Can it really be 15 years since I began the Marlborough Literary Festival? It started modestly with just one event, but a good one: a dialogue between John Price, former Head of St John’s and John Carey, emeritus Professor of Literature at Oxford University and the first Chairman of the Man Booker Prize who had just published a biography of the town’s most eminent literary son, William Golding. It was a great success, The place was packed out and we knew we were on a winner. Since then others have taken up the baton and created an event of great significance which gets more impressive by the year: 2025 was no exception. I lost count of how many presentations there were, but anyone getting round the lot would qualify for a mention in the Guinness Book of Records and there was something for all, ventures into schools and even prisons.
If you go into a lecture thinking you know a bit about the topic and come out realising that was just a part of a wider and richer tapestry then one has had a good experience. This was certainly the case with the talk by Shaun Walker, former Moscow correspondent of The Guardian, on ‘The Illegals’, those Soviet agents who were planted in western society under carefully-prepared false identities. Years ago I (and others) used to drink in the Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street with Oleg Tsarev, Press Attache at the Soviet Embassy. He certainly fitted Shaun’s profile of a Soviet agent, urbane, sophisticated, intelligent, charming, with a beautiful wife. Years later he was revealed as the Lieutenant-Colonel who had opened up the KGB files to public scrutiny, enabling Shaun’s assiduous research. This was the best lecture I’ve heard in a while, full of such amazing and amusing detail as the story of Josif Grigulevich, an ‘illegal’ who as ‘Teadoso Castro’, a Costa Rican businessman travelled to Rome with his wife to seek the blessing of the Pope. Such was his success in cultivating the diplomatic circuit that he was appointed Costa Rican Ambassador to Italy and the Vatican, Drawing on this achievement he negotiated a trade deal with Yugoslavia. Things got a little complicated when Joseph Stalin, hearing of the success of his agent in the Eternal City, decided he should assassinate his arch-enemy. Marshall Tito, by presenting him with a box of plague-infested chocolates. Fortunately, the old Russian tyrant died before this certain-death mission could be accomplished. Who would want to read James Bond ever again?
I also had some connection with my next speaker, Sam Dalrymple. His famous dad wrote the preface to my last book. Would the son be up to the number? Absolutely! Again, lots of fascinating detail. Forget the Great Wall of China, the only structure you can see from space is the frontier between India and Pakistan which represents the greatest tragedy of the five partitions of which Sam spoke with erudition and contagious enthusiasm. No disappointments with Tim Bouverie either. His beautifully-delivered, noteless exposition on the niceties of the relationship between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin made one realise that there’s more to wars than what happens on the battlefield.
I had actually read all 600 pages of the much award-winning Lucy Hughes-Hallet’s biography of George Villers, the favourite of James 1. Yes, she did out them. I thought I was going to be disappointed when she concentrated on Villiers’ fripperies to the exclusion of his shortcomings, but she dealt with those before the end. When I asked her of the extent to which he had played a part in the downfall of the Stuart monarchy, her reply explained the very title of the book – The Scapegoat.
Finally, on to the fest’s very last occasion. Being somewhat lacking in couthness (you don’t have to agree) I was hoping to learn all I needed to know about modern good manners from William Hanson. Unfortunately this display of high-campery, in fair parody of Kenneth Williams, much-enjoyed by another near-capacity audience, failed to answer the vital question of how to eat a banana with a knife-and-fork, so I remain uncouth.
Congratulations to all involved. I suspect things will now go quiet as the committee prepares another triumph for 2026.
LitFest ’25: ‘Translation Duel’ with Aneesa Abbas Higgins and Vineet Lal
