Dorchester Literary Festival

Clare Balding – Isle of Dogs
2024-10-18 17:00 - 18:00 (Europe/London) | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Every dog must have his day.Dogs are never just pets. Not for the British. We love them as members of the family. They work with us, sleep with us, eat with us, help us live our daily lives and come on holiday with us. Some parents will freely admit to enjoying the company of their dogs more than their children while many couples would choose the dog over their partner. So what is it that makes our bond so special?In this fascinating adventure across Britain, Clare Balding explores the many roles dogs fulfil and the history of how they became such an intrinsic part of our lives. She talks to people whose everyday survival depends on their dog, those whose experience of life has been transformed by them and what dogs have meant to her.From the mysteries of extinct breeds to the ancient dogs still thriving today, she journeys from Battersea to the Orkney Islands via Buckingham Palace to tell a moving and humorous tale of loyalty and partnership. Isle of Dogs is an unmissable read for anyone whose life has been transformed by a faithful hound.

Clare Balding is an award-winning writer and broadcaster who has been at the forefront of sports presentation since 1998. She has been a key anchor at seven Olympic and six Paralympic Games as well as multiple Commonwealth Games and Winter Olympics. She was awarded a special BAFTA in 2012 for her work at the London Olympics and Paralympics. In 2023, she took over as the lead BBC TV presenter at Wimbledon. She was a key commentator on the BBC’s television coverage of King Charles III’s Coronation in 2023 and for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee coverage in 2022. She has presented the television coverage of Crufts for nearly two decades and Lost Dogs Live on Channel 5, which helps reunite missing dogs with their owners. During most of her childhood she thought she was a dog and has tried to live with the mentality of a Labrador puppy: be pleased to see everyone and treat every new task as an exciting adventure. Her first book, My Animals and Other Family, was published in 2012 and won the National Book Award for biography of the year. In 2013, she was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and in 2023 received a CBE for services to sport and charity in the Queen’s final Honours List.

This event is kindly sponsored by Domvs

Tickets £20 – includes a copy of the book.

Tom Heap – Land Smart
2024-10-18 15:00 - 16:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
We need land for so many of humanity’s growing needs, such as food, renewable energy, carbon storage and housing. Traditionally, we’ve stolen it from nature, but this has led to a mounting toll of extinction and pollution that is now punishing us. So, as there’s no land left to take, how do we get more from the same, or preferably less.

In Land Smart, Tom Heap, a presenter on BBC TV’s Countryfile, Radio 4’s new Rare Earth series and the anchor of The Climate Show on Sky News, tours the British countryside meeting the farmers, scientists, conservationists and even warehouse managers who are solving the most pressing challenges facing our countryside and the world.

If we use land cleverly it can give both humanity and nature the space to thrive on just the one planet. If not, we’re in trouble.

Tom Heap is a regular presenter on BBC1’s Countryfile, specializing in the more investigative films, and has made many BBC Panorama documentaries on food, energy and the environment. Tom is also the presenter of Radio 4’s new Rare Earth series and was the anchor of The Climate Show on Sky News. He was the creator and presenter of BBC Radio’s flagship climate change podcast ‘39 Ways to Save the Planet’.

Tom Heap will be in conversation with Mike McCarthy

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Polly Toynbee and David Walker – The Only Way is Up
2024-10-18 13:00 - 14:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Political change is coming. But the new Westminster government’s inheritance looks grim. We’re all in it together, the Tories used to say. But they look set to bequeath sharp social divisions, vastly increased inequality, a stagnant economy and unfulfilled commitments on climate change – and all this at a time of unprecedented international tension.

The Only Way is Up gives us a ready reckoner on how to repair the damage and set the UK on the path to sustainable growth. Combining the latest data with expert analysis across health, children’s services, the economy, environment, policing and defence, Polly Toynbee and David Walker tell the story of what went wrong during the Tories’ wild ride and what must now be remedied.

Polly Toynbee is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A Guardian columnist and broadcaster, she was formerly the BBC’s social affairs editor. She has written for the Observer, the Independent and Radio Times and been an editor at the Washington Monthly. She has won numerous awards including a National Press Award and the Orwell Prize for Journalism.

