Tower and Town, October 2018

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Editorial: LitFest Preview

The 2018 Marlborough LitFest offers 45 events during its ninth festival weekend (27-30 September), featuring new and young fiction writers as well as established names, children’s authors, workshops and poetry events, as part of the Festival’s intention to bring the best of good writing to the town of Marlborough.

This year’s line-up includes prize-winning novelist and short story writer, Rose Tremain, opening the Festival as the annual Golding Speaker; acclaimed contemporary novelist William Boyd; military historian Max Hastings chronicling the Vietnam conflict; ex-MP Alan Johnson discussing his latest memoir; bestselling author and co-founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kate Mosse. Themes of history, politics, nature, crime, travelogue, memoir and poetry will be covered, with an annual debut authors’ event and, returning for another year, the popular Translation Duel – this year focusing on French translation. Actor, star of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, as well as successful children’s author, David Walliams is the LitFest’s children’s author, and younger children will be treated to free Storytelling events, primary school workshops and a pop-up children’s book competition. The annual Big Town Read is back for 2018 – this year LitFest is recommending individuals and book groups read Chris Cleave’s latest novel, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, ahead of an author Q&A in Marlborough Town Hall during the Festival.

As well as events with well known authors, there are a number of less obviously popular ones. The previews in the magazine are focussing on these and I hope they will tempt readers to go to one of them and from past experience be  pleasantly surprised! For the full 2018 programme and ticket information visit www.marlboroughlitfest.org

Virginia Reek and Fran del Mar