History authors and historic figures will be celebrated in Beverley and Bridlington as the Lit Up Festival brings a number of experts to the East Riding over the next fortnight.
Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth, Rachel Joyce – award-winning author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – will be discussing her BBC Radio adaptations of a number of Bronte’s novels, including both Jane Eyre and Villette.
Part of the Beverley Big Read, Rachel will be in conversation with festival director Dorcas Taylor discussing the joys and fears of adapting such high-profile classic work from one of our best-loved authors.
The festival has also teamed up with Ilkley Literature Festival and Off the Shelf to commission three new responses to the work of the Bronte family.
Poet Andrew McMillan, playwright Zodwa Nyoni and singer-songwriter Nat Johnson will present and discuss their unique performances at Beverley Minster on Tuesday 18 October against the atmospheric backdrop of the stunning Beverley Minster choir.
Chris Cleave joins the festival for the first time to discuss his new foray into historical fiction, Everyone Brave is Forgiven.
Described as ‘an addictive, propulsive read’ (The Sunday Times), and ‘Absorbing and sharply paced’ (The Guardian), Cleave’s latest novel is set in both London and Malta over WW2 and inspired by the wartime story of his grandparents.
His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and his second novel, The Other Hand, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Book Awards. An enduringly popular author, join him in conversation on Wednesday 12 October.
Ovid’s Heroines has been reinvented for the 21st century with a stellar cast of brave, sexy, outspoken women addressing the men they love, loved and more in Clare Pollard’s modern interpretation of the classic.
Bringing legendary Greek and Roman characters such as Penelope, Dido and Medea – and their sorrows – out of myth and into modern times, Clare will be reading, reciting and performing from her latest collection on Friday 14 October at Sewerby Hall, Bridlington.
Capability Brown is spotlighted this year in two events celebrating the 300th anniversary of his birth.
Offering a refreshing new look at the remarkable gardener, entrepreneur and salesman, Dr Patrick Eyres will be leading a walk through the Yorkshire landscapes of Burton Constable with his inimitable sense of humour and vast knowledge, talking about the man they called ‘England’s greatest gardener’.
On Saturday 15 October, sculptor Emma Stothard and curator Kelly Wainwright invite people to read the landscape of Capability Brown from an artist’s perspective, looking at Burton Constable’s incredible archive relating to his design of the parkland.
Emma will be discussing her recent commission to produce a new permanent sculpture for Burton Constable and how the eighteenth century and Capability Brown continues to influence her work.
Tracey Borman returns to Beverley for the second year running to showcase her new book, The Secret Lives of Tudors, which details exactly what the servants of Tudor times just may or may not have been privvy to.
With privacy elusive, almost every element of the royal family – from childbirth and family meals to personal ablutions and dressing – took place in the company of servants who would assist them.
These people knew the truth behind the glamorous exterior of royalty; they saw the tears shed by Henry VII upon the death of his son Arthur, the tragic secret behind ‘Bloody’ Mary’s phantom pregnancies and they saw the ‘crooked carcass’ beneath Elizabeth I’s carefully applied makeup, gowns and accessories.
Tracey Borman is a bestselling author and historian, well known for her acclaimed books on Elizabeth I and Thomas Cromwell. She’ll be appearing at Beverley Minster on Saturday 15 October.
To close Bridlington Poetry Festival, poet and Professor of Poetry Simon Armitage will be taking the stage at Beverley Minster to discuss his translation of Pearl.
Thought to be by the same author as 14th-century Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl cements Armitage’s reputation as not only an eminent poet, but one of our most esteemed modern translators.
Described as an ‘energetic, free-flowing, high-spirited version’ by the New Yorker, Simon will be appearing on Saturday 15 October to discuss the process of translating this allegorical tale of grief and lost love for an all-too modern world.
Tickets and more information are available from www.litup.org.uk, by phoning the box office on 01482 392699 or in person from Beverley Library.