David Walker is contributing editor of Public, the Guardian’s website for senior managers of public services. David has commented on public policy and management since stepping down last year as managing director, communications and public reporting at the Audit Commission. David is a member of council at the Economic and Social Research Council, where he chairs the methods and infrastructure committee. He is a trustee of the Franco-British Council and of Longview. He is a visiting professor at City University, London. With Polly Toynbee he is author of The Verdict, did Labour change Britain?

This event is kindly sponsored by Porter Dodson

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Adam Nicolson – How to Be
2024-10-18 11:00 - 12:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
What is the nature of things? Must I think my own way through the world? What is justice? How can I be me? How should we treat each other?

Prize-winning and bestselling writer Adam Nicolson travels through the transforming world of ancient Greece and asks what light its thinkers can throw on our deepest preconceptions. Sparkling with maps, photographs and artwork, How to Be is a journey into the origins of Western thought.

Hugely formative ideas emerged: fluidity of mind, the search for coherence, a need for the just city, a recognition of the mutability of things, a belief in the reality of the ideal — all became the Greeks’ legacy to the world.

Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings their priests and imagined metaphysical monsters. Then, 2,500 years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbour-cities, that way of thinking began to change. Men (and some women) decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own worrying and thinking minds to the conundrums of life.

These great innovators shaped the beginnings of philosophy. Homer explored how we might navigate our way through the world. Heraclitus in Ephesus was the first to consider the interrelatedness of things. Xenophanes of Colophon was the first champion of civility. In Lesbos, the Aegean island of Sappho and Alcaeus, the early lyric poets asked themselves ‘How can I be true to myself?’ In Samos, Pythagoras imagined an everlasting soul and took his ideas to Italy where they flowered again in surprising and radical forms.

Adam Nicolson is the author of many books on history, travel and the environment. He is winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the British Topography Prize and lives at Sissinghust Castle in Kent.

Adam Nicolson will be in conversation with Danny Danziger.

This event is kindly sponsored by Hall & Woodhouse.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Kate Humble – Where the Hearth Is
2024-10-17 18:00 - 19:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Kate Humble has a knack for sharing her own journey towards a more pleasing and purposeful life in a way that inspires readers, enables them to reassess their own lives and helps them achieve their personal goals. Having encouraged readers to reconnect with nature in Thinking on My Feet and simplify their lifestyles in A Year of Living Simply, she turns now to reimagining whatever we consider ‘home’ – examining her own experiences and expectations, ideals and memories, and considering the views of others living uniquely, extraordinarily, happily. She’s gaining insights from some unexpected quarters – including the animal kingdom.

As our time spent in office buildings and other traditional workplaces shrinks forevermore, feeling happy, healthy, productive and content in our homes (be they castles or caravans, flat-shares or farms, fixed or temporary, inner city/out of town/beyond) is more important to get right than ever before. Where the Hearth Is will resonate with all those seeking to make the most of their lives during the many hours we all spend at home – whether it’s a case of tiny adjustments while staying put, moving out, living differently or dreaming of building something new.

Kate will also discuss her latest cookbook Home Made: Recipes From the Countryside – a wonderful collection that features over 60 simple, sustainable recipes from Kate’s own kitchen table, making delicious, fuss-free meals accessible to everyone. Along with a wide range of recipes, Kate also offers inspiring stories from 20 individuals who play a role in bringing food to our tables, from basket-weavers and apron-makers to blacksmiths and woodworkers; potters and glassblowers to fishermen and cheese-makers;farmers and chocolatiers to distillers and salters. Foodies of all skill levels will find something to love, with delicious options for every course and occasion:

Kate Humble is an English television presenter and narrator, mainly working for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programmes. Humble served as president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds from 2009 until 2013. She is an ambassador for the UK walking charity Living Streets.

Kate Humble will be in conversation with Steve Harris.

This event is kindly sponsored by Grassby & Sons Ltd

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

The Oldie Event – Giles Wood and Mary Killen – Country Life – in conversation with Harry Mount
2024-10-17 16:00 - 17:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Former townies Giles and Mary swapped city life for rural Wiltshire over thirty years ago, and they’ve each embraced it in their own very different ways.Mary has happily traded sophisticated London salons for monthly lectures at the Farmers’ Club, competitive school quizzes, church interactions and local Auction House sales. While Giles has immersed himself in the catastrophic consequences of conventional farming, his organic no-dig veg-patch, the increasingly disproportionate response by local landlords to harmless trespassers and the strange death of the village house martins.For recent city escapees and indigenous country folk alike, Giles and Mary sift through the unhelpful dreamy myths and offer a practical reality, with robust back and forth on every aspect of life in rural outposts, including but not limited to planning wars, class wars, dog thefts, tree-felling fights, misunderstandings between incomers and natives and the role of the Heron Appreciation Society.The much-loved Wiltshire couple share their combined, hard-earned lessons, so we can learn the secret skills of grumbling and bumbling our way towards a new contented country life.

