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Mosse, Okri and Enright among lineup for 2023 Wimbledon BookFest
Kate Mosse, Ben Okri and Anne Enright are among the lineup for the Wimbledon BookFest, held between 12th and 22nd October.
The festival features events with authors, politicians, historians and academics, among others. It also includes a school programme with appearances from Cressida Cowell, Stephen Mulhern, Sathnam Sanghera, S F Said and Katherine Rundell. Meanwhile, Rick Stein will appear at a post-festival event staged at the New Wimbledon Theatre.
A raft of new initiatives and partnerships this year include the Merton Libraries Partnership, which will see festival events take place across the borough, including in Wimbledon, Mitcham and Merton Libraries.
In addition, 500 free copies of Moshin Hamid’s The Last White Man (Hamish Hamilton) will be made available for residents as part of the "Merton Big Read" that runs from July to October. And a new Literacy Champions programme will fund 800 tickets to BookFest for state schools in Mitcham. A Young Stewards initiative is also being introduced this year, alongside £10 tickets for under-25s.
Partnerships and "connections across borders" are a focus of the 2023 programme, with festival director Fiona Razvi drawing on her heritage to "forge unique links between BookFest and the prestigious Lahore Literary Festival". This will bring a strand of events featuring South Asian creatives including broadcaster Aasmah Mir and artist and fashion designer Osman Yousefzada.
BookFest will also host "Iran – Woman Life Freedom", a panel event at the festival and an exhibition of art from female protestors from Iran to be shown at libraries across Merton during the autumn.
Razvi said: "We are excited to be announcing the line-up for our 2023 edition. Wimbledon BookFest is broad reaching in its ambitions this year and includes a new international partnership with Lahore Literary Festival alongside an extension of our projects working with Merton Libraries.
"There is a massive appetite for cultural engagement, and festivals like ours play such an important role in bringing communities, and generations, together to discuss ideas and perspectives in our ever-changing world. Whether your interest is in crime fiction, history, AI, the state of politics or the future of our oceans, there is something for everyone at this year’s BookFest."
