Authors
Friday 15th June 2012
Joanna Weinberg:
Storecupboard Travels
Friday 15th June 2012: 10.30am to 11.30am
Author of Cooking For Real Life, an inspiring collection of recipes that sets out to lighten the load of the everyday cook, Joanna Weinberg believes that if you can cook engagingly from your storecupboard you will be released from the tyranny of the supermarket. From middle-eastern tahini to pickled Japanese ginger, she reveals her storecupboard stars, and talks about using them to give simple everyday meals a real lift.
Saul David:
All The King's Men
Friday 15th June 2012: 10.30am to 11.30am
Between 1660 and 1815 Britain won a series of major wars against France that formed the foundations of a global empire. Acclaimed historian Saul David tells the story of that extraordinary century and a half and the people who made it possible: the soldier-kings William III and the first two Georges; the generals Marlborough, Wolfe, Moore and Wellington; and the ordinary British redcoats who rarely let their commanders down.
Charles Spencer:
Impressions of Althorp: My Spencer Heritage
Friday 15th June 2012: 12.00pm to 1.00pm
Charles Spencer’s new book will be launched at this event. It was during a seven year stint as a reporter for NBC News in the United States that he inherited the ancestral home of Althorp. This work covers the 20 years since that moment, during which time the house celebrated its 500th birthday, and received the most complete restoration project in over two centuries More importantly, it tells the story of how he has learnt to balance maintaining Althorp as a place of history, with its continuing role as a family home.
Helen Rappaport:
Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy
Friday 15th June 2012: 12.00pm to 1.00pm
When her consort Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria and her nation were plunged into a state of grief so profound that this one untimely death would dramatically alter the shape of the British monarchy for the rest of the Queen’s reign. At Althorp, Helen Rappaport will discuss her fascinating and moving new book, which delves into a cult of mourning so protracted and so fetishistic, it has never before been seen.
Virginia Nicholson:
Millions Like Us
Friday 15th June 2012: 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Virginia Nicholson’s study of the effect of the First World War on women’s lives was received to critical acclaim. Now she tells the story of their role in World War II. In this first "total war" millions of women demonstrated that they were cleverer, more broad-minded and altogether more complex than the male-dominated authorities had ever guessed. Through a host of individual experiences she recounts how they loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared - and how they would never be the same again.
John Lanchester:
Capital
Friday 15th June 2012: 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Award-winning author and journalist John Lanchester talks about his latest work, Capital. Set to become the landmark novel of 2012, it relates the fortunes of the residents of one London street, interweaving their lives and stories in an utterly compelling, post-crash, state-of-the-nation tale, told with compassion, humour and truth; epic in scope, yet intimate and contemplative in tone.
Alistair Darling:
Back from the Brink
Friday 15th June 2012: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Back from the Brink tells the story of Alistair Darling’s thousand days in Number 11 Downing Street. In talking about his candid account of life in the Downing Street pressure cooker and his relationship with Gordon Brown, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s knowledge and understanding will provide a unique perspective on the events that rocked international capitalism.
Frances Wilson & Nic Compton:
Titanic on Trial
Friday 15th June 2012: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Marking the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, Frances Wilson will explore with author Nic Compton how this tragedy unfolded. Journalist and former editor of Classic Boat Magazine, Compton has edited the transcripts from courtroom enquiries to draw out the real drama of that fateful night. Through the voices of those who survived he brings a unique insight into what really happened and the terrible, courageous, cowardly and tragic choices that individuals had to make.
Ben Macintyre:
Double Cross - The True Story of the D-Day Spies
Friday 15th June 2012: 5.00pm to 6.00pm
Best selling author of Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Ben Macintyre now tells another fascinating tale of WWII deception. With previously unseen photographs, documents, letters and diaries, plus newly released material from the files of MI5, he traces the thrilling story of the spies who hoodwinked the Third Reich and helped ensure the success of the D-Day landings – including one agent whose role, never before revealed, saved the invasion from catastrophe.
Dr Kate Williams:
Young Elizabeth
Friday 15th June 2012: 5.00pm to 6.00pm
One of Britain’s brightest young historians, Dr Kate Williams explores how Queen Elizabeth II has carved a lasting role for the monarchy amid the changes of the last sixty years. She looks at how this minor princess suddenly found herself heiress to the throne, how complex family relationships influenced her future, and how her own forward thinking - in the face of family and political opposition - has assured a popularity which has lasted throughout her reign.
