A talented writer, broadcaster and campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is widely known for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food and has earned a huge following through his River Cottage TV series and books. We're delighted to welcome him to Port Eliot as one of only two festival performances all summer.
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Helen Simpson's stories have been captivating readers since her first collection, Four Bare Legs in a Bed and Other Stories (1990), won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and a Somerset Maugham Award. This year Helen will be reading from her latest collection In Flight Entertainment – a story about a literary festival with a difference – and joining Persephone Books in the Walled Garden for afternoon tea and talk.
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Contemporary poet Luke Wright performs the world premiere of his much-anticipated new show Cynical Ballads at this year’s festival. A 4Talent Award winner in 2007, Luke burst into the limelight in 2006 with his show Poet Laureate, which combined a unique blend of comedy and poetry to promote to audiences why he should be considered as an alternative to Britain’s next laureate.
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Literary editor and award-winning novelist and memoirist, Diana Athill OBE has worked with some of the most important writers of the 20th century, including Jean Rhys, V. S. Naipaul, Norman Mailer and Simone de Beauvoir. She made her reputation as a writer with the candour of her memoirs and her commitment "to understand, to be aware, to touch the truth". She recently featured on the BBC’s Imagine with Alan Yentob.
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Seven years after his award-nominated debut novel, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Paul Murray’s long-awaited second novel Skippy Dies, has been described as “one of the most funny, enjoyable and moving reads of the year” (the Guardian). We can’t wait to hear him telling us all about it at Port Eliot this year.
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Susie is a writer who works with people with aphasia (a communication disability that commonly follows stroke). Her work includes: Talking about Aphasia, Aphasia Inside Out, Beyond Aphasia, and Living with Severe Aphasia. A dedicated coldwater swimmer, she's currently writing a social and cultural history of swimming. She's interviewing psychotherapist Philippa Perry.
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Nick St Aubyn is the author of Custom of the County (2010) a story set in the treacherous waters of Tudor Cornwall. He will be appearing with author and journalist Justine Picardie in the Round Room at Port Eliot House to discuss: "Drawing on the fragments of history - the hazards and rewards for the novelist."
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Tom's short story collection, The Method & Other Stories, is a Scott Prize winner being published by Salt this year. In 2009 he received an Arts Council grant to research and write a novel set on Dartmoor. He'll be reading and talking about the writing process.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt McAllester has covered conflicts in Kosovo, Israel and Afghanistan. Closer to home, he’ll be cooking and talking about Bittersweet: Lessons From My Mother’s Kitchen, his moving tribute to his mother, as well us making Oeufs en Cocotte a la Crème, baking a loaf of bread and bringing salted almonds for sample.
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Simon Jameson is an advisor to leading newspapers, television organisations and multinationals, lectures at the Royal College of Art and has appeared in the novel Citizen. He’ll be talking about post-War optimism, when happiness, fun, innocence and optimism were also for the over-fives…
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