Giles Wood Giles Wood is an accomplished artist, and is also a published writer, with columns in The Telegraph and The Oldie. In the podcast space, he can be heard on Giles and Mary’s Oldie Newsround with Harry Mount.

Mary Killen is a busy journalist, with a weekly column in The Spectator, and regular contributions in many other national publications. She has been appearing on Channel 4’s hit show Gogglebox since 2015 with her husband Giles, sitting together in their cottage in Wiltshire. This is Mary’s seventh book.

Giles and Mary will be in conversation with Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie Magazine.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Victoria Hislop – The Figurine
2024-10-17 14:00 - 15:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
In her irresistible new novel, Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author Victoria Hislop shines a light on the questionable acquisition of cultural treasures and the price people – and countries – will pay to cling on to them.

Of all the ancient art that captures the imagination, none is more appealing than the Cycladic figurine. An air of mystery swirls around these statuettes from the Bronze Age and they are highly sought after by collectors – and looters – alike.

When Helena inherits her grandparents’ apartment in Athens, she is overwhelmed with memories of the summers she spent there as a child, when Greece was under a brutal military dictatorship. Her remote, cruel grandfather was one of the regime’s generals and as she sifts through the dusty rooms, Helena discovers an array of valuable objects and antiquities. How did her grandfather amass such a trove? What human price was paid for them?

Helena’s desire to find answers about her heritage dovetails with a growing curiosity for archaeology, ignited by a summer spent with volunteers on a dig on an Aegean island. Their finds fuel her determination to protect the precious fragments recovered from the baked earth – and to understand the origins of her grandfather’s collection.

Helena’s attempt to make amends for some of her grandfather’s actions sees her wrestle with the meaning of ‘home’, both in relation to looted objects of antiquity … and herself.

Best-known for her evocative and thoroughly researched historical novels, set against the backdrop of southern Europe – particularly Greece – Victoria Hislop is one of the UK’s bestselling novelists. She worked as a journalist and in publishing before writing her first novel, The Island, inspired by her love of Greece. Widely considered a modern classic, the novel – which follows four generations of a family on the leper colony island of Spinalonga, off the coast of Crete – was an instant hit with Waterstones booksellers and became an international bestseller. Since then she has continued to dominate bestseller lists, with books including The Return, The Thread, The Sunrise and Carte Postales from Greece and Those Who Are Loved.

Victoria Hislop will be in conversation with Lulu Taylor

This event is kindly sponsored by Dorchester Town Council

This event is kindly sponsored by Dorchester BID

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

James Holland – Cassino ’44
2024-10-17 12:00 - 13:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
It should have an easy victory. After triumph in Tunisia, the sweeping success of the Sicilian invasion, and with Italy finally knocked out of the war, the Allies were confident that they would be in Rome before Christmas 1943.

And yet it didn’t happen. Hitler ordered his forces to dig in, thus setting the stage for one of the grimmest and most attritional phases of the Second World War. Even though they were short of supplies and support, even in retreat, the German troops made the Allies fight for every bitter yard. By early 1944, they had created a formidable defensive position across the Italian peninsular: the Gustav Line, a barrier of bunkers, minefields, booby traps, dug-outs and strategic artillery positions. This, and the combination of dogged defence and utterly debilitating conditions, ground the Allied advance to a standstill some sixty miles south of Rome, at the foot of the hill on which stood the thousand-year-old abbey of Monte Cassino.

