How about raising a glass to Durham Book Festival, 21 this year? David Whetstone leafs through the programme which is published today
DURHAM Book Festival comes of age with authors from many different walks of life heading for the city in October.
In a festival programme announced today, politicians David Miliband, Chris Mullin and Alistair Darling rub shoulders with General Lord Richard Danatt, former Chief of the General Staff, scientist Richard Dawkins, Booker Prize-winning novelist Pat Barker, crime writers Val McDermid and Ann Cleeves, comedian Marcus Brigstocke and many more.
Mostly, of course, their paths won’t cross but you could meet all of them at the 21st of these festival gatherings (previously called Durham Literature Festival).
The core of the festival is from October 17 to 23 but it is heralded by events across County Durham from late September onwards.
The programme lists more than 60 events at various locations across County Durham and more highlights than you’ll find in an X Factor hair do.
Claire Malcolm, director of New Writing North, which is producing the festival in association with Durham County Council and Arts Council England, refers to the festival as a celebration of books and ideas.
A debate – What’s Left for the North East? – will be chaired by writer Richard T Kelly who has been investigating how the region might be represented after the abolition of regional agencies.
A festival strand exploring war, put on with the DLI museum, features General Lord Richard Dannatt talking about his autobiography, Leading from the Front, in which he reflects on fields of conflict including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The general was Chief of the General Staff for three years from 2006 when fighting in Afghanistan was at its fiercest.
Sir Rodric Braithwaite, former British ambassador in Moscow, will also discuss his new book, Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89, featuring interviews with those who served.
Can a war in Afghanistan ever be won? This is the man to ask.
There will also be a script-in-hand taster of North East writer Carina Rodney’s new play, Wounded, which chronicles the difficulties faced by a soldier coming home.
David Miliband will be “in conversation” at the Gala Theatre, discussing some of the key issues facing our Government and others around the world.
Amid the splendour of Durham Town Hall, Alistair Darling will cast his mind back to 2007 and the run on Northern Rock which signalled widespread panic in the world of finance.
In his book Back from the Brink, the former Chancellor recalls the hectic round of crisis meetings that characterised a large part of his time at 11 Downing Street.
No less appealing is Richard Dawkins’ appearance at the Gala Theatre on October 20. The former professor for the public understanding of science at Oxford University is famous for his books The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion.
His latest, The Magic of Reality, purports to show us that the facts of science are more thrilling than ancient myths which tells us that earthquakes are caused by a sneezing giant and that the sun was hatched out of an emu’s egg.