THIS YEAR'S SPEAKERS
Jonathon Porritt
Friday 23 September, 5.00pm – 6.30pm
Venue: St Mary’s Barnes
Jonathon Porritt is an eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator, who has campaigned ceaselessly for sustainable development and social justice for more than fifty years. His latest book Hope in Hell addresses the vital question of climate change – have we left everything too late? In the face of overwhelming environmental crises, Porritt still points to hope but argues unequivocally that we must confront the climate emergency now, it won’t stay ‘not too late’ for much longer.
Ben Macintyre
Friday 23 September, 7.30pm – 9.00pm
Venue: St Mary’s Barnes
Ben Macintyre is a best-selling author, historian and newspaper columnist. His books include number one bestsellers - A Spy Among Friends, Operation Mincemeat – also a new film starring Colin Firth - Double Cross and SAS: Rogue Heroes. His new book, Colditz, is a superb analysis of the Second World War’s most notorious prison camp and the remarkable stories of the prisoners determined first and foremost to survive and then to escape.
Dan Keel
Saturday 24 September, 10.00am – 11.30am
Venue: Olympic Studios
Dan Keel is a nature author, freelance journalist and wildlife photographer. In Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, he explores the beauty and the mythological power of the mute swan, one of Britain’s most iconic birds. His book looks beyond the natural world and discusses how the regal swan has been portrayed in myth, art and culture for millennia. Andrew Wilson is a photographer and publisher, well-known for his beautiful books of the local area.
Dame Eileen Atkins
Saturday 24 September, 12 Noon – 1.30pm
Venue: St Mary’s Barnes
Dame Eileen Atkins talks to Gyles Brandreth about her witty and finely observed memoir, Will She Do? - the story of a girl from a London council estate who was determined to be an actress. Atkins is one of the most loved and admired actors of our times. She is a three-time Olivier Award, and BAFTA and Emmy award winner. Her stage work ranges from Shakespeare to Pinter, and she has starred in countless films and tv series, including Cranford, Doc Martin and The Crown.
Tim Marshall
Saturday 24 September, 12 Noon – 1.30pm
Venue: Barnes Green Centre
Tim Marshall is a leading authority on foreign affairs with more than thirty years of reporting experience, he has covered conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. His book, The Power of Geography, looks at ten regions set to shape global politics. Marshall puts geography at the centre of human affairs and asks searching questions about the shifting patterns of power and what they mean for the future.
Theo Fennell
Saturday 24 September, 2.00pm – 3.30pm
Venue: St Mary’s Barnes
International jewellery designer, Theo Fennell has designed beautiful and original pieces for some of the world’s most glittering customers. In conversation with actor and friend, Richard E. Grant, Fennell talks about his anecdotal memoir
I fear for this boy. Written with humour and self-depreciating honesty, the book is full of laugh-out-loud tales, from Fennell’s vain attempts to become a songwriter to the etiquette of dealing with some of London’s hardened criminals (they have no fashion sense).
Peter Snow & Ann Macmillan
Saturday 24 September, 4.00pm – 5.30pm
Venue: St Mary's Barnes
Historians and broadcasters Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan introduce the most powerful men and women in English, and later British, society. They present and discuss their new book, Kings & Queens, which examines the monarchs who have ruled through personal and political strife, triumph, war and peacetime; from fabled warrior-king William the Conqueror to our own Elizabeth II, admired for her diplomacy and integrity while presiding over turbulent times.
Hugo Vickers & Simon Heffer
Saturday 24 September, 4.00pm – 5.30pm
Venue: Barnes Green Centre
Hugo Vickers and Simon Heffer are both historians and experts at working within censorship guidelines while investigating what lies behind. They share their experiences of researching and writing about the historical events of the last century.
A Royal Life is a unique insight into the Royal Family, based on Hugo Vickers conversations with HRH The Duke of Kent. While The Diaries of Henry ‘Chips’ Channon, edited by Simon Heffer, are an unexpurgated account of the elegant, gossipy and occasionally shocking world of the infamous Chips, Conservative MP from 1935–1958.
Hilary & Michael Whitehall
Saturday 24 September, 6.00pm – 7.30pm
Venue: St Mary's Barnes
Well known in the world of entertainment and theatre Hilary and Michael Whitehall are also the parents of international comedian, Jack Whitehall. Talking about How to Survive Family Holidays - written with Jack - Hilary and Michael highlight the pitfalls of family holidays with advice for fellow travellers – the essential dos and don’ts - and they reveal their best and worst memories from holidays with the family.
