Prue Leith
MAIN COURSE
10am Bix Manor £12 including coffee, tea and cake
A woman whose name is synonymous with the sixties revolution in English food that led to her successful catering company and the hugely successful Leith’s Restaurant, reveals all in her autobiography. As cook, caterer, restaurateur, food writer, journalist, novelist, business-woman, teacher, television presenter, charity worker, lover, wife and mother, she admits readily to being greedy for life. She is forthright about her love life; her mother’s senility, her husband’s smoking himself to death, and falling in love at 66 with a manic-depressive. A wonderful raconteur she talks about her life with humour and honesty.
Relish: My Life on a Plate – Quercus Books
If you would like to be added to the waiting list please email boxoffice@henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk with the name of the event in the subject line
Steve Cole
STILL CRAZY
10am Kenton Theatre £4
Steve is the slightly crazy, million-selling, non-stop author of Astrosaurs, Cows In Action, The Slime Squad and many others. In a fun-filled, frantic session he will reveal the loopy origins of his many creations, give story-writing tips, show you how to dream up your own funny ideas – and make plenty of atrocious jokes.
Slime Squad vs. The Conquering Conks – Red Fox
Nicholas Kenyon
LONDON CALLING
11.30 am Bix Manor £9 including coffee, tea and cake
At the very centre of our capital lies the square mile that is the City of London. The landmarks range from the historic to the modern, from St Paul’s to the Barbican. A fascinating insight into how architecture has shaped the City and the great buildings from the Guildhall to the ‘Gherkin’. Sir Nicholas is managing director of the Barbican Centre and was previously controller of BBC Radio 3 and director of the BBC Proms. His book is a remarkable record of a great City.
The City of London – Thames and Hudson
Marcus Berkmann
MIDLIFE WITHOUT THE CRISIS
1pm Bix Manor £10 including coffee, tea and cake
A chance to hear one of our most amusing writers ponder the onset of middle age and
the way to deal with it (or not). As he says: ‘One day you are young, free and single; the
next you are bald, fat and washed-up with weird tendrils of hair growing out of your
ears’. The author claims to mark his fiftieth birthday by hiding under his duvet for six
weeks. His observations on the ageing process are witty, poignant and all too true.
A Shed of One’s Own (Midlife without the crisis) – Little Brown
Bix Pantry lunches
£12.50
You can no longer pre-order Bix Pantry Lunches but there will be some available to buy on the day (Subject to availability)
Alex Brummer
ECONOMIC TRUTH
2.30pm Bix Manor £7 including coffee, tea and cake
Worried about the economic maelstrom? Confused about what is happening and why? If one man can explain what is going on it is The Daily Mail city editor, one of the most respected financial journalists and commentators in the country. An opportunity to hear the views of a journalist who knows the powerbrokers and understands what is really going on. His latest book looks at how foreign companies control vast swathes of the British economy and considers the impact of foreign deals on Britain’s enterprise culture. It asks the key question: how damaging is the takeover bonanza to our future economic health?
Britain for Sale – Random House
Santa Montefiore
FINE ROMANCE
4pm Bix Manor £10 including coffee, tea and cake
The publishing success that is Santa can be traced back to her schooldays where, as she says: ‘I wrote stories for my friends, imagining romances between them and the spotty youths they fancied at Sherborne Boys’ School.’ Now she is a bestselling novelist with her twelfth book just out. It traces the life of Antoinette after the death of her husband in an accident and the revelations that emerge…not least in the form of another woman who also loved George.
The Summer House – Simon & Schuster
Sarah Gristwood and Frances Osborne
5.30pm Quince Tree Café £6
Two of our most talented young writers whose latest books deal with the roles of women in the Wars of the Roses and the period of the suffragettes. The events of the Wars of the Roses are usually described in terms of the men involved; Richard, Duke of York, Henry VI, Edward IV and Henry VII. The reality though, argues Sarah, was quite different and were years packed with women’s drama and alive with female energy. Frances – wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer – has written a novel, Park Lane, which is set in London in 1914. It tells of two young women who dream of breaking free from tradition and obligation; they know that suffragettes are on the march and that war looms, but at 35 Park Lane, Lady Masters, head of a dying industrial dynasty, insists that life is about service and duty.
