After a busy week that took us to Waltham Abbey for a fascinating conversation with Tim Marshall, an entertaining evening with B.A. Paris in South Woodham Ferrers, an inspirational afternoon with Sarah Perry and others at Colchester Samaritans, winding up with A Radical Walk from Heybridge Basin to Northey Island with author Michael J. Warren in the footsteps of J.A. Baker, all eyes are now focussed on the coming weekend.
The question is: Have you booked your tickets for next Saturday’s special day of activities at Lakeside Theatre (University of Essex), which is taking place in collaboration with the Centre for Creative Writing, under the collective banner of The Writers Room?
One of the highlights of this year’s Essex Book Festival, we can’t wait to welcome writers from as far afield as Syria and Namibia, to as close to home as Wivenhoe and Halstead, to join us for a series of intriguing and challenging conversations.
Celebrating the 100th centenary of the birth of J.A. Baker, a pioneer of nature writing born in Chelmsford, is a big part of the day.
This includes a Writing the Archive Workshop led by Dr Andrew Burton, where participants will be invited to dip into the J.A. Baker archive based in the University’s Special Collections for inspiration.
There will be an intriguing panel Nature Memoir: What Next? led by James Canton (author of The Oak Papers and Renaturing) and including Chloe Hadjimatheou, the Observer’s Narrative Editor who broke the incredible story behind the best-selling memoir and film The Salt Path, and Creative Writing student, Helen Oliver-Masters.
Then later in the day we are welcoming London-based The Cabinet of Living Cinema to the Lakeside Theatre for the world premiere of its new film: How To Become A Peregrine, which, based on J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, will be accompanied by a soaring and immersive live soundscape composed by composer Kieron Chissik.
Also included in the day is our panel discussion: Freedom to Write, Freedom to Read, Freedom to Move led by English PEN. Never has it felt more important to support writers from marginalised communities, particularly writers who are no longer able to live in their home country.
This includes panellist Khaled Alesmael, one of our international writers-in-residence 2026: a Syrian queer writer who had a long career in journalism before being forced to flee Syria, and who now lives and works in London.
Khaled began his career as a radio journalist and writer of children’s poetry for major Arabic broadcasters, before working as a journalist across the Arab world and Europe. Most recently, his debut novel Selamlik (translated from the Arabic by Leri Price) is in development as an art house film, while his second book, which queers the Arab Spring, bears witness to the lives of nine queer Arabs. An English translation is forthcoming from World Editions in 2027.
For more information about our other three panellists joining Khaled for the Freedom to Writer, Freedom to Read, Freedom to Move panel go to essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/freedom-to-read-freedom-to-write-freedom-to-move/.