Authors

Bangladeshi-born Tahmima Anam’s debut novel, A Golden Age, explores family life during the Bangladesh War of Independence and was the Best First Book winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. The Independent's Anita Sethi says the novel “does not buckle under the weight of its material, but with tight narrative vertebrae moves through the months of a single year in prose of a beautiful sparsity.”
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Mike Jay has written extensively on the cultural history of science, medicine, drugs, madness and politics. He's the author and editor of nine titles including The Air Loom Gang (of which Oliver Sacks wrote, "I have never seen the logic of madness so clearly and convincingly expressed...a wonderful book") and The Unfortunate Colonel Despard, hailed as "popular history at its best" by the Times.
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Tim Richardson writes about gardens and landscape, plus sweets and theatre. He has published books on contemporary landscape design (Avant Gardeners) and also garden history, such as the politics behind the 18th Century English landscape garden (Arcadian Friends) and English Gardens in the 20th Century. He'll be telling us about the history of the landscaping at Port Eliot, followed by a guided tour of the grounds for festival-goers.
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Writer and television director Rick Stroud is best known for directing popular soaps and television series such as Coronation Street and Cadfael. He recently wrote and directed the BBC’s celebration of the life of John Betjemen, and is currently writing The Book of the Moon (Transworld) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon. To celebrate its publication this spring, Rick will be leading a moonwatching session in the Walled Garden at this year's Port Eliot Festival.
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Found in Translation has been described as “a quest of arbitrary limits and new frontiers, written in the tradition of Luke Rhineheart’s The Dice Man and Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure: one part literary lecture, one part multimedia performance, and with a hefty dose of cutting-edge satire.”
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Rebecca Lenkiewicz is a playwright, poet and actress. Her first play Soho: A Tale of Table Dancers won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival, while her second play The Night Season won the 2004 Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright. Lenkiewicz’s other plays include Shoreditch Madonna, Blue Moon Over Poplar and Her Naked Skin, which premiered in 2008 on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre, making her the first living female playwright to achieve this.
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Henry Hemming is the author of In Search of the English Eccentric (2008) and Misadventure in the Middle East (2007). Both books are based on year-long journeys: one through England looking for eccentrics; the other in the Middle East around the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has been described in The Spectator as "a fresh new voice, idealistic, engaging and human". Henry also makes art, some of which was shown at the last Port Eliot Literary Festival.
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A sparkling and entertaining show of poetry and music from internationally bestselling author, Louis de Bernières, and acclaimed flautist and keyboard player, Ilone Antonius-Jones, the Antonius Players have delighted audiences across the UK and abroad – including a run of sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.
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Hadley Freeman is The Guardian’s deputy fashion editor and a contributing editor to Vogue. Famed for her insightful, opinionated and humorous musings on the world of fashion and beyond, her book The Meaning of Sunglasses: A Guide To (almost) All Things Fashionable – described by Elle as “an irresistible combination of insider's fashion knowledge, myth-busting common sense and a sparky sense of humour” – was published in 2008.
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Gavin Pretor-Pinney is a designer and writer. He founded the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2004 and is author of the bestseller The Cloudspotter’s Guide, described by the Financial Times as “eloquent and engaging”. Pretor-Pinney is also the co-founder of The Idler magazine, a bi-annual publication dedicated to the restoration of the art of loafing. At this year's Port Eliot Festival, he'll be telling us all about fire...
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