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*** 38 - India Knight & Rachel Johnson -
My Life in a Column - £7 ***
11.30
Kenton Theatre
From novels to diet books, current affairs columns to special-needs blogs, India
Knight has provided her readers with a lifeline of warm common sense in a sea of
sound and fury. Through her books and her Sunday Times column, she often looks
at the harder and darker aspects of family life - divorce, death, disability - without
ever losing sight of life’s great pleasures. Rachel Johnson also writes a column for
the Sunday Times on current affairs, family life, and the occasionally double-edged
business of being Boris Johnson’s younger sister. Come and listen to two consummate
writers discuss all the things that really matter - men, children, food, style, shopping
and, of course, writing.
36 - Gawain Douglas -
The Other Side of Bosie - £5
11.00
Phyllis Court
History hasn’t dealt kindly with Lord
Alfred Douglas. Known as Bosie, the
man who loved and ruined Oscar
Wilde, he was implicated in the
famous trial brought by his father,
the Marquess of Queensbury. After
Wilde’s imprisonment, the two were
unhappily reunited and after his death
Douglas called Wilde, “the greatest
force for evil that has appeared in
Europe in the last 350 years”. Now
in Oscar Wilde and the Black Douglas,
Bosie’s descendant Lord Gawain
Douglas retells the familiar tale from
the family perspective and spotlights
Bosie’s own passion for poetry.
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**** SOLD OUT **** 37 - River Readings -
Jeremy Child and Friends - £8
11.00
The Hibernia
One of the highlights of last year’s
festival was the River Readings. Treat
yourself to a lazy hour cruising along
the Thames listening to an eclectic mix
of literature and poetry – poignant
and amusing – read by a group of
actors led by actor Jeremy Child. A
fabulous way to spend an hour on
Sunday morning; be inspired while
you sit back relax, with a coffee and
watch the moving vista of the riverside.
42 - White, Barclay & Scott -
A Sporting Hour - £6
11.30
River & Rowing Museum
Treat yourself to an hour of blissful sporting entertainment in the company of some
of the greatest sports writers of our time. Jim White is a writer and broadcaster who
manages his son’s football team and, in You’ll Win Nothing With Kids, provided the
definitive guide to being a touchline dad. His latest book on Manchester United gives
a full and intimate history of one of the biggest clubs in world football. His fellow
Telegraph columnist Patrick Barclay has been writing and commentating on football
for many years Brough Scott had a career as a National Hunt jockey before becoming
one of sport’s most highly respected writers, not just on racing but tennis, athletics
and a range of other events. He is the author of several successful books, also writes
for the Telegraph and covered the Beijing Olympics. Now, in Henley’s answer to
A Question of Sport, White, Barclay and Brough will be joined by other writers to tell
their stories, offer their insights and give their verdicts on the key sporting questions
of the day.
54 - Martin Bell - The Truth that Sticks - £6
12.00
The Town Hall
Martin Bell’s place in broadcasting and
parliamentary history is assured, as is his
place in the fashion industry with his
distinctive white suit. An award-winning
career as a BBC reporter from trouble
spots around the globe would have been
enough for most journalists, but in 1997
former solider Martin became the first
independent Member of Parliament to be
elected since 1950, when he took the safe
seat of Tatton from Neil Hamilton with a
majority of 11,000. In 2001, Martin Bell
was appointed UNICEF UK Ambassador
for Humanitarian Emergencies. This is a
chance to meet one of broadcasting’s most
challenging and incisive minds.
39 - Hugh Montgomery -
Changing Climate - £6
13.00
River and Rowing Museum
How do we educate ourselves and
our children about climate change
and green issues? These questions
are at the core of Project Genie, a
new campaign run in collaboration
with BT, aimed at informing and
changing us all. The project was
established by Dr Hugh Montgomery,
intensive care consultant and Director
of the Institute of Human Health
Performance at University College
London. In a compelling
event for both kids and adults, he
will be talking about the great issues
and giving out copies of his book, Genie in the Bottle.
44 - Matt, Mac, Cookson and Martin -
Cartoon Capers - £8
14.00
Kenton Theatre
A fantastic coup - we are delighted to bring together three of Britain’s best-loved
cartoonists for the first time. Matt Pritchett MBE, grandson of VS Pritchett and
officially one of the 50 funniest people in the UK, has won numerous awards during
his career as the Daily Telegraph’s pocket cartoonist. Stan McMurty MBE, known
to millions as Mac, began working for the Daily Mail in 1971 and has collaborated
with fellow Henley local Bernard Cookson, writing comedy sketches. With them
will be the Henley Standard’s Martin. All have a passionate following among readers,
politicians and journalists alike. Book now for an exceptional opportunity to hear the
men behind the cartoons talk, and laugh, about the tricky business of drawing the
news and, perhaps, for a masterclass workshop in cartoons.
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45 - Katherine Swift &
Anna Pavord -
Gardening Time - £6
14.00
Phyllis Court
The Morville Hours is an exquisitely
written book about time and the
garden that uses the form of the
medieval books of hours. It is a
journey through time, from 1988
when the author arrived to make
a new garden of her own, back to
the forces which shaped the garden,
linking the stories of those who lived
in the Shropshire house with the
stories of those who live and work
there today. Anna Pavord is probably
our best known gardening columnist
and is author of the bestseller The
Tulip.
46 - Richard Fortey -
A Great Natural Institution - £5
14.30
River & Rowing Museum: Thames Room
Prize-winning science writer Richard
Fortey worked for the Natural History
Museum for several decades. His
books have tackled such subjects as
the first four thousand million years
of life on the planet, but in Dry Store
Room No.1 he tells the fascinating
story of the hidden museum - from
Diplodocus and the Blue Whale
(once the hiding place for an illegal
whisky still), to flesh-eating beetles and
infamous hoaxers. Come and hear
one of Britain’s greatest science writers
spill the secrets of an extraordinary
institution.
