Saturday 13 June 2026, 6.45pm – 8.00pm
Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

Step into the wild world of How to Become a Peregrine at Essex Book Festival.

Join the Cabinet of Living Cinema for the world premiere of its new film How to Become a Peregrine inspired by J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, and accompanied by a soaring and immersive live soundscape by composer Kieron Chissik.

Before the film screens explore the project’s creative output by young people from Dorset and Somerset including wallpaper sky & bird puppets. Narrators will be invited to share their favourite passages.

The evening concludes with a panel discussion.

How to Become a Peregrine is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Find out more about the project at thecabinetoflivingcinema.org.uk/project/how-to-become-a-peregrine/.

Tickets: £8 / £5 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: eventbrite.co.uk

Limited Edition prints of this How to Become a Peregrine montage illustration by Hannah Eaton will be available to buy at this event.

The post How to Become a Peregrine appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 13 June 2026, 4.00pm – 5.00pm
Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

Join English PEN, in partnership with Essex Book Festival, for a conversation between writers on the relationships between literature, place, and movement.

Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist Tareq Baconi, Namibian author, editor, and publisher Rémy Ngamije, and Syria-born author and journalist Khaled Alesmael will appear in conversation with Turkish Cypriot writer and multidisciplinary artist from North London Tice Cin.

They will ask: how do experiences of home, migration, diaspora, and safety inform their writing? How do relationships to place – to land, to sea, to borders, to movement across them, to departures, to arrivals – shape creative identity and the literary landscape? And how do the freedoms to write and to read relate to the freedom to move – and to its restriction?

The event will include an audience Q&A. The speakers’ books will be available to buy and have signed.

Tickets: £8 / £5 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: Eventbrite.co.uk

This event is part of The Writers Room

Essex Book Festival and the University of Essex are hosting an exciting 1-day programme of writers’ and writing events. Events include author talks and workshops, multi-genre panel discussions, and The Pitch (a 10-minute speed-date with an industry professional). Plus, an opportunity to engage with and explore the J.A. Baker Archive.

The Writers Room Day Pass

Five events for £25 / £15 concessions

1. What it takes to Make a Book – Eva Verde in conversation with Sabah Khan
2. Nature Memoir: What Next? – James Canton
3. Breaking the Mould – Holly Pester, Ben Pester and Rebecca Perry
4. Freedom to Write, Freedom to Read – English PEN
5. How to Become a Peregrine – The Cabinet of Living Cinema

Book a Writers Room Day Pass here

Khaled Alesmael

Khaled Alesmael was born in Syria and lives and writes in London. He 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. His debut novel Selamlik (translated from the Arabic by Leri Price) is in development as an art house film; 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. khaledalesmael.com

Rémy Ngamije

Image credit: photo of Rémy Ngamije by Abantu Book Festival

Rémy Ngamije is a Rwandan-born Namibian author, editor, publisher, photographer, and literary educator. He is the author of The Eternal Audience Of One, his award-winning debut novel, and Only Stars Know The Meaning Of Space, his collection of award-winning fiction. In 2021, he won the Africa Regional Prize of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Rémy is the founder and chairperson of Doek, an independent arts organisation in Namibia supporting the literary arts and the editor-in-chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, the country’s first and only literary magazine. remythequill.com

Tareq Baconi

Tareq Baconi is a Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist. He is the grandson of refugees from Jerusalem and Haifa and grew up between Amman and Beirut. His work has appeared in, among others, The New York Times and The Baffler, and he contributes essays to The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. He has also written for film; his award-winning BFI short One Like Him, a queer love story set in Jordan, screened in over thirty festivals. He is the author of What Now, Hamas Contained, and Fire in Every Direction. tareqbaconi.com

Tice Cin

Tice Cin is a Turkish Cypriot writer and interdisciplinary artist from North London. Her debut novel Keeping the House (2021) received a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for a British Book Award and the Desmond Elliot Prize among other accolades, with its mixtape having her named as one of Notion Magazine’s Ones to Watch. Her BBC Radio 4 documentary How Much Can You Say? (2024) won an Audio Production Award. Her practice currently traces outsiderness, cold roads and loss.

The post Freedom to Read, Freedom to Write, Freedom to Move appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 13 June 2026, 1.00pm – 2.00pm
Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

In the last decade from H is for Hawk to Raising Hare via The Salt Path, nature memoir has witnessed a meteoric rise. Where does the genre go from here?

For this special panel will be joined by Chloe Hadjimatheouo, the Observer’s Narrative Editor who broke the incredible story of the lies behind the best selling memoir and film The Salt Path, and Creative Writing student, Helen Oliver-Masters. James Canton, author of The Oak Papers and Renaturing, will be chairing the panel as they discuss what the future holds for this compelling genre.

This event is kindly funded by The Bean Trust.

Tickets: £8 / £5 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: eventbrite.co.uk

This event is part of The Writers Room

Essex Book Festival and the University of Essex are hosting an exciting 1-day programme of writers’ and writing events. Events include author talks and workshops, multi-genre panel discussions, and The Pitch (a 10-minute speed-date with an industry professional). Plus, an opportunity to engage with and explore the J.A. Baker Archive.

The Writers Room Day Pass
Five events for £25 / £15 concessions

1. What it takes to Make a Book – Eva Verde in conversation with Sabah Khan
2. Nature Memoir: What Next? – Chloe Hadjimatheou, Helen Oliver-Masters and James Canton
3. Breaking the Mould – Holly Pester, Ben Pester and Rebecca Perry
4. Freedom to Write, Freedom to Read – Tareq Baconi, Rémy Ngamije, Khaled Alesmael and Tice Cin (English PEN)
5. How to Become a Peregrine – The Cabinet of Living Cinema

Book a Writers Room Day Pass here

Chloe Hadjimatheou

Chloe Hadjimatheou is the Observer‘s Narrative Editor. She has reported six podcast series so far, from Mayday to Lucky Boy and The Gas Man. She also focuses on stories in the Middle East, particularly Israel-Palestine and Syria.

In 2025 Chloe broke the incredible story of the lies behind the best selling memoir and film The Salt Path. She has been shortlisted for Private Eye’s Paul Foot award and the Orwell Prize for her investigative journalism. She is currently working on a new podcast series about the British first lady of Syria.

Helen Oliver-Masters

Helen is a student at University of Essex studying Creative Writing. Helen’s areas of interest are Nature writing and poetry. She also has a small dog breeding business.

Renaturing by James Canton

When James Canton moved to a farm labourer’s cottage, he knew that the two-acre patch of earth behind it held potential as a place for nature to return and flourish. While ‘rewilding’ requires vast landscapes to become self-sustaining, he wondered what might be possible on the scale of his field – or even that of a garden or a window box.

Renaturing is the story of how he learned to dig a pond, forge meadowlands, create habitats for birds and insects and encourage plants that support wildlife. Gradually, what was once just a grassy space was buzzing with life. The process revealed that rather than rewilding, we could all ‘renature’: even on the smallest scale we can create habitats to support diverse ecosystems.

Above all, it shows how we can all make positive change, however large or small, in caring for and restoring the natural world.

Photo of James Canton © Lawrence Cawley

The post Nature Memoir: What Next? appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 13 June 2026, 12.30pm – 2.30pm
Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

Ignite your creative imagination. Join us for a practical writing workshop using the J.A. Baker Special Collection as a catalyst led by Dr Andrew Burton, Lecturer in Drama and Creative Writing at the University of Essex. Everyone welcome – no experience necessary.

This event is kindly funded by The Bean Trust.

Tickets: £20 / £15 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: eventbrite.co.uk

This event is part of The Writers Room

Essex Book Festival and the University of Essex are hosting an exciting 1-day programme of writers’ and writing events. Events include author talks and workshops, multi-genre panel discussions, and The Pitch (a 10-minute speed-date with an industry professional). Plus, an opportunity to engage with and explore the J.A. Baker Archive.

