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Elizabeth Strout, Robert Harris and Harriet Walter are headlining this year’s Sevenoaks Literary Festival with a YA and Teens programme running for the first time.
The festival takes place from 13th to 22nd September, with a follow-up event on 29th October, when author and actor Walter, recently seen in “Succession”, will discuss her book She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said (Little, Brown) with Virago chair Lennie Goodings.
The festival has worked closely again with Booksellers Association president Fleur Sinclair, and her team at the award-winning independent Sevenoaks Bookshop, which co-founded the festival in 2001. The shop will be the book retailer at all events and is creating a window display featuring the festival’s brochure-cover artwork by local artist Melvyn Evans.
In this year’s fiction offering, Pulitzer-prize-winning Strout will discuss her 10th novel, Tell Me Everything (Penguin), bestselling novelist Harris will present his latest mix of fact and fiction in Precipice (Cornerstone) and "Strictly Come Dancing" judge Anton Du Beke will talk about his new romance, A Dance for the King (Orion). TV historian Kate Williams will also explore a regal theme in The Royal Palaces (Quarto), a journey through 30 palaces and castles with connections to the British royal family.
Three events focus on the environment, with BBC presenter Tom Heap calling for a rethink on our approach to the countryside in Land Smart (Atlantic), award-winning journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis investigating the global waste industry in Wasteland (Simon & Schuster UK), and Guardian columnist Claire Ratinon and gardening podcaster Andrew O’Brien discussing the importance of reconnecting with outdoor space.
Skincare company founder Liz Earle and cookery entrepreneur Charlie Bigham are also speaking at the festival.
New to the festival this year is a programme of YA & Teen events held in partnership with Sevenoaks School, with authors Sylvia Bishop, David Fenne, Tia Fisher, Ravena Guron, Caroline Lawrence and Arik Kershenbaum all attending.
For the third time, the festival is being held in association with local retirement-living complex Wildernesse House, where the launch event—a tasting of local wines with wine expert and author Margaret Rand—will be hosted on 13th September.
Festival chair Alison Starling commented: “Sevenoaks Literary Festival is very much a community event, and our committee of volunteers is always looking to provide the widest mix of authors and topics to entertain an audience of all ages.
“It’s exciting to be launching a YA & Teen strand this year and to be welcoming a Pulitzer Prize winner, several Sunday Times number-one-bestselling authors, experts in wine, gardening, history and the environment, an esteemed Shakespearean actress, two celebrated entrepreneurs and a star of ’Strictly Coming Dancing’. I am hugely grateful for the support of the authors and publishers involved and to Fleur Sinclair and her brilliant team at Sevenoaks Bookshop.”
Information and tickets are available here.