Marlