Saturday 13 June 2026, 6.30pm – 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, help graphic novelist Hannah Eaton craft a sky backdrop and bring bird puppets to life, or explore the project’s creative output by young people from Dorset and Somerset. 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. How do experiences of home, migration, diaspora, and safety inform and shape what, how, and why we write? And how do they shape what, how, and why we read?

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

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? Join our panel, chaired by James Canton, author of The Oak Papers and Renaturing, to discuss what the future holds for nature-writing, and nature memoir specifically.

Join our panel, chaired by author James Canton, to discuss what the future holds this compelling genre.

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

Renaturing

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.

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.

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.

Come join us for an evening of creativity and expression at Art Exchange on 19th June. Essex Book Festival, University of Essex, Waxes Lyrical Chelmsford and Poetry Plus invite you to JOIN THE ART:UP – a new collaborative poetry project.

A year of poetry events around Essex begins with this reading and open mic night, suitable for seasoned verse-spitters and people who have never shared their work before. Local poets Ethan Stewarts and babalonanon will warm up the floor, and eco-protest-performance poety Linden McMahon will close the show, celebrating the diversity of voice in our Essex communities!

The event is free, but ticketed. Come early to be sure of an open mic spot!

Register your place at eventbrite.co.uk/e/artup-culture-accelerator-open-mic-and-poetry-reading.

The post JOIN THE ART:UP! appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Arranged on 16 posts, a QR code geo-locates content, offering walkers a diverse mix of materials inspired by the journey. This year’s theme is “Communities within Communities”. Join in to stay active and creative.

£300 Prize money is split for the winners, £150 for first place and £50 for 3 runner ups.
How to join:

• Travel the WWW route around Colchester
• Get creative with photos, art, poetry and more that relates to the theme.
• Go to the website https://walkwithwords.co.uk/
• add your contact details and submission
• Wait for the results.

Winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony as part of our Day on the Wild Side at The Minories, Colchester on Sunday 22nd June.

Submissions are unlimited, and we encourage you to participate with your friends or communities. Good luck!

For full details visit walkwithwords.co.uk.

The post Walk With Words Competition officially launched! 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.

Festival Patron Sarah Perry, our Finale event for the day, summed up the magic of the day in the following words:

“Just the most extraordinary day at University of Essex for the launch event of the Essex Book Festival…I couldn’t be more proud and honoured to be an Essex Girl, the Essex Chancellor, an Essex Book Festival patron and an Essex novelist. The time of mockery is over: the era of Essex has begun!”

What an amazing endorsement!

And that’s just the start. We have so much more to come with events taking place in venues across the county over the coming month. View all upcoming events at essexbookfestival.org.uk/events/.

The post What a start, and still so much to come… appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

University of Essex are celebrating 60 years of making change happen. 60 years of boldness and bravery from their students past and present. 60 years of creating change.

Over six decades they have nurtured thinkers and doers who’ve changed our world for the better.

So, to celebrate, they are showcasing “Sixty Stories” that shed light on how their students, staff, research, and partnerships are creating global impact.

Find out more at 60stories.essex.ac.uk.

The post Sixty Stories for Sixty Years – University of Essex appeared first on Essex Book Festival.