The battle for that rock was one of the most brutal of the entire war, would last more than four long winter months and cost the lives of over 75,000 soldiers and civilians. The abbey and the landscape around it were decimated, leaving the large local population homeless and their centuries-old community annihilated. Following a rich cast of characters and with access to new information from all sides of the battle, both military and civilian, James Holland has written the definitive account of one of the most pivotal battles of the war and created a thrilling reconstruction of what it was really like to be at the centre of the maelstrom of war.James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently Brothers In Arms and Normandy ’44, he is also the author of nine works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts. He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year, and he has presented – and written – many television programmes and series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels. With Al Murray, he has a successful Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which also has its own festival, and is a research fellow at St Andrew’s University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

This event is kindly sponsored by H K Law

Nusrit Mehtab – Off the Beat
2024-10-17 10:30 - 11:30 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Over the course of her 30 year long career in the Metropolitan Police, Nusrit Mehtab was subjected to and witnessed a host of racist and sexist behaviour. This included fellow officers refusing to use her name, being sent out alone on nighttime foot patrols, witnessing male officers make lewd and derogatory comments about women leaving night clubs, seeing female officers being physically groped by male colleagues, and being instructed by a senior officer not to report a newly graffitied swastika on a wall inside the secure area of a London police station.

In Off the Beat she recounts what it was like for a Muslim woman of Pakistani heritage to work in the Met, and she proposes solutions to bring about real change and overcome the deep, cultural problems that continue to plague the force today.

When Nusrit Mehtab joined the Metropolitan Police in the late 80s, she entered an organisation that was rife with racism, misogyny and homophobia. She had grown up in East London not trusting the police and had never seen a police officer who looked like her – a woman with brown skin – but she wanted to change that from the inside. Nusrit stayed in the force for 30 years, battling both for herself and for other officers facing discrimination to get fair opportunities and be treated equally.

From the very beginning, Nusrit was marked as an outsider. Fellow officers refused to patrol with her and she was subject to frequent, demeaning ‘pranks’. As her career progressed, things didn’t get easier, instead her attempts to get promoted were met with hostility and ridicule. Her experience was not unique: it was also the experience of many of her black and Asian colleagues.

After spending 30 years on the frontline and having risen from PC to superintendent, Nusrit decided that she had no alternative but to resign from the Met, initiating an employment tribunal against them for racism and misogyny in the process.

Now a lecturer in policing law and criminology at the University of East London, she is involved in training the next generation of police officers. She is confident that it is possible to create a more inclusive police force that is safer for both officers and the public.

Nusrit Mehtab was born in Pakistan and came to the UK with her family as a baby. During her 30 year career in the Met she worked in some of the most challenging areas of policing, including Serious and Organised Crime, Counter Terrorism, Clubs and Vice. She was the first Muslim woman of Pakistani heritage to become an undercover officer in the UK.In January 2020, after a career spanning 30 years, Nusrit left the Met and instigated an employment tribunal against them. At that time, she was one of the highest-ranking Asian women in the force. Nusrit is now a lecturer in policing law and criminology at the University of East London. By teaching police recruits she now hopes she can change the force for the better from the outside.

Nusrit Mehtab will be in conversation with Jenny Devitt

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Alan Hollinghurst – Our Evenings
2024-10-16 18:00 - 19:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Both dark and luminous, poignant and wickedly funny, Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel gives us a portrait of modern England through the lens of one man’s acutely observed and often unnerving experience. It is a story of race and class, theatre and sexuality, love and the cruel shock of violence, from the finest writer of our age.

Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I’d lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.

Dave Win is thirteen years old when he first goes to stay with the Hadlows, the sponsors of his scholarship at a local boarding school where their son Giles is his contemporary. For Dave this weekend, with its games and challenges and surprising encounters, will open up heady new possibilities, even as it exposes him to Giles’s envy and violence. As Our Evenings unfolds over half a century, the two boys’ careers will diverge dramatically, Dave a gifted actor struggling with convention and discrimination, Giles an increasingly powerful and dangerous politician.

Our Evenings is Dave Win’s own account of his life as a schoolboy and student, his first love affairs, in London, and on the road with an experimental theatre company, and of a late-life affair, which transforms his sixties with a new sense of happiness and a perilous security; but it is also, very movingly, the story of his hard-working widowed mother, whose own life takes an unexpected new turn after her son leaves home.

