCRIPTION:An open mic event for local writers and poets.\n\n\n\nJoin us to hear up to twenty poets and writers read and perform their work. To sign up to participate at this event please contact us directly via contact@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com or just come along listen and enjoy a glass of wine. \n\n\n\nAngie Porter is a local poet\, performer and painter who brings creativity to the fore in whatever she does. Her monthly “She Speaks” poetry slams are hugely popular and Angie is actively involved in promoting new poetry work. Originally from Melbourne Australia\, Angie is currently researching her local roots and the immigration experience from rural Somerset to outback Australia in the early 1800’s.  \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/poetry-slam-with-angie-porter/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Angie-Porter.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T170000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230426T145624Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T154421Z
UID:10000028-1697472000-1697475600@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Angus Waycott – How to Self Publish Your Book
DESCRIPTION:The Winterborne Journey \n\n\n\n\n\nAngus Waycott is an author and narrator whose work has appeared in the UK\, USA and elsewhere. During 15 years in Japan he wrote books about daily life and travel to remote areas\, and was the voice of TV news\, documentaries and characters in anime and video game productions. He has also worked as a script editor\, copywriter\, translator\, lighting designer and staircase builder.  \n\n\n\nOn 16th October he’ll be talking about his experiences in self-publishing. Is it worthwhile? What are the advantages? And the pitfalls? His own first attempt in 1981 did well enough to encourage further projects\, some of which made more impact than others. But if success remains unpredictable\, the digital age has at least made the how-to part of the job a lot easier than before. \n\n\n\nHis latest book\, also self-published\, is The Winterborne Journey\, a lively and erudite account of the journey made by a small chalkstream just south of Dorchester. As well as insights into the placing of sarsens\, long-ago medical treatments and the mystery of waters that vanish and then return\, it uncovers a host of curiosities in geology\, nature\, farming\, folklore\, poetry\, food\, bats\, lunatics\, windmills\, carving\, fighting\, fishing and dancing — all scattered along a few miles of streambank like scenes on a painted scroll. A tonic read for life’s quieter moments. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/angus-waycott-self-publishing/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Winterbourne-Journey-scaled.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T150000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230502T162205Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T154449Z
UID:10000021-1697464800-1697468400@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Cathy Rentzenbrink – Write It All Down
DESCRIPTION:Why do we want to write and what stops us?How does the urge to express ourselves fight with the worry that no-one will care or that we will get in trouble?How do we identify and overcome everything that gets in our way so we can start making work? \n\n\n\nSunday Times bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink shows you how to tackle all this and more in Write It All Down\, a guide to putting your life on the page. This is a kind\, encouraging and stimulating book that explores the nature of memoir writing and offers helpful guidance on how to write your life on paper. Rentzenbrink will help you to discover the pleasure and solace to be found in writing; the profound satisfaction of wrestling a story onto a page and seeing the events of your life transformed through the experience of writing the self. \n\n\n\nPerfect for both seasoned writers as well as writing amateurs and everyone in between\, this helpful handbook will steer you through the philosophical and practical challenges of writing the self. Intertwined with reflections\, anecdotes and exercises\, Write It All Down is at once an intimate and enjoyable narrative and an invitation to share your story. \n\n\n\nCathy Rentzenbrink is an acclaimed memoirist whose books include The Last Act of Love\, How to Feel Better and Dear Reader. Her first novel is Everyone is Still Alive and Write It All Down is a friendly and down to earth guide to writing a memoir.  \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/cathy-rentzenbrink-write-it-all-down/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Write-It-All-Down-jkt.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230502T162245Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231002T153755Z
UID:10000014-1697457600-1697461200@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Julian Unthank – How To Be A Screen Writer
DESCRIPTION:**Event Cancelled** We regret to say that this event has been cancelled. If you have purchased tickets\, please contact us for a refund. \n\n\n\nThe dumbest guy in the Room: How a dyslexic who never read a book until he was twenty-one made a career as a screenwriter.\n\n\n\nUsing examples from his television\, feature and short film work\, Julian will examine the few highs and many humorous lows of his career as a professional screenwriter. \n\n\n\nJulian Unthank is the writer and creator of Acorn TV’s Emmy™ nominated Queens of Mystery\, an off-beat\, Amélie-esque style take on the traditional world of cosy crime\, the second season of which was released in the United States in January 2022. \n\n\n\nAs well as developing and adapting several shows for Producers in the UK and US\, Julian is currently writing Season 2 of Suspect for Channel 4 and has recently completed writing on his fifth season of ITV’s worldwide hit Doc Martin. \n\n\n\nHe is the writer of the multi-award winning Oscar™ short-listed short Love at First Sight starring John Hurt\, as well as being the writer of the zero award winning\, 13% on Rotten Tomatoes\, medieval slasher-fest Sword of Vengeance starring no one in particular. \n\n\n\nJulian has also written on the BBC’s New Tricks and Robin Hood\, ITV’s The Bill and Channel 5’s Family Affairs. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/julian-unthank-the-dumbest-guy-in-the-room/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/julian-unthank.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T103000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231016T113000
DTSTAMP:20260415T014132
CREATED:20230503T161006Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230810T154608Z
UID:10000033-1697452200-1697455800@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
SUMMARY:Celia Brayfield – Becoming a Writer
DESCRIPTION:Becoming a Writer \n\n\n\nA masterclass for those who are taking their first steps in writing fiction. If you want to start writing\, this session will help you to explore your talent and strengthen your skills.  With the help of a few short exercises you will learn how to develop a fresh\, individual voice\, create vivid characters\, write spot-on dialogue and build an irresistible narrative. The session will also cover paths to publication for new writers and the practical support which can help you build writing into your life. \n\n\n\nCelia Brayfield is an award-winning novelist\, journalist and academic. She is the author of nine novels ranging from modern social fiction to international bestsellers\, as well as two author biographies\, Rebel Writers and the newly published Writing Black Beauty: Anna Sewell\, the Creation of a Novel\, and the Story of Animal Rights. Celia teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University. \n\n\n\nTickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)
URL:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/event/celia-brayfield-becoming-a-writer/
LOCATION:Dorset Museum\, High West Street\, Dorchester\, DT1 1XA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Adult
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Celia-Brayfield-1.jpg
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