Gale, Harper and Billingham to headline Essex Book Festival

Patrick Gale, Elodie Harper and Mark Billingham are among those headlining the Essex Book Festival in June. 

This year’s theme is Greenwood Words, a nod to Shakespeare’s Greenwood Tree song in “As You Like It”, and is a celebration of nature, place and metamorphoses. The festival spans the whole of June and will see 250 artists appear at 40 unusual and iconic venues across Essex, including a foot ferry, a Tudor palace, a picturesque pleasure garden and a Napoleonic fort.  

Other author events include popular historian and novelist Tracy Borman, debut writer and former headteacher Florence Olajide, and Costa Award-winner Andrew Miller. There will also be talks and workshops set to entertain, challenge and inspire and a live podcast recording of “The Breakup Monologues”.

Ros Green, festival director, said: “After what has been an incredibly challenging last two years for everyone, we are truly thrilled to be announcing this year’s Essex Book Festival programme. Someone recently asked me if I could come up with one word to describe this year’s Essex Book Festival. Normally, I would really struggle for that. This year it was easy. ’Fun’. We’re going to have loads of fun this June. While also hosting a variety of inspiring, challenging and thought-provoking author and artist events across Essex. I can’t wait." 

Tickets go on sale online from today (4th April).