Tower and Town, September 2024 (view the full edition)Linda Grant (The Golding Speaker) - The Story of the ForestEvery year, Marlborough LitFest is in the happy position of being able to invite a top literary name to share their writing life with the Marlborough audience, thanks to the association with Nobel Laureate William Golding, who spent his teenage years in the town. This year we are delighted to welcome Linda Grant as our Golding Speaker. Author of nine novels published over nearly 30 years, Grant has become an acclaimed chronicler of individuals on the margins of a society, sustained by their heritage and undaunted by what life throws at them. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 with When I Lived in Modern Times and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 for The Clothes on Their Backs. Her latest book, The Story of the Forest, now in paperback, takes 14-year-old Jewish girl Mina from the forests of Latvia to a long life in Liverpool suburbia, where Grant herself grew up. Spanning most of the 20th century, it draws heavily on the author's own family history - the disputed memories, the lost years of family separation, the challenges of finding their way in a new country that was dealing with the upheaval of world war. There's a rich cast of characters, with the women taking centre stage as they risk reputation, yearn for new experiences in London and beyond and yet are still pulled back to the bonds of family life. "That whole world is a kind of fairy story, isn't it?" muses Zoe, as she learns yet another version of the memories passed down from her great-grandmother Mina. Grant will be in conversation with journalist and broadcaster Alex Clark, well known to Marlborough audiences for interviewing previous Golding Speakers including Sebastian Barry, Ali Smith, Ben Okri and Elif Shafak. We're in for a treat at the start of the festival weekend. Golding Speaker Linda Grant will be in the Town Hall at 7.30pm on Friday 27 September.   Genevieve Clarke |