Carla Buzasi:
The Future of Digital Publishing and Blogging
Friday 15th June 2012: 6.30pm to 7.30pm
Official Media Partner to the 2012 Althorp Literary Festival, Huffington Post UK will host a very special event on Friday evening. Chaired by Huffington Post UK Editor-in-Chief Carla Buzasi, this panel debate will cover how the internet and rise of bloggers will shape the future of publishing.
Saturday 16th June 2012
Michael Frayn:
Skios
Saturday 16th June 2012: 10.30am to 11.30am
In a spiralling farce of upright academics, gilded captains of industry, ambitious climbers and dotty philanthropists, Michael Frayn, the farceur ‘by whom all others must be measured’, tells a story of personal and professional disintegration, probing his eternal theme of how we know what we know, even as he delivers us to the outer limits of hilarity.
John Challis:
Being Boycie
Saturday 16th June 2012: 10.30am to 11.30am
In a story that is honest, touching and very funny, John Challis talks about his colourful private life, and the crises and highs of his career - from his early days in a troupe of travelling actors, via the National Theatre and Coronation Street, to the starring role in Only Fools and Horses for which he is best known.
Gavin Pretor-Pinney:
Clouds That Look Like Things
Saturday 16th June 2012: 12.00pm to 1.00pm
Winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, Gavin Pretor-Pinney is founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Here he talks about his mission to fight blue-sky thinking, and encourages us to love and understand clouds. In this new collection of clouds photographed around the world by members of The Cloud Appreciation Society he has selected and wittily captioned clouds in the shape of dolphins, elephants, UFOs, even Alfred Hitchcock and Andy Murray.
Claire Tomalin:
Charles Dickens: A Life
Saturday 16th June 2012: 12.00pm to 1.00pm
In the bicentenary of his birth, celebrated biographer Claire Tomalin paints an unforgettable portrait of Charles Dickens. From his unpromising beginnings in a blacking factory to his burial in Westminster Abbey she captures the life and complex character of this great genius with the skill that gained her the ‘Whitbread Book of the Year’ award for Samuel Pepys.
Sandy Gall:
War Against The Taliban: Why It All Went Wrong In Afghanistan
Saturday 16th June 2012: 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Eminent journalist, author, and former ITN news presenter, Sandy Gall CBE brings a new and clear insight into the Afghan conflict. Addressing the challenges – political, religious and military – that face those now fighting on the most dangerous frontier in the world, he deals with the key issues, including the effects of Pakistan’s continued tolerance of the Taliban, why reconstruction has withered on the vine and the why the Taliban insurgency grows ever stronger.
Agapi Stassinopoulos:
Unbinding the Heart
Saturday 16th June 2012: 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Agapi Stassinopoulos is an actress, writer and sister of Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post. In her new book she takes readers on a journey of inner exploration to reconnect with their true selves. With personal, heartfelt stories full of insight and humour she will inspire readers with the confidence to let go of the beliefs that bind them and come to a deeper understanding of life and love.
Sir Timothy Ackroyd:
The Signalman
Saturday 16th June 2012: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
As part of the bicentenary celebrations of Charles Dickens’s birth, award-winning actor Timothy Ackroyd gives a reading of Dickens’s spine-tingling tale The Signalman. On a lonely stretch of railway at the mouth of a forbidding tunnel, a haunted man is visited by a spirited traveller and confesses to him that his post is cursed by tragedies and spectres. This exploration of rationalism versus superstition is widely regarded as one of the best ghost stories ever written.
Jeremy Vine:
It's All News To Me
Saturday 16th June 2012: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Jeremy Vine is one of the most successful broadcasters of recent years, his lively and self-deprecating voice remains a staple of Radio 2 weekday output, with past credits including being the lead presenter of Panorama. In It’s All News to Me, he paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to be trapped inside the BBC for 25 years. Jeremy Vine also talks about our obsession with news, as well as the power of real life stories, versus the media’s desire to shape them.
Antony Beevor:
The Second World War
Saturday 16th June 2012: 5.00pm to 6.00pm
Antony Beevor is our foremost historian of WWII, and in this magisterial account of the greatest conflict that the world has ever known he assembles the whole picture in a gripping narrative. Whilst exploring the great moral dilemmas that faced leaders and everyday people on both sides, he never loses sight of the fate of the ordinary soldiers and civilians who were caught up in the most terrible war in history.