48 - Janie Hampton and Nigel Starmer-Smith -
London's First Olympics - £5
15.30
Spice Merchant
The Austerity Olympics was Britain’s
message to the world that business
was being conducted as usual. Held at
the height of the post-war depression
in 1948 near the North Circular, they
offered a full programme of sports,
united the world (except Germany
and Japan) and made a profit. Does
the extraordinary co-operative spirit
of those Olympics and the goodwill
they generated have any lessons for us
in 2012? Join local journalist Starmer
- Smith and author Hampton as they
discuss those extraordinary games.
49 - Bill Mundy - 'A Brush With Life' - £5
15.30
The Grandstand - Phyllis Court
Bill Mundy is one of an increasingly
rare species; an artist of miniatures.
Once court painter to the Malaysian
Royal Family, and frequent exhibitor
at the Royal Academy Summer
Exhibition, he was commissioned in
1999 to paint an equestrian miniature
of the Queen and has also painted
the Duke of Edinburgh. Here he talks
to Sally Hughes, director at The Mill
at Sonning, shares his insights into a
vanishing profession and uncovers the
secrets of the art of miniatures.
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Workshop 3 - Writing Novels -
with Lucy Cavendish & Miranda Glover - £5
15.30
Town Hall Chamber
Contemporary novelists Lucy Cavendish and Miranda Glover present a masterclass
in the business of writing novels, from the original idea to the completed
publication. Touching on everything from plot to pacing, they take their aspiring
authors through the major stages of planning and writing a book. Everyone has a
story in them; the challenge is to spin it into interesting fiction. Beginnings and
endings provide further challenges, as does the path to publication. Fast-paced
and shot through with humour, this will be a fantastic opportunity for budding
authors.
55- Kate Summerscale -
Under Suspicion - £5
14.00
The Spice Merchant
Having won the Somerset Maugham Award for her first book, The Queen of
Whale Cay, Kate Summerscale followed it up with The Suspicions of Mr Whicher,
which received the 2008 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. Educated
at Oxford and Stamford, she had previously written for The Independent and
The Daily Telegraph, the latter as literary editor, and judged several literary
competitions, including the Booker Prize in 2001. This latest work charts a
notorious case in 1860, in which a three-year-old child, Saville Kent, was found
murdered at his family’s large estate in London. Scotland Yard’s finest detective,
Jonathan Whicher, was called in and everyone in the family fell under suspicion.
The case went cold, and Whicher returned to London. Five years later, the killer
came forward and the case was sensationally tried. Here Summerscale talks about
researching and writing a true-life Agatha Christie thriller that is one of the
must-reads of the year.
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51 - Ferdinand Mount -
Working with Thatcher - £6
16.00
River & Rowing Museum: Thames Room
Ferdinand Mount wrote the script for the Tories during the Thatcher years. As head
of the Downing Street Policy Unit and author of the 1983 election manifesto, he
gained a unique insight into Thatcher’s personality, vision and working habits. Later,
as journalist, author and editor of the Times Literary Supplement, he provided wise
and careful commentary on Thatcher’s political successors, and now in his universally
praised memoir Cold Cream, he has given the story of life and politics as it seemed
from the viewpoint of a good man. Come and listen to his unique insights into the, ‘heroic, intolerable often, vindictive, even poisonous sometimes, but always heroic’
woman who was once his boss.
Poetry at Hot Gossip - Duncan Forbes and Nick Heyward
- Free
18.00 & 19.30
Hot Gossip Cafe
Listen, engage and enjoy the poetry
of others in the intimate setting
of Lorraine Hillier’s gorgeous
coffeehouse. Accomplished and
observant, witty and touching,
Duncan Forbes’ poems move from
serious to entertaining as he
explores a wide range of themes,
forms, freedoms and responsibilities
in his poetry, giving new voice
to fresh visions.
The original lead vocalist in
top ten pop act Haircut 100, Nick
Heyward left for a solo career in
1982 and has since released 6 albums
plus a selection of his own poetry set
to music.
There is a £5 refundable fee to reserve tickets
through the Box Office or at Hot Gossip.
52 - Stephen Robinson and Richard Ingrams -
Dear Bill…the Deeds of Deedes - £7
18.00
Kenton Theatre
There’s something about Bill Deedes - who he was, what he did and, most
importantly, what he represented - that people are still drawn to and compelled by.
He seemed to represent a kind of essence of Englishness. His journalistic career
spanned seven decades, he was a soldier in the Second World War, an MP, a minister
in the Macmillan government and a great humanitarian. He met every Prime Minister
from Ramsay Macdonald to Tony Blair. Robinson’s beautifully written biography
controversially suggested that he was neglectful of his family. Join him in conversation
with Richard Ingrams, creator of the Dear Bill column in Private Eye as they discuss
the many lives and troubled loves of the ‘patron saint of Fleet Street’.
53 - Mike Hurst -
Words and Music - £6
20.00
Kenton Theatre
Mike Hurst has been a hugely
significant figure within the British
music industry for over four decades.
As one of the most successful pop
producers of the 60s, 70s and 80s,
he achieved over 51 ‘Top 40’ hits
with acts including Cat Stevens,
the Spencer Davies Group, Cilla
Black, Showaddywaddy, and Belle &
Sebastian. His book, Every Song Tells
a Story, covers the history of popular
music from the 16th century to the
present day, from Shakespeare’s
Sonnets to Simon Cowell. Spend
an hour in the company of a great
musician and storyteller.
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