Ways With Words Southwold Literature Festival, Suffolk
10-14 November 2011

The much anticipated line-up for this year’s Ways With Words Southwold Literature Festival has been announced with Tony Benn, Melvyn Bragg, Joanna Trollope and Maureen Lipman among the highlights.  

For five days each November, this popular festival by the sea plays host to an inspiring mix of world-class writers, media figures and contemporary thinkers and attracts an annual literary pilgrimage of festival-goers from across the UK.  This year’s festival programme comprises more than twenty events including a literary dinner with guest speaker Sam Leith, former literary editor of the Daily Telegraph; and a tour of Southwold aboard Olive, a single-decker vintage bus, with local author Ian Miller on hand to show off the town’s secrets and eccentricities.  

Acclaimed politician, diarist and essayist, Tony Benn will open the festival at St. Edmund’s Hall, Southwold, on Thursday 10 November.  His talk, based on his latest book ‘Letters to my Grandchildren’, looks to the future and examines the challenges facing the next generation.

In the splendid setting of St. Edmund’s Church, Melvyn Bragg looks back, delving deep into the past to recount the political, linguistic and literary stories behind one of the most influential books in the English language, the King James Bible.
 
Andrew Davies, the man behind some of the best-known film and television adaptations of the past 15 years, not to mention that wet shirt moment in 'Pride and Prejudice', will talk about his varied screenwriting career from 'Bleak House' to 'Bridget Jones'. Just as memorable as Colin Firth emerging sodden from a lake (but perhaps for different reasons!) is the dance routine where John Sergeant dragged his partner across the dance floor on BBC 1’s Strictly Come Dancing. But the veteran journalist and broadcaster will leave his dancing shoes at home when he visits Southwold to talk about his life on and off camera.

Novelists Salley Vickers and Joanna Trollope will be talking about their latest books in which they examine the themes of love and family relationships respectively, and broadcaster Joan Bakewell, who has recently turned to fiction writing, will discuss her new book set in the late 1950s.

Art-critic Martin Gayford will talk about a decade of personal conversations with the influential British artist David Hockney, and the story of the Pitmen Painters, a group of Geordie coal miners whose artworks wowed the world, will be brought to life by art-critic William Feaver.

Click here to view the full programme which will be available to view and download online (from 8 August) at www.wayswithwords.co.uk or for a printed brochure contact the Box Office:
Tel. 01803 867373 Email. admin@wayswithwords.co.uk

Three or four night half-board accommodation packages at The Swan or The Crown hotels in Southwold can be booked now by calling the Box Office on 01803 867373.  Packages include tickets for all events (except the vintage bus tour which can be booked separately).  All individual and day tickets go on sale to Friends of Ways With Words from Tues 30th August and on general sale from Tues 6th September.  

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* Press Contact:  Kate Treleaven e. kate.treleaven@wayswithwords.co.uk t. 01803 867311
* Box Office: Tel. 01803 867373
* www.wayswithwords.co.uk
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