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An evening of short plays inspired by Shakespeare are being performed all around Gorey Castle tonight to mark the 400-year anniversary of his death - a dramatic opening to Jersey's second big literary festival.
Local new writing initiative Plays Rough, having temporarily changed its name to the Shakespearean ‘Plays Ruff’, are putting on their sell-out "Inglorious Bardsters" in and around Mont Orgueil castle.
Tomorrow sees the start of the Festival's free school's programme with Eugene Lambert talking to secondary-school students at the Arts Centre at 11:00 and 14:00 about his work "Sign of One" - a book tipped to be the next big thing for fans of The Hunger Games.
William Sutcliffe, who has had his books translated into more than 20 languages, will be talking to teenagers about his book "Concentr8". It's set in the future in London about Concentr8, a prescription drug that's intended to help kids with ADD but soon every troubled teen is on it. Students can find out more at 09:30 tomorrow and again at 12:30.
Also on tomorrow Anne Sebba, the journalist and author of nine books, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for Reuters and at the BBC World Service, will be speaking at the Arts Centre at 16:00. She mostly writes biographies of women, including the bestselling biography of Wallis Simpson, That Woman, which was the basis of a Channel 4 documentary The Secret Letters, about Anne’s discovery of an unknown archive of documents.
She makes regular appearances on Television and Radio and Les Parisiennes has already been optioned as a multi-series TV drama. Les Parisiennes explores the aftershock of the Second World War and the choices demanded. How did the women who survived to see the Liberation of Paris come to terms with their actions and those of others? Although politics lies at its heart, Les Parisiennes is the first in-depth account of the everyday lives of women and young girls in this most feminine of cities.
18:00 at the Arts Centre tomorrow becomes an evening of two parts....Andrew Lownie discusses his biography of double agent Guy Burgess, showing how even Burgess's chaotic personal life of drunken philandering did nothing to stop his penetration and betrayal of the British Intelligence Service. Then journalist Oliver Bullough will discuss his book The Last Man in Russia, a travelogue sociological study and Cri de coeur for the Russian state.
International bestselling author Victoria Hislop takes the stage at the Arts Centre at 20:30 talking with Andrew Davey about Cartes Postales from Greece, her new book.
Festival organisers said: "We are delighted to welcome Victoria Hislop to this year's festival. Her new book, Cartes Postales from Greece is fiction illustrated with photographs and tell the story of a man’s odyssey through Greece. Moving, surprising and sometimes dark, the tale unfolds with the discovery not only of a culture but also of a desire to live life to the full once more."
Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It went on to become an international bestseller and a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra.
Festival organisers said: "We are delighted to welcome Victoria Hislop to this year's festival. Her new book, Cartes Postales from Greece is fiction illustrated with photographs and tell the story of a man’s odyssey through Greece. Moving, surprising and sometimes dark, the tale unfolds with the discovery not only of a culture but also of a desire to live life to the full once more."
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