Alan James Hollinghurst is an English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. He won the 1989 Somerset Maugham Award, the 1994 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and for his novel The Line of Beauty the 2004 Booker Prize. Hollinghurst is credited with having helped gay-themed fiction to break into the literary mainstream through his six novels since 1988.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Rachel de Thame – A Flower Garden for Pollinators
2024-10-16 16:00 - 17:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
With bees, butterflies and other pollinators threatened by climate change and habitat loss, it’s now more important than ever to support and nurture pollinators in your garden. In this practical and beautiful guide, expert horticulturalist and regular Gardener’s World presenter Rachel de Thame shows you how to create a garden that provides an abundant resource of plants rich in nectar and pollen.Arranged by season and illustrated with exquisite hand-painted watercolours and glorious photography, this book provides a captivating look at supporting nature. Whether you have a courtyard garden or a large country garden, A Flower Garden for Pollinators will tell you what to plant and when in order to attract and sustain a host of pollinators all year round.

Rachel de Thame is a horticulturalist, broadcaster, designer and writer. A familiar face on our screens since 1999, Rachel is perhaps best known for presenting on BBC’s flagship series Gardeners’ World andthe hugely popular series Countrywise for ITV1. Rachel’s passion for plants and gardens emerged in early childhood and is now the cornerstone of a varied career

Rachel de Thame will be in conversation with Mike McCarthy

This event is kindly sponsored by Summer Lodge Hotel

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Scotty Mills – Never Give In
2024-10-16 14:00 - 15:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Former Royal Marine, Major Scotty Mills, blends personal experiences from his remarkable life with inspirational advice and insights to provide his 12 Commando Rules for Life that could help anyone to do better and reach their targets.

A sudden downpour while Scotty Mills was walking down a street in South London sent him diving for cover into the nearest shop. It turned out to be a recruitment centre for the Royal Marines and, after a few minutes’ conversation while waiting for the rain to stop, Scotty was hooked and signed up to join the elite force. It changed his life and set him in a new direction that would end up with him leading the Marines on operations around the world, becoming an Olympic flag bearer in 2012 and dining at Buckingham Palace with the Queen and the royal family. Scotty shares his lessons of performance and resilience with the reader, inviting them into the secrets of elite culture. His compelling story is one that combines tragedy with remarkable insight about the power of human inspiration. Scotty has worked with many of our nation’s top sports teams, helping them to achieve their goals, and he shares his methods with his readers, to guide them to peak performance in all aspects of their life and career.Scotty Mills was born and raised in south London, joining the Royal Marines in his teens. He went on to become the highest-ranking commissioned black officer in Marines history. During his time in the Marines, he not only served numerous tours of duty overseas, but also worked with the England rugby World Cup-winning squad of 2003, the GB women’s Olympic hockey team and Gareth Southgate’s England football squad. His reputation as an inspirational leader and team builder led to him being described as Gareth’s secret weapon on television.

This event is kindly sponsored by Hall & Woodhouse.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Anne Somerset – Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers
2024-10-16 12:00 - 13:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
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.

Victoria 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.

Anne 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.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Christina Hart Davies and Vanessa Berridge – A Herbal Year and Garden Heaven
2024-10-16 10:30 - 11:30 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Drawing on writers, storytellers and poets through the centuries, botanical illustrator Christina Hart-Davies examines the long history of herbal remedies, how plants have been used for healing and the beliefs that surround them, including simple recipes for use at home, in an enchanting, illustrated guide to the seasonal plants used as herbal remedies over the ages fully illustrated by the author.

This is a joint panel event with Vanessa Berridge, who will discuss her latest book that takes us on a unique tour of thirty of Britain’s most beautiful gardens, classic and modern. Packed with photographs, many specially commissioned, and evocative and entertaining text, telling the stories of the gardens and the people who created them. The gardens range from legendary romantic gardens like Sissinghurst and Great Dixter to dramatic locations like Bodnant and Overbecks. The book includes information on visiting all the gardens, and suggestions for the best times of year.

Christina Hart-Davies is a renowned botanical illustrator and writer. Her watercolours have featured in prestigious collections worldwide and have won many awards, including six RHS Gold Medals. She has illustrated many books and field guides most notably The Collins Wild Flower Guide, and is the author of A Wild PLant Year, The Greenwood Trees and The Whole Story.

Vanessa Berridge is an acclaimed garden writer. She launched The English Garden magazine in 1997, and her books include The Princess’s Garden: Royal Intrigue and the Untold Story of Kew, Great British Gardeners and Kiftsgate Court Gardens: Three Generations of Women Gardeners, which won the 2019 Garden Media Guild’s Garden Book of the Year.

Christina Hart-Davies and Vanessa Berridge will be in conversation with Paul Atterbury.