Park Lane – Virago
Blood Sisters: the hidden story of the women behind the Wars of the Roses – HarperCollins
Sponsored by HW Fisher
100 Faces of Henley
5.30-6.15pm Town Hall Chamber Free
Join us at a special event to hear about a remarkable book featuring the people of Henley. The idea of producing a book of 100 photographs of people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds was the brainchild of Janet Hanton and Claire Smith who will explain how they came up with the idea and made it work. Indeed such was the response that the book contains 138 faces. Appearing with them will be two of the ‘faces’ Alfie Hay, founder of the Henley Youth Festival and the town’s Mayor Liz Hodgkin. The project will raise money for the charity The Face of Henley which this year celebrates a decade of helping the less fortunate members of the community. Award-winning former Fleet Street photographer Clive Limpkin will chair the event.
Clare Foster
FLOWER POWER
6pm Quince Tree £5
Wonder at the beauty of the most exquisite flowers and hear from an expert their history, how to grow them and the recommended varieties. Clare is garden editor at House & Garden magazine, and was previously editor of Gardens Illustrated. She has contributed to The Sunday Times and The Guardian. Flowers have long been a favourite subject among artists, and the development of many well-known horticultural varieties may be traced through their depiction on paper or canvas over the centuries. See the fabulous photographs taken by Sabina Rüber that go with Clare’s book and learn about these natural delights.
Painterly Plants – Merrell Publishers
Countess of Carnarvon
INSIDE DOWNTON
6pm Kenton Theatre £9
Her home, Highclere Castle, is one of the best-known in Britain as the setting for Downton Abbey. While the hugely successful television series has held us all entranced on Sunday evenings the real story of Lady Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon is every bit as dramatic, romantic and moving as the fiction. She married the 5th Earl at 19, and at first, life at Highclere was a heady social life with sumptuous banquets for 500. Almina oversaw 80 members of staff but when the First World War broke out, life at Highclere changed forever. History intervened and Almina and the staff of Highclere were thrown into one of the most turbulent times of the last century. This is the remarkable story of a lost time with so many similarities to the story of Downton.
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey – Hodder & Stoughton
Sponsored by Cooper Solicitors
If you would like to be added to the waiting list please email boxoffice@henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk with the name of the event in the subject line
Signe Johansen
ART OF BAKING
7.30pm Quince Tree Café £6
Returning to Henley by popular demand Signe, who grew up in Norway, will be talking about how to bake everything from modern cakes and pastries to traditional breads and savoury suppers. Baking has always been at the heart of Scandinavian cuisine and among the nearly 100 recipes are summer treats such as upside-down blueberry cake, to winter warmers like pumpkin, cheese and sage muffins. Signe trained at Leiths School of Food & Wine, and after graduating worked in the Experimental Kitchen at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck at Bray. Signe will be doing a cooking demo.
Scandalicious Baking – Saltyard Books
Max Hastings, Steve Hewlett, Ann Treneman and Jane Martinson
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
7.30pm Kenton Theatre £8
David Cameron initiated the Leveson inquiry into press abuses following the revelation of the phone-hacking scandal. Max Hastings, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, says he did so believing it offered him a tactical escape from personal embarrassments. Instead it has ‘morphed into a form of war crimes tribunal, following which both politicians and journalists are threatened with moral and possibly forensic indictment.’ Steve Hewlett is the highly respected presenter of Mediashow on Radio 4 and a frequent writer on media matters for The Guardian. A fomer editor of Panorama and Director he has followed every twist and turn of this story and is an expert at the implications to the freedom of the British Press. They will be joined by The Times sketch writer Ann Treneman and The Guardian Woman’s editor Jane Martinson.
Poetry at Hot Gossip
Poetry has been part of the Hot Gossip Coffeehouse tradition during the Literary Festival and this year is no exception. Lorraine Hillier has lined up three evenings of poetry at the popular venue at 7 Friday Street. Local poets Ian Florance, Elizabeth Crowdy and Friends will be appearing. Tickets sold directly from Hot Gossip.
