Kate Mosse charmed us with ghostly tales, Melvyn Bragg regaled a packed Dulwich College library with stories from the peasant’s revolt, and as hundreds of people supported us, so the 2015 Dulwich Literary Festival was firmly cemented in the cultural calendar of South East London.
On Friday 16th October 2015 and running over the weekend, Dulwich Books of West Dulwich hosted 11 author events in The Old Library at Dulwich College, beginning with Vince Cable who may have slightly depressed the packed library but did inform us about the economy.
Saturday morning began bright and early with 80 children eager to learn about drawing their own cartoons and meeting the illustrators from the Phoenix magazine. A swift rearrangement of tables and chairs meant we were ready for Michael Smith’s talk on Shackleton.
Saturday afternoon saw the arrival of homemake parkin and chocolate and raspberry brownies all in honour of Prue Leith who entertained us with stories of her life and her new novel The Food of Love.
A perfect autumn evening enabled the Woodland storytelling to take place amongst the trees in candlelight whilst inside a full house heard the Royal Society sponsored talk from David Adam on how he lives with OCD.
Sunday morning came around very quickly so we fortified everyone with coffee and croissants before sitting down to hear Huw Edwards enlighten an enchanted audience about the Welsh in London, their impact on London life and religion of the day. An entertaining discussion on Brexit followed with Denis MacShane in conversation with Peter Hitchins before we were charmed by Kate Mosse and her tales of taxidermists. Who’d have thought it?
The weekend was rounded off by an hour long talk by Melvyn Bragg before the stage was taken over by local author and comedienne Helen Lederer who had the audience in stitches from the first moment.
Books were sold in their hundreds, people came from afar and wrote to us afterwards saying how brilliant it was, we must do it again, and how much they loved that authors and books came to their doorstep. The planning team have met with the team at Dulwich College and we are thrilled to announce that the 2016 festival will take place on 11th, 12 & 13 November.
Save the date in your diary now!
www.dulwichliteraryfestival.co.uk