This event is kindly sponsored by Hall & Woodhouse.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Tracy Chevalier – The Glassmaker
2024-10-15 18:00 - 19:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
A vivid, inventive, spellbinding virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass by a master of her craft.

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle.

Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.

Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.

The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?

Tracy Chevalier is the author of 10 novels, including the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has sold over 5 million copies and been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. American by birth, British by geography, she lives in London with her husband and son. Tracy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has honorary doctorates from her alma maters Oberlin College and the University of East Anglia.

Tracy Chevalier will be in conversation with Lulu Taylor

This event is kindly sponsored by Blanchards Bailey

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Sir Robin Niblett – The New Cold War
2024-10-15 16:00 - 17:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
How the contest between the US and China will shape our century

An 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

We 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.

We 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.

In 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.

Sir 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.

Sir Robin Niblett will be in conversation with Jo Durrant

This event is kindly sponsored by Michael and Eve Bonham Cozens

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Tim Spicer – A Suspicion of Spies
2024-10-15 14:00 - 15:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
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.

1916, 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’.

Biffy, 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.

Aged 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.

Lieutenant 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.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Jim Down – Life in the Balance
2024-10-15 12:00 - 13:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
A Doctor’s Stories of Intensive Care

Dr 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.

From 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.

Life 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.

Dr 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.

Dr Jim Down will be in conversation with Dr Helen Thomas

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Nigel Toon – How AI Thinks
2024-10-15 10:30 - 11:30 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
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.

How 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’.

Nigel 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.

Nigel 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.

This event is kindly sponsored by C P Fry

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Jack Cornish – The Lost Paths
2024-10-14 18:00 - 19:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
A History of How we Walk From Here to There

A journey across Britain’s millennia-old network of pathways, revealing key moments throughout our history.

Hundreds 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.

Footpaths, 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.

After 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.

This is a celebration of an ancient network and a rallying cry to reclaim what has been lost and preserve it for future generations.

Jack 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.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Gavin Pretor-Pinney – Cloud Spotting For Beginners
2024-10-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
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.

Gavin 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.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Michael Peppiatt - Francis Bacon: a Self-Portrait in Words
2024-10-14 14:00 - 15:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
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.

Michael 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.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Martin Gayford – How Painting Happens (and why it matters)
2024-10-14 12:00 - 13:00 | Dorset Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1XA, United Kingdom
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.

As 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.

Martin 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.

These 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.

Altogether, 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.

Praise 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.’

Martin 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.

Kindly sponsored by Duke’s Auctioneers

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Wessex Writers – A Literary Walk
2024-10-13 12:00 - 14:00 | Thomas Hardy Statue, The Grove, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1UT
12 Midday Sunday 13 October 2024

During this walk the Chairman and Academic Director of the Thomas Hardy Society, Mark Damon Chutter, will guide you through Dorchester and Fordington to explore the world of architect, writer and poet Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), the Dorset dialect poet and philologist, William Barnes (1801–1886), and the LGBT pioneer Sylvia Townsend Warner (1883–1978). All of these writers feature Dorchester in different ways from The Mayor of Casterbridge to The Geate A Vallen-To -alongside the Diaries and Journals of Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Mark Damon Chutter is a Drama and English specialist. He is a Head of Performing Arts and has been teaching for 30 years. Mark was shortlisted as one of the top six teachers in the country by The Times in 2014 and 2015. He is a member of the committee of the Dorchester Civic Society and also of the Dorchester Town Council Heritage Committee and STAND. Come and join Mark for a fascinating walk and tour around the literary aspects of Dorchester.

Meet at the Thomas Hardy Statue at the Top 0’ Town. The walk will be from 12 midday until 2pm. At 2pm there will be a cream tea at a cost of £10 per person. Please book separately and directly with The Old Tea House for this on 01305 263719.

This event is kindly sponsored by The Duchy of Cornwall

Ben Macintyre – The Siege
2024-10-12 19:30 - 20:30 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
Britain’s best-selling historian writes the first definitive account of the famous televised SAS storming of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980

On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate, overlooking Hyde Park in London. There they took 26 hostages, including embassy staff, visitors, and three British citizens. A tense six-day siege ensued as millions gathered around screens across the country to witness the longest news flash in British television history, in which police negotiators and psychiatrists sought a bloodless end to the standoff, while the SAS – hitherto an organisation shrouded in secrecy – laid plans for a daring rescue mission: Operation Nimrod.

Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site psychiatrist, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes readers in his inimitably cinematic style from the years and weeks of build-up on both sides, to the gripping minute-by-minute account of the siege and rescue.

Featuring individuals from Margaret Thatcher to Abu Nidal, The Siege recreates the dramatic conversations between negotiators and hostages, the cutting-edge intelligence work happening behind-the-scenes, and the media frenzy around this moment of international significance. This is the fast-paced story of what really happened on those fateful six days, and the first full account of a moment that forever changed the way the nation thought about the SAS – and itself.

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS: Rogue Heroes.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Kate Mosse – The Map of Bones
2024-10-12 17:30 - 18:30 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
A sweeping and epic story of adventure and courage, injustice and triumph, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is the sequel to the number one bestselling The Ghost Ship.Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, is here to walk in her cousin’s footsteps. Louise Reydon-Joubert, the notorious she-captain and pirate commander, landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than sixty years ago, then disappeared from the record as if she had never existed. Suzanne has come to find her — to lay the stories to rest. But all is not as it seems…

Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly one hundred and eighty years after Suzanne’s perilous journey, another intrepid and courageous woman of the Joubert family — Isabelle Lepard — has journeyed to the small frontier town once known as Oliftantshoek in search of her long-lost relations. A journalist and travel writer, intent on putting the women of her family back into the history books, she quickly discovers that the tragedies and crimes of the past are far from over. Isabelle faces a race against time if she is not only going to discover the truth but escape with her life…

Painstakingly researched and beautifully told, The Map of Bones is the fourth — and final — novel of The Joubert Family Chronicles, following the bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and The Ghost Ship.

Kate Mosse CBE FRSL is an award-winning novelist, playwright, performer, campaigner, interviewer and non-fiction writer. The author of ten novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy (Labyrinth, Sepulchre, Citadel), The Joubert Family Chronicles (The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship, The Map of Bones) and No 1 bestselling Gothic fiction including The Taxidermist’s Daughter and The Winter Ghosts. Her highly-acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands: A Story of Caring & Everyday Acts of Love and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World, which inspired her one-woman theatre touring show.

A regular guest on radio and television for literature, Kate hosts the pre-show interview series at Chichester Festival Theatre and is a regular interviewer for literary and arts festivals including Letters Live, the Hay Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the British Library and the Royal National Theatre. Her new podcast, The Matilda Effect, will be launched in summer 2024.

The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction – the world’s largest annual literary awards celebrating writing by woman – she is the founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign and has her own monthly YouTube book show, Mosse on a Monday. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is also an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Authors, a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and President of the Festival of Chichester. In the broader arts, Kate is President of the Festival of Chichester, Patron of the Chichester Cathedral Festival of Flowers 2024, Vice-Patron of the Chichester Cathedral Platinum Music Trust and Patron of the Chichester Festival of Music, Dance and Speech. She is also an Ambassador for Parkinsons UK.

Kindly sponsored by the Thomas Hardy Society

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Saul David – Sky Warriors
2024-10-12 16:00 - 17:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
The legendary ‘Red Devils’ were among the finest combat troops of the Second World War.

Created at Churchill’s instigation in June 1940, they began as a single parachute battalion of 500 men and grew into three 10,000-strong airborne divisions: the 1st, 6th and 44th Indian, each composed of parachutists and glider-borne troops.

Wearing their distinctive maroon berets, steel helmets and Dennison smocks, they served with distinction in every major theatre of the conflict – including North Africa, Sicily, mainland Europe and the Far East. They played a starring role in some most iconic airborne operations in history: the Bruneval Raid of February 1942; the capture of the Primasole, Pegasus and Arnhem Bridges in July 1943, June 1944 and September 1944 respectively; and Operation Varsity, the biggest parachute drop in history, near Wesel in Germany in March 1945.

This is a stunning and gripping new history of the British airborne experience across the Second World War.

SAUL DAVID is a historian, broadcaster and the author of several critically acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction, including most recently Silent Warriors and Devil Dogs. His history books have been shortlisted for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature and variously named a Waterstones Military History Book of the Year and an Amazon History Book of the Year. He is Professor of Military History at the University of Buckingham.

