Flamstead Book Festival 20 & 21 May 2016

Flamstead Book Festival 2016

   
The Flamstead Book Festival (Flamstead, Hertfordshire)– Books in the Belfry – ran for the first time in June 2014 and was judged by all to be a great success. It ran for the second time in June 2015, with the event featuring Jane Hawking a sell-out in advance. It has a fantastic line up for 2016 including a talk from the thrilling Renee Knight, a Writing Boot Camp Session and Story Telling for younger bibliomaniacs! There is a whole programme of events available from their website. 

http://www.flamsteadbookfestival.com

Come along to hear the author's discuss their books and maybe ask them a few questions, get your book signed, buy featured books from the Waterstones stand and also to enjoy the two best ingredients for a relaxing summer weekend - books and a pretty village surroundings!

The Flamstead Book Festival is run for the benefit of the Friends of St Leonard’s, Flamstead (FOSL) to raise funds for restoration and conservation of the village church and its surroundings. Funds are urgently needed to repair and conserve the church and its surroundings, in particular the roof above the North aisle, which was recently stripped of its lead and the unique mediaeval wall paintings, second in Hertfordshire only to St Albans Abbey. The building and its grounds are used for concerts and other events, and now for the Book Festival. For 800 years it has been the centre of Flamstead's community but now it needs help in order to maintain it's vital role within the village. 

The organisers also love books and want to enable others, young and old, to discover new books and to meet their authors in the beautiful surroundings of our historic church in the picturesque village of Flamstead. The main organisers are Vikki Orvice, Mary Jenkin and Mark Jenkin and the event is supported by Waterstones.

Here are some of the highlights of the weekend:

DEBI ALPER
Book Writing Boot Camp

Debi Alper is the author of six novels, the first two of which were published by Orion and are also available as e-books under her own Nirvana Publishing imprint. For the last ten years, she has been helping authors perfect their novels through critiques, mentoring, Book Doctor sessions and creative writing workshops, as well as running an online self-editing course. She edits in all genres and many authors she has worked with have gone on to be published.

RENÉE KNIGHT
Disclaimer

Renée Knight worked for the BBC directing arts documentaries before turning to writing.

She has had TV and film scripts commissioned by the BBC, Channel Four and Capital Films. In April 2013 she graduated from the Faber Academy “Writing a Novel” course, which is sponsored by the famous publisher and known for nurturing breakthrough talent.

Disclaimer, which catapulted into the top 10 best-selling fiction lists earlier this year, is Renée’s first novel and the film rights have already been sold to 20th Century Fox.

Likened to the domestic noir thrillers ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Girl on a Train’ it has a brilliant central premise: Imagine you had a terrible secret that you’d never told a living soul. Then imagine casually picking up a novel and discovering that your terrible secret is the plot of the book in your hands. What would you do?

Renée is currently working on a second novel in her writing shed in the garden of the London home she shares with her husband and two children.

DERMOT TURING

Alan Turing: Decoded

Dermot Turing – or Sir John Dermot Turing to give him his full title – is the nephew of legendary mathematician, computer scientist and code-breaker Alan Turing.

Having followed his uncle to Sherborne and King’s College, Cambridge he spent his career in the legal profession, most recently as a partner of Clifford Chance.

As a family member and also a trustee of Bletchley Park, he had access to many previously unpublished papers and photographs for his biography “Prof: Alan Turing Decoded” including Alan’s own notebook and diaries.

The book which draws on personal insights and family sources explores the impact of Alan’s codebreaking work at Bletchley Park and the tragedy of his early death in the wake of his conviction for gross indecency in 1952. Along the way Dermot presents a portrait of Alan the man – his friendships, his loyalty and his extraordinary achievements.

CLIVE HAYWARD
Start the Day with a Story
With Great Pleasure

Clive Hayward trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, winning the Newton Blick Award.

His theatre work has involved numerous West End and National Theatre appearances including Horace Hardwick in Top Hat; Ted Punch in Ducktastic, directed by Kenneth Branagh; Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing, alongside David Tennant; Bernard Woolley in Yes Prime Minister; Aeschylus in Frogs and Earl Haig in Oh What A Lovely War.

Clive has just finished filming an episode of a new sitcom, The Windsors, playing George VI. Other TV credits include Eastenders, Silent Witness, Law and Order, Utopia, Prime Suspect VII, Doctors and Afterlife.

In 2014 he was a full-time member of the BBC’s Radio Repertory Company for which he recorded over 30 radio plays. He has voiced numerous factual programmes for Radio 4 and the World Service.

Clive has written an adaptation of Billy Budd with the composer, Paul Knight, and he has written and directed five traditional pantomimes for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Clive lives in Flamstead, and with two youngsters of his own he is well-rehearsed in reading children’s stories.

Tickets and further information are available from the website: http://www.flamsteadbookfestival.com