Tower and Town, September 2014 (view the full edition)Marlborough LitFestMarlborough Literature Festival is five years old this September. When we started out, the town had a flourishing international jazz festival and a rich musical life. But despite its strong literary connections, there was little on offer to celebrate literature and the great heritage of Siegfried Sassoon, John Betjeman, Bruce Chatwyn and William Golding. At the same time literary festivals were springing up all over the place.It wasn’t any longer just the big well-known names of Cheltenham, Hay and Edinburgh. Towns small and large were setting up their own festivals. Many of these rode the wave of celebrity publishing. Well-known names topped the bill. Authors of real literary merit whose names were much less well-known were often squeezed out by people who might draw a crowd and happened to have written a book. We were clear from the start that we wanted Marlborough’s festival to be different - a literature festival, not a book festival. We’ve worked hard to stay true to that principle and to bring together each year a programme as varied and inclusive as possible. Like all arts festivals, we need sponsorship to survive. We’ve been lucky to have had support from Brewin Dolphin and Hiscox from the very beginning as well as the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). Litfest is run by unpaid volunteers. Unlike many festivals, however, we always pay our authors. No matter how well-known or unknown, all receive the same(small) fee. This year is the centenary of the First World War and we mark it with a talk on the war poets by Rowan Williams, himself a poet. Our Golding speaker, always a well-established author of fiction, is Louis de Bernières. We have poetry in the College and in the pub; children’s author Caroline Lawrence; history with Mike Pitts and historical fiction with Sarah Dunant; a literary breakfast on Sunday morning and a writing masterclass; young, prize-winning authors, crime writers, the biographer Jenny Uglow, the philosopher AC Grayling and the brilliant, funny author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss – and much more. LitFest is for everyone who loves reading - and how lucky we are to have the White Horse Bookshop still, renewed and ready to support, inspire and inform all of us who love books. Jan Williamsom |