Photo credit (circle of books): Jaredd Craig, unsplash.com

Photo credit (writing in a notebook): Marcos Paulo-Prad, unsplash.com

The post Writing the Archive Workshop appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 13 June 2026, 11.00am – 12.00pm
Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

Identity, class and female rage are recurring themes in Eva Verde’s work. She has published three novels including Them Girls, and will be discussing with Sabah Khan, publicity director at Simon & Schuster Books, what it takes to write and publish a book.

This event is kindly funded by The Bean Trust.

Tickets: £8 / £5 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: eventbrite.co.uk

This event is part of The Writers Room

Essex Book Festival and the University of Essex are hosting an exciting 1-day programme of writers’ and writing events. Events include author talks and workshops, multi-genre panel discussions, and The Pitch (a 10-minute speed-date with an industry professional). Plus, an opportunity to engage with and explore the J.A. Baker Archive.

The Writers Room Day Pass – Five events for £25 / £15 concessions – Book a Writers Room Day Pass here

Eva Verde

Eva Verde is a writer from East London. Identity, class and female rage are recurring themes throughout her work. Eva’s love song to libraries, I Am Not Your Tituba forms part of Kit De Waal’s Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers. Her words have featured in Marie Claire, Grazia, Elle and The Big Issue, also penning the new foreword for the international bestselling author Jackie Collins Goddess of Vengeance. Eva lives in Essex with her husband, children and dog.

Them Girls

Two sisters, a lifetime of secrets, and the chance to set the record straight…

Meet Goldie and Vee: sisters, dreamers, grafters. In their forties, both appear to have it all…

Until Goldie finds the courage to leave Benedict. Once upon a time their faux marriage worked, but when the magnetic Wolfie comes on the scene, her world of pretending falls apart.

Vee’s neat world is spiralling, too. Since her ex-husband Jamie started dating Julia her cruel school bully, Vee’s long-buried insecurities are out of control. She needs to get away, and fast.

So when Goldie suggests a holiday in France, Vee leaps at the idea. A curiously well-timed invitation – just as speculations around Goldie’s brilliantly brief pop career back in the nineties are beginning to resurface. Escaping’s one thing, but nothing stays secret forever, and as Vee and Goldie’s unresolved pasts make surprise returns, the stories them girls once told themselves begin to look very different…

A raw and real portrayal of two sisters, the lives they left behind and the lives they want to lead, Them Girls is bold and immediate and deals with themes of identity, class and the corruption of power . . .

Order a copy of the book at bookshop.org – released 09 April 2026

Praise for Eva Verde

‘This is a really powerful, beautifully written story about three generations of working class women with each character so vividly drawn that they leap off the page’
– Red

‘I loved Verde’s debut, LIVES LIKE MINE, and this is just as raw and insightful’
– Good Housekeeping

Eva Verde will be in conversation with Sabah Khan, award-winning Publicity Director at Simon & Schuster

The post What it takes to Make a Book appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

The event marked the launch of the book Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art from the Women’s Protests in Iran, edited by Malu Halasa on Saqi Books, “a fiercely independent publisher”.

Extolling the power of art, writing and body politics the event was a universal rallying call and a celebration of the women the regime has tried and failed to silence.

Highly original and savagely topical it included a live art and sound art performance by Tasalla Tabasom and Fari Bradley, an art-style documentary video, a presentation from artist Roshi Rouzbehani, a panel discussion hosted by Malu Halasa and an exhibition of artwork.

This event took place on 1st June 2024 at Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester.

“Insightful, powerful and inspiring! I now know more of the voices of women (and not only) in Iran, whose fight for their rights is ours too. Events like these bring us together in a fight for a common goal: freedom for all.”

Feedback from event attendee

The post “Actually Iranian Women Do Not Need You to Save Them” appeared first on Essex Book Festival.