It has been something of a whirlwind this end with festival events taking place right across the county as far afield as Grays Library in Thurrock and Hot Box Live tucked under the viaduct in Chelmsford, through to Colchester Samaritans Community Hall, Maldon Town Hall, and finally, the Broomway, one of the UK’s deadliest walks that runs parallel to the mysterious Foulness Island.
This week took us to Chelmsford Cathedral for Alison Weir’s author talk, which, focusing on her latest novel The Cardinal, set sail in Tudor Ipswich, the birthplace of chief protagonist Thomas Wolsey, then travelled to Oxford, across the Channel to Calais, and remarkably landed in the lavish court of Henry VIII. Before, that is, the Cardinal’s well-documented dramatic fall from grace, and subsequent inglorious death at Leicester Abbey. Given the subject matter, we can’t think of a more appropriate venue for Alison’s event.
Later this week we are travelling to Witham Library for the annual Dorothy L Sayers Lecture. Sunday Times bestseller crime-writer Jane Casey will introduce her latest gripping new thriller featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent, The Secret Room.
We are then heading back to Chelmsford, this time to Anglia Ruskin University, for our event with multi-award-winning historian Lucy Hughes-Hallett. Lucy will be talking about her fascinating new book The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham, described as ‘Epic’ by Olivia Laing and ‘Brilliant’ by Colm Tobin.
This week’s travels conclude at Castle Hedingham where Chloe Dalton of Raising Hare fame and Essex-based wild writer James Canton will be talking to William Sieghart, the Founder of the Forward Prize and The Poetry Pharmacy, as part of our activities at EA Festival at Hedingham Castle.