This event is kindly sponsored by Dorchester Town Council

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

John Suchet – In Search of Beethoven: A Personal Journey
2024-10-12 14:00 - 15:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
John Suchet, previously well-known TV news reporter and newscaster and now regular presenter on Classic FM, is an acknowledged authority on Ludwig van Beethoven. He has written seven books on the subject and sold over 23,000 copies of Beethoven: The Man Revealed. His latest release, In Search of Beethoven, stands apart as a deeply personal account of Suchet’s relationship with the great composer. Suchet charts a journey from Beethoven’s early years in Bonn to his life in Vienna, following in the composer’s footsteps and interweaving his story with Suchet’s own. Suchet’s witty and insightful narrative offers a candid portrayal of Beethoven. “It’s not always easy to reconcile the genius with the deeply flawed individual,” Suchet reflects. “Beethoven’s music has been my companion through the best and worst of times, yet I find it difficult to forgive him for the pain he caused those around him. This book includes some truly surprising, and not altogether welcome, discoveries.”The book also sheds light on groundbreaking information about Beethoven’s health and ancestry. Drawing on the latest research from Cambridge University and the Max Planck Institute, Suchet offers fresh insights into Beethoven’s heritage, health struggles, and pivotal life events, such as his interactions with Mozart. “Beethoven scholarship does not stand still,” remarks Suchet, “and each new finding brings us closer to understanding the man behind the music.”

John Suchet OBE is a bestselling author, journalist, radio and TV presenter. He was the voice of morning radio on Classic FM for almost a decade and before that, he was one of the UK’s best-known television journalists and newscasters, regularly presenting ITN’s flagship News at Ten for nearly 20 years. A recognised authority on Beethoven, he is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Beethoven: The Man Revealed (2020), as well as biographies of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi and Tchaikovsky. To date John has written seven books on Beethoven. In Search of Beethoven will be his eighth.

Kindly sponsored by Battens Solicitors

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Rory Cellan-Jones – Sophie From Romania
2024-10-12 12:00 - 13:00 | The Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1RR, United Kingdom
How do you welcome someone new into your home and heart? A week before Christmas 2022, former BBC journalist and award-nominated podcaster Rory Cellan-Jones received a special delivery that changed the course of his life. This is the story of #SophieFromRomania, told in full for the first time.In January 2022, the Cellan-Jones-Coyle family said goodbye to their beloved elderly Collie Cross, Cabbage. Newly retired, Rory had become inseparable from her during daily pandemic walks which alleviated his Parkinson’s Disease symptoms. After a grief-stricken year, Rory and his wife Diane contemplated opening up their hearts again and came across a dog listing for ‘a kind girl who loves everybody and is just looking for her forever home’.Bright-eyed, big-eared and trembling, Sophie arrives in London in a van from Central Europe on 17th December. Rory holds the Romanian rescue in his arms, excited for their first walk together – unaware it is more than a year ahead. Sophie from Romania follows the journey of her adoption – from her battles with anxiety, to the joys of play and her first foray outside – as Rory and Diane work with expert dog trainer Si to win Sophie’s trust, and navigate Rory’s Parkinson’s diagnosis.This is a moving story of growing together through love, kindness and a lot of patience, revealing how adopting pets can be challenging but also full of rewarding moments. It’s also a celebration of rescue dogs, and community as Rory uplifts fellow Romanian dog owners and his new friends from the #SophieFromRomania hashtag.

Rory Cellan-Jones is a journalist and former BBC News technology correspondent and has appeared on many programmes including Breakfast Time, Money Programme, Newsnight, and BBC News. He is the author of Dot Bomb, The Secret History of Social Networking and Ruskin Park: Syliva, Me and the BBC. He is also a member of Movers and Shakers a podcast discussion about life with Parkinson’s.

Tickets £12.00/£6.00 (students)

Poetry Slam with Angie Porter
2024-10-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Shire Hall Museum Cafe, High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1UY, United Kingdom
An open mic event for local writers and poets

Join us to hear local poets and writers read and perform their work. To sign up to participate please contact us directly via contact@dorchesterliteraryfestival.com or just come along to listen.

Angie 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 1800s.

This event is sponsored by The Occasional Poetry Magazine (TOPM) a free publication produced by The Occasional Bookshop (Nangle Rare Books), 16 Durngate Street, Dorchester DT1 1JP
