Impressive Array of Authors for 12th Chiswick Book Festival

Writers taking part include Antonia Fraser, Peter Hennessy and Mavis Cheek

The ‘Codebreaking Sisters’ will tell of their wartime exploits

The 12th Chiswick Book Festival is set to be unique in event’s history with an impressive array of authors set to take part either by Zoom, live video or podcast.

The list of writers taking part from 10 – 14 September include Mihir Bose, Peter Hennessy, Konnie Huq, Jeremy Vine, Antonia Fraser, Michael Billington, Alexandra Shulman, Loyd Grossman, Polly Toynbee & David Walker, Patricia & Jean Owtram, Iain Dale, Hashi Mohamed, Rob Biddulph, Christopher Tugendhat, Oliver Soden, Amanda Craig, Mavis Cheek, Peter Hain and more. Most have new books out since lockdown or in the next few weeks, which are on sale at Waterstones online.

Instead of selling tickets this year, the event is seeking sponsorship and inviting donations on their website. Costs have been kept as low as possible this year with no brochures being sent out.

If the Festival makes a surplus, it will go to local charities – Doorstep Library, InterAct Stroke Support, The Felix Project and St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the Festival on behalf of the community.

“We’re delighted to unveil such a sparkling line-up for readers to enjoy online” said Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival. “I’ve sampled some of the video recordings and podcasts already and audiences are in for a treat – and we’re also holding some live events via Zoom. We’re relying on donations and sponsorship to cover our costs and help our charities – so we hope people who would normally have bought tickets will be generous!”

The Festival opens with its annual event at Chiswick House on Thursday 10 September (though audiences won’t attend this year in person). As William Hogarth’s paintings of A Rake’s Progress return to Sir John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor for the first time in 200 years, a panel of Hogarth experts will discuss why they have such influence today.

Other events are being filmed at St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the Festival, to be streamed over the long weekend via the Festival website (with exact timings still to be announced). Further events will be recorded in Ealing for the following week.

Lady Antonia Fraser and Michael Billington will discuss the life and work of Harold Pinter, one of Chiswick’s two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, to mark the 60th anniversary of The Caretaker, which was written in Chiswick and catapulted the playwright to fame. And Chiswick resident Oliver Soden will talk about his award-winning biography of composer Sir Michael Tippett, and also about his new book, Jeoffry the Poet's Cat: A Biography (“An inspired and original tale” about “the greatest cat in the English language” - Hilary Mantel).

Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing is to reopen on Thursday September 10th, displaying William Hogarth’s paintings of A Rake’s Progress in the exhibition ‘London Voices, London Lives’. On that day, Pitzhanger’s director Clare Gough will join the opening event of the Chiswick Book Festival, a panel session with cartoonist Martin Rowson; art expert Martin Postle of the Paul Mellon Trust; Val Bott, chairman of the William Hogarth Trust; and Xanthe Arvanitakis, director of Chiswick House. They will discuss why Hogarth, Soane and A Rake’s Progress remain so influential in the 21st Century.

Historian Peter Hennessy will tell Paddy O’Connell of Radio 4’s Broadcasting House how he thinks history will judge Britain’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Lord Hennessy’s three books about 20th Century history are being reissued this month in paperback. Former BBC political correspondent Steve Richards will talk about ‘The Prime Ministers, from Wilson to Johnson’, soon out in paperback with a new chapter on Boris Johnson. Another former BBC correspondent, Trevor Barnes, will discuss his new book about the Portland spy ring – Dead Doubles. The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee and David Walker will talk about ‘The Lost Decade: 2010 to 2020’ in a podcast with The Chiswick Calendar. And many of the 20th Century’s best-known authors are discussed in ‘A History of Britain through Books: 1900-1964’ by the distinguished journalist and diplomat Christopher Tugendhat.

Christopher Tugendhat

Marking the end of the Second World War, Chiswick’s Patricia Davies (Owtram) who was awarded the Legion D’Honneur, will talk with her sister Jean about their wartime activities as ‘Codebreaking Sisters’. The former chairman of the Red Cross, Sir Nicholas Young will discuss his biography of his father, ‘Escaping with His Life: From Dunkirk to D-Day and beyond’. Christopher Joll will talk about historic artefacts, including Hitler’s desk, in ‘Spoils of War’; and there is also plenty about WW2 in Christopher Tugendhat’s podcast (above).

BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine will talk about his new novel ‘The Diver and the Lover’ in a live Zoom interview. Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq is recording a video for the Festival about her new children’s book ‘Cookie and the Most Annoying Girl In the World’. TV cookery presenter Jo Pratt is launching her new book ‘The Flexible Family Cookbook’ with a video; former BBC sports editor Mihir Bose is recording a podcast on ‘The Nine Waves: the extraordinary story of Indian cricket’; and LBC’s Iain Dale will talk about his book ‘Why Can’t We All Just Get Along’, with barrister and Radio 4 broadcaster Hashi Mohamed, author of ‘People Like Us’, who came to Britain as a child refugee.

Among a wide range of topics, Tim Richardson will talk about ‘Sissinghurst: The Dream Garden’, to mark the launch of the Chiswick Flower Market; former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman will be interviewed about her Sunday Times bestseller ‘Clothes… and other things that matter’; Jo Pratt will discuss her new book ‘The Flexible Family Cookbook’; David Berry will talk about ‘A People’s History of Tennis’ and Mihir Bose about ‘The Nine Waves: The extraordinary story of Indian cricket’. There’ll also be a wine tasting inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast’, with the Mummy Wine Club.

As well as Konnie Huq, the Children’s Festival will feature videos from the record-breaking #DrawWithRob artist Rob Biddulph; National Poetry Day ambassador Joshua Seigal; Zoe Antoniades, whose new book ‘Cally and Jimmy’ is out this week, and others. Writer/director Vicky Ireland, chair of Action for Children’s Arts will present the prizes for the Festival 10th Young People’s Poetry Competition and there will be other competitions too.

Konnie Huq

As well as Jeremy Vine, we’ll hear from Amanda Craig (‘The Golden Rules’), the guest speaker at this month’s Chiswickbuzz Book Club; and former Chiswick resident Mavis Cheek (‘Amenable Women’) and campaigning politician Peter Hain (‘The Rhino Conspiracy’), whose interviews for the Belle Books & Stories podcast are being shared with the Chiswick Book Festival audience. More novelists will be announced in early September. There will also be the annual Local Authors Evening, in which writers have two minutes to ‘sell’ their books. Normally held in Waterstones, it will be filmed by Chiswickbuzz at the Chiswick Playhouse - without an audience, like all this year’s events.

Douglas said, “We’re very grateful to the authors and interviewers for taking part – and to all our partners, without whom we could not put on the Festival in this way. Chiswickbuzz.net is filming and streaming interviews, The Chiswick Calendar is recording podcasts, and we’ve had generous sponsorship from Savills, the Arts Society Chiswick, London Book Fair, local schools and others. We’ve kept our costs as low as possible – no brochures or marquees this year – and any surplus will go to our charities, so we’re urging people to ‘Save the dates and please donate’.”

August 29, 2020