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The Festival of Words is returning next week for a fourth edition with a programme designed to please every bookworm on the island.
The five-day event will run from 26 to 30 September with over 35 guests coming together with the public across various venues in town, including the Library of course, as well as Jersey Opera House, the Arts Centre, the Lido and the more surprising Pizza Projekt and Club Soulgenic.
Pictured: Kit Ashton of Jèrriais band Badlabecques.
The Festival of Words launched the Jersey Song Project earlier this year in a bid to channel the power of song to keep Jèrriais alive. Local musicians and speakers of the threatened Norman-French dialect were invited to create new songs which will be performed at the Arts Centre on 26 September. The evening will also be filmed for Youtube.
Jèrriais expert and musician Kit Ashton, from Jèrriais band Badlabecques led the project. He commented: "Music is one of the most powerful ways to keep a language alive in our hearts and imaginations, so we are hoping for some really interesting new music to come out of this process."
Among the big names announced this year is best-selling author Joanna Trollope, whose 20-plus novels about modern love, marriage and community life have kept her among the best-sellers for over 30 years. She will be at Jersey Opera House on 29 September at 20:00.
Pictured: Joanna Trollope.
Peter James, an author Voted Best Crime Writer of All Time by W H Smith readers and winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger, will also be attending. He’s recently become a Jersey resident and before starting work on a novel based on the island he will talk about his life and work at the Opera House on 28 September.
Other guest include: Libby Page, whose first novel 'The Lido' was snapped up for international publication within hours of submission; Rupert Thomson, who wrote about Jersey Occupation heroine and groundbreaking artist Claude Cahun; Tor Udall, whose debut novel 'A Thousand Paper Birds' received rave reviews for its strange and beautiful interweaving of five lives through a year at Kew Gardens; and costume expert Lucy Adlington, who will give a 1940s ‘history wardrobe’ presentation to highlight her novel 'The Red Ribbon,' about the dressmakers of Auschwitz.
St. Helier Constable, Simon Crowcroft, who is also an award-winning poet, playwright and writer of short stories, Paul Darroch, Tony Le Moignan, Duncan Barrett and Laura Carter are among the local writers involved in the festival this year.
In addition, Jersey Library will host a talk on local mythology by Erren Michaels at 13:10 on 27 September.
Andrew Cope, the author of the popular Spy Dog series, will be one of many children’s authors meeting young readers along graphic novelist Robin Etherington, who penned the 'Freaky and Fearless' series; Laura Ellen Anderson, who created the ‘gloriously gothic, wickedly funny’ new series Amelia Fang, and Adam Frost, the man behind the 'Awesome Book of Space,' will also be taking part in this year's schools programme.
Pictured: Authors Laura Ellen Anderson and Andrew Cope and graphic novelist Robin Etherington will be meeting Jersey's youngest readers this September.
UK performance poetry group Farrago is also returning to run a multi-school poetry slam which will see secondary students crafting original poetic pieces before performing them to a panel of local judges on the Opera House stage on 27 September.
Pictured: Bryony Gordon.
In a bid to showcase various literary genres, the Festival has planned several events to promote wellbeing, inspire optimism and demonstrate the power of the human spirit. Best-selling authors Libby Page and Alexandra Heminsley will be “taking the plunge” at the Lido pool on 29 September to discuss the benefits of swimming on mental and physical health.
Journalist Bryony Gordon, known for conducting the interview in which Prince Harry opened up about mental health, will also be at the festival to talk about her memoir 'Eat, Drink, Run.' It tells the story of how she trained for and completed the 2017 London Marathon, whilst battling OCD and addiction, and the “life-changing benefits” it brought to her overall wellbeing.
For Laura Freeman, the battle was with anorexia and a remedy awaited in the vivid descriptions of food to be found in literature. The uplifting results are described in her book 'The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite'.
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