Patricia Hodge
Sunday 25 September, 10.00am – 12 Noon
Venue: Olympic Studios
Patricia Hodge – leading international actress of film, television and stage - introduces an exclusive screening of some of her most interesting and demanding roles and talks about the challenges of taking a character, inspired and adapted from the written page, and bringing them to life on stage and screen.
Patricia Hodge will be talking to Michael Billington, the renowned theatre critic and journalist.
SPECIAL SCREENING EVENT: TAKING
THE PAGE
TO THE STAGE
Yara Rodrigues Fowler & Natasha Brown
Sunday 25 September, 10.00am – 11.30am
Venue: Barnes Green Centre
Yara Rodrigues Fowler is a Brazilian-British novelist and activist from South London who was named as one of the top debut writers of 2019 (The Observer). Her second novel there are more things follows the fortunes of two women - one Brazilian, one British - during the turbulent events and political upheaval of the last decade. The book weaves together themes of history, revolution and sisterhood, underscored by a desperate passion for a better world. It was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022.
Natasha Brown is a British novelist, whose debut novel Assembly was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, the Folio Prize, the Orwell Prize for Fiction, the Betty Trask Prize, and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. Assembly is a precise, powerful story that describes Britain’s colonial legacy and the experience of living in that world as a Black British woman. The story unfolds in a series of vignettes that illustrate the extensive ways racism impinges on the narrator’s life, despite, or because of, her outward success.
Helen Rappaport
Sunday 25 September, 12 Noon - 1.30pm
Venue: Barnes Green Centre
Helen Rappaport talks to Trevor Sterling about the myths and legends that surround Seacole, her achievements, her iconic status in Black history and not least, her rivalry with Florence Nightingale. Rappaport is a best-selling author and historian. In 2003, she discovered an 1869 portrait of Mary Seacole, now in the National Portrait Gallery, which sparked a long investigation into Seacole’s life and writing In Search of Mary Seacole - a revealing biography of the most famous Black celebrity of her generation. Trevor Sterling is a Senior Partner with Moore Barlow and Chair of the Mary Seacole Trust.
Andrew Wilson
Sunday 25 September, 2.00pm – 3.30pm
Venue: TBC
Andrew Wilson is known for his beautiful photographs and books of the local area, he describes his photography, the techniques and breathtaking moments involved in producing his most recent book Wild About The Wetlands. The book captures timeless images of the WWT London Wetland Centre in Barnes, a specialist nature reserve which provides an environmental haven for wetland birds and other species.
Bonnie Garmus
Sunday 25 September, 2.00pm – 3.30pm
Venue: Sy Mary's Barnes
Bonnie Garmus is a debut author, whose first book Lessons in Chemistry swept to number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list this year. It’s a witty story about the uncompromising Elizabeth Zott, a research chemist in the 1950s/60s. When her career is sabotaged, Zott reluctantly hosts a tv cookery show for housewives but quickly shows her audience how cooking with chemistry … and a dash of rowing … can challenge the status quo.
Peter Conradi
Sunday 25 September, 4.00pm - 5.30pm
Venue: Barnes Green Centre
Peter Conradi, the foreign editor of The Sunday Times, discusses the new edition of his book, Who Lost Russia? which analyses Russia’s relations with Ukraine, the US and beyond. He looks at the events leading up to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – the bloodiest war on European soil in recent times. As a foreign correspondent in Moscow for six years, he witnessed the USSR’s collapse first-hand, and he now sets out what the Russian-Ukraine conflict could mean for the future of Europe and the world.
Gill Hornby
Sunday 25 September, 4.00pm – 5.30pm
Venue: St Mary's Barnes
Gill Hornby talks to Harriett Gilbert about returning to the world of Jane Austen in her new book Godmersham Park. Hornby’s knowledge of the Austen family and the Regency period is remarkable. She is the author of Miss Austen, a Sunday Times best-seller which was picked as one of the best novels of the year in 2020. Godmersham Park follows the story of Anne Sharp, a governess who becomes close to the famous novelist and also catches the unexpected interest of her brother, Henry Austen.
Robert Harris
Sunday 25 September, 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Venue: St Mary's Barnes
Robert Harris talks about his latest thrilling novel Act of Oblivion. Set in 1660, it’s the gripping story of an epic journey and fraught pursuit as Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe, cross the Atlantic in a bid to escape England. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of Charles I. Robert Harris is the highly acclaimed author of fourteen bestselling novels and widely praised for his acute skill and ingenuity in writing about historical events from an alternative perspective.
