Saturday 27 June 2026, 3.30pm – 4.30pm
Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens, Muskham Road, Harlow, CM20 2LF

Harlow-born writer Rebecca Leek will be hosting a showcase of poetry in Harlow Museum’s Walled Gardens, inviting poets from across the county to collaborate in a mixed session. Expect different voices, a celebration of words, and newly commissioned poems.

Rebecca hosts The Ditty Bag poetry podcast, is a published author and was a prize winner in the 2025 Waltham Forest National Poetry Competition. She trained as a musician, a performer, and a teacher, and is a regular on local and national radio.

Tickets: £5
Box Office: playhouseharlow-tickets.harlowplayhouse.co.uk/ticketbooth/shows/873662404

Part of our Harlow weekend – Essex Book Festival is delighted to be heading to Harlow for a weekend of writing workshops, author and artist talks, family games, and poetry. Find out more at essexbookfestival.org.uk/harlow-weekend/.

The post Ditty Bag on the Road – Cancelled appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 27 June 2026, 1.30pm
Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens, Muskham Road, Harlow, CM20 2LF

Join us in the enchanted Harlow Museum’s Walled Garden and enter a world of mystery, espionage and illusion with author Syd Moore as she discusses the second in her thrilling new series about Britain’s secret wartime history.

The Great Deception, set in Iceland, is the second in the thrilling WW2 series and explores deceiving occultists, age-old magic and a war-torn world.

Join us at Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens for a day of storytelling, author events and poetry.

Syd Moore will also be leading a Writing the Archive Workshop at Harlow Museum earlier in the day.

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Part of our Harlow weekend – Essex Book Festival is delighted to be heading to Harlow for a weekend of writing workshops, author and artist talks, family games, and poetry. Find out more at essexbookfestival.org.uk/harlow-weekend/.

Syd Moore

Photo of Syd Moore © JMoore photos

Syd Moore has been a Royal Literary Fund fellow and is currently working with them to pioneer ‘Reading Round’ courses in hospices. Her novel The Witching Hour was a Top Twenty bestselling horror title of 2024. She was the first Author in Residence for Essex Libraries and is best known for her Essex Witch Museum Mysteries, which was shortlisted for the Good Reader Holmes and Watson Award in 2018 and 2019. She has been shortlisted twice for a CWA dagger for her short stories. Syd founded the Essex Girls’ Liberation Front and successfully removed the term ‘Essex girl’ from the Oxford dictionary in 2020. She lives in Essex.

The Great Deception

Enter a world of mystery, espionage and illusion.

May 1940. As the Nazis overrun Denmark, Britain counters by invading Iceland. Secret agent Daphne Devine is dropped into occupied territory to assess a clairvoyant in Reykjavik, who may be passing information to the enemy. Alone, Daphne must navigate her way through this strange, frozen landscape, where the Allies aren’t always welcomed with open arms.

When a new lead takes her North into Strandir, the land of sorcerers, she encounters fresh peril and discovers that now she, the hunter, has become the hunted. Daphne must use all her Secret Service training to outwit the enemy agents in her midst.

Twice shortlisted for a CWA dagger, Syd Moore returns with a thrilling new series, exploring Britain’s secret wartime history.

Praise for The Grand Illusion

‘Vivid and thoroughly entertaining… More, please.’

– Guardian

‘A breathtaking historical thriller… Magical, lyrical, weird, suspenseful, dark and totally, utterly original.’

– Erin Kelly , author of The Skeleton Key

Order a copy of the book from bookshop.org.

The post The Great Deception appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 27 June 2026, 12.00pm – 3.00pm
Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens, Muskham Road, Harlow, CM20 2LF

Come and celebrate stories in Harlow Museum’s Walled Gardens with storytellers, crafts and games for all the family. Free to attend.

Harlow Museum’s Walled Gardens are alive with stories. Come one, come all, gather round and listen to storyteller Dave Tonge, the Yarnsmith of Norwich, as he transports you back to long, long ago. Gather close and enjoy silly stories and mind mangling riddles from Saxon, Viking Medieval and Tudor times. Tall tales of wise fools and foolish wise, of lazy long limbed lads, and miserly merchants. Silly stories about poor penniless pedlars, dark and dangerous dragons, and even a plain and simple radish that was worth 100 gold coins!

Get crafty and messy with our Young Ones Eco-Workshops – try your hand at eco-printing using ink made from Essex oak galls, or Write a Letter to the future.

Bring a picnic and create your own stories, craft new characters and play fun-filled games in our gardens.

Free. Drop in between 12 and 3pm. No booking required.

Part of our Harlow weekend – Essex Book Festival is delighted to be heading to Harlow for a weekend of writing workshops, author and artist talks, family games, and poetry. Find out more at essexbookfestival.org.uk/harlow-weekend/.

The Eco-Workshops are part of The Young Ones project which is supported by Essex County Council’s Cultural Development Project Fund, to support the growth of cultural venues and organisations that bring culture to the heart of communities in Essex.

The post Family Storytelling & Games appeared first on Essex Book Festival.