Lincoln Book Festival Goes Gothic 2017
Lincoln Book Festival connects audiences of all ages and interests with some of the UK’s best-loved historians and authors of historical fiction.
Like the historic English cathedral city in which it is set, Lincoln Book Festival places history at its heart. Festival events explore historical themes spanning ancient empires to contemporary culture though intimate talks, readings, discussions and Q&A’s with contributions from acclaimed writers, academics, cultural commentators and public figures.
Recent speakers have included Tom Holland, Susan Fletcher, Andrew Morton, Juliet Barker, Robert Fabbri, Thomas Asbridge and James Runcie.
Lincoln Book Festival 2017 takes place from 25th – 3oth September at venues across the city of Lincoln. This year’s Festival is encouraging visitors to “Go Gothic” by celebrating the Gothic in all its glory.
Unless otherwise stated, all events start at 6:15pm at The Collection.
PROGRAMME
MONDAY: FESTIVAL LAUNCH PARTY – sponsor: English Speaking Union
• Presentation for WINNERS of the 2017 FLASH FICTION COMPETITION – just 50 words in the Gothic genre!
• FIRST STORY ‘changing lives through writing’ launched in Lincolnshire at last year’s Book Festival. The charity runs creative writing programmes in schools in low-income areas to help young people improve literacy and grow in awareness, self-esteem and confidence – students from a Lincoln school will read some of their work.
• PLUS guest speaker KERRY DREWERY, author of three YA novels, most recently ROOM 7. She has been an author in residence for First Story, been short-listed for the Leeds Book Award, nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, been translated into 12+ languages and lives in Lincolnshire!
• Proceeds from the evening will go to First Story
TUESDAY : PAINTED LADIES – ICONIC FACES – chair: Claire Brainerd – sponsor: Stanbridge Associates
MARTIN KEMP on the Mona Lisa - Martin Kemp is one of the world's leading authorities on Leonardo da Vinci and has published extensively on his life and work. In his new book, MONA LISA: THE PEOPLE AND THE PAINTING, co-authored with Giuseppe Pallanti, he cuts through layers of accumulated myth to reveal a wealth of information about the people and events behind the portrait. The true story of the Mona Lisa is even more astonishing and transcendent than the legends. It will forever change the way you look at the world's most famous painting!
KIRSTY STONELL WALKER on Pre-Raphaelite Models, Muses & Mistresses: from bathtubs to asylums - Today any woman with red hair is regarded as pre-Raphaelite but who were the original Pre-Raphaelite muses? Kirsty has spent the last 20 years researching their lives and loves, who they were and what became of them – incarceration or front page news. From mid 19th century to 1920s, they were icons whose lives were as scandalous as the roles they played in paintings. Kirsty is the author of STUNNER: THE FALL AND RISE OF FANNY CORNFORTH and two novels exploring the Victorian art scene, its murders, lust and secrets; she also writes the intriguingly titled blog The Kissed Mouth.
THURSDAY 28TH : VICTORIAN TRUTHS & GOTHIC MYSTERIES – chaired by Dr Claudia Capancioni of Bishop Grosseteste University, and Dr Scott Brewster of University of Lincoln – sponsors: University of Lincoln & Bishop Grosseteste University
KATHERYN HUGHES’ Tales of Flesh in the Age of Decorum - Biographies will give you all the facts of their subjects’ lives but they can’t explain what it was like to be them – to fight for breath against the constriction of a whalebone corset or attempt to eat elegantly while sporting a particularly bushy beard. Nowhere is this more evident than Britain in the 19th century. For while we think of the Victorians as prudishly detached from their unruly bodies, the fact is that they were just as subject to the tyrannies of their flesh as we are today. In her new book, VICTORIANS UNDONE, award-winning historian and biographer Kathryn Hughes reveals what it was like to be a 19th century man or woman, through a close examination of five famous, controversial or curious Victorian body parts.
DIANE SETTERFIELD on Fiction of a Gothic Disposition - Combining gothic invention with contemporary realism, Diane’s stunning debut novel THE THIRTEENTH TALE was an international bestseller: it was published in 38 countries and televised for BBC2, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman. Her second novel BELLMAN & BLACK is a genre-defying blend of rooks, death and Victorian retail – multi-layered, mesmerising and a totally original take on the gothic novel! Diane has delivered an Arvon course on writing Gothic fiction and when she is not writing or talking she reads – or thinks about reading. She is, she says, ‘a reader first, a writer second.’
FRIDAY 29th : WRITING ROMANCE – MILLS & BOON STYLE – 2.00 pm – free event!
JANICE PRESTON writes emotional, sensual and satisfying Regency romances. Her seventh book CINDERELLA AND THE DUKE will be published on 1st October.
JENNI FLETCHER is one of HMB Historicals newest authors writing Medieval and Victorian romances. Her first book, MARRIED TO HER ENEMY was published in January and her third BESIEGED AND BETROTHED will be out in December.
SATURDAY 30th : A MORNING OF LOCAL HISTORY – chair: Gary Phillips - 10.30 am-1.00 pm - free event!
• Boston, 1086-1225: A Medieval Boom Town – STEPHEN RIGBY’s new study examines its lay-out, religious houses, its trade, the rise of its fair, the role of lordship in its success and the structure of its administration.
• Treading the Boards - Actors and Theatres in Georgian Lincolnshire – Between 1730 and 1850, theatre flourished and actors made a good living. NEIL WRIGHT describes their successes and failures, pleasures and hardships.
• A Parson in Wartime: The Boston Diary of The Rev Arthur Hopkins, 1942-1945 provides a vivid picture of war-time Boston and an engaging account of the life of a busy parish priest – introduced by NICHOLAS BENNETT.
• The Ironstone Mines of the Lincolnshire Wolds – STEWART SQUIRES tells the story of Claxby Mine, Nettleton Top and Bottom Mines, and the explorations for a mine at Walesby.