Runcie takes on ambassador role for London Book & Screen Week

Grantchester series author James Runcie has been made an ambassador for London Book & Screen Week (LBSW), as the festival returns for its fifth year in 2019. 

The writer and director follows in the footsteps of fellow authors David Nicholls (2017) and Jojo Moyes (2018) to champion a specially curated programme of events for the festival. The news follows the announcement that a fourth series of The Grantchester Mysteries (Bloomsbury) will be adapted for ITV.

Taking place from 11th to 17th March 2019, organisers also announced the return of the Creativity Across Media: Entertainment and Originality Awards (CAMEOs). Sponsored by Audible and run in partnership with the Publishers Association, the CAMEOs celebrate adaptations across five categories: TV, film, stage, game, audio and Interactive Entertainment.  The awards ceremony will take place 11th March 2019, ahead of the festival’s week of events, with awards presented by Runcie. LBSW was launched at the London Book Fair in 2014.

Runcie said: "I am delighted to take part in a week that celebrates the extraordinary power of storytelling: its themes and variations developing across multiple genres, and its unique ability to conjure up alternative lives and worlds that make our own far richer as a result."

The author is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, visiting professor at Bath Spa University, and the commissioning editor for arts at BBC Radio 4. Previously he was artistic director of the Bath Literature Festival and head of literature at the Southbank Centre in London.