Alison Weir:
A Dangerous Inheritance
Saturday 16th June 2012: 5.00pm to 6.00pm
Alison Weir is a bestselling historian who also writes spellbinding historical novels. In this absorbing session she will talk about her latest novel, A Dangerous Inheritance, which tells the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, as well as her determination to discover the truth behind the murder of the Princes in the Tower a generation earlier.
Sunday 17th June 2012
Tom Holland:
In the Shadow of the Sword
Sunday 17th June 2012: 10.30am to 11.30am
Tom Holland, best-selling author of Rubicon and Persian Fire, tells the story of how the ancient world ended and how a new power, Islam, arose. In a tale vivid with drama, horror and startling achievement he features wars and plagues, emperors and saints plus a cast of extraordinary characters including a communist King of Kings, a whore turned empress and a Caliph with such bad halitosis that he could kill a fly with a single breath.
Edward St Aubyn:
At Last
Sunday 17th June 2012: 10.30am to 11.30am
Described as “ferociously funny, painfully acute and exhilaratingly written”, Booker Prize shortlisted Edward St Aubyn’s Melrose quartet of semi-autobiographical novels concludes with At Last. In this absorbing session Edward will be discussing the writing that has, after 20 years of escalating success, finally brought him international recognition as one of England’s greatest contemporary novelists.
Anne Somerset:
Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion
Sunday 17th June 2012: 12.00pm to 1.00pm
Queen Anne was one of Britain’s most remarkable monarchs. Despite a personal life riven by passion, illness and intrigue, she presided over some of the most momentous events in British history. Acclaimed biographer of Elizabeth I, Anne Somerset has written this meticulously researched, widely acclaimed, biography of Britain’s most successful Stuart ruler. She will be in conversation with Charles Spencer, bestselling author of Blenheim: Battle for Europe.
Christopher Simon Sykes:
Hockney: A Rake's Progress
Sunday 17th June 2012: 12.00pm to 1.00pm
Christopher Simon Sykes is a journalist, photographer and writer who has known David Hockney for more than 40 years. Unprecedented access to Hockney’s family, friends, and notebooks has enabled him to explore the fascinating life of one of the world’s most popular living artists in an honest and revelatory account.
Gerald Dickens:
Doctor Marigold
Sunday 17th June 2012: 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Gerald Dickens is a great-great grandson of the author Charles Dickens, and is an experienced actor, director and producer. Here he performs what was one of his distinguished ancestor’s most popular readings. The doctor of the title is a hawker, named in honour of the doctor who assisted at his birth. On the surface he is a confident trader with a rapid sales-patter, but underneath lies a story that is as surprising as it is heart-breaking.
Brian Sewell:
Outsider
Sunday 17th June 2012: 2.00pm to 3.00pm
Join outspoken art critic and celebrated media personality Brian Sewell for a fascinating insight into his life. Addicted to art, Brian Sewell has written for the London Evening Standard since 1984. Scandalous, controversial and consistently fascinating, his new autobiography, Outsider explores his relationship with his mother, his unorthodox education and his early years as an art dealer.
Captain David Blakeley:
Pathfinder
Sunday 17th June 2012: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
David Blakeley was one of the Army’s youngest captains and served in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2003 he commanded the 16 Air Assault Brigade Pathfinder Platoon’s mission to seize the Qalat Sikkar Airfield. In conversation with Damien Lewis he tells the full story of how one of the British Army’s smallest and most secretive units changed the course of the Second Gulf War.
Louis de Bernieres:
Music & Poetry
Sunday 17th June 2012: 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Award-winning author Louis de Bernières provides an evocative performance with the Treble Clef Trio, three sopranos with a repertoire which includes a wide variety of pieces ranging from musical theatre to popular songs and sacred music. De Bernières plays an array of musical instruments, including the flute, mandolin, clarinet and guitar, and this session with Treble Clef promises to be highly entertaining.
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Upcoming Events
- 19th May 2012 Althorp Country Show Read more...
- 15th June 2012 Althorp Literary Festival 2012 Read more...
- 15th June 2012 Bucks Fizz Brunches & Champagne Afternoon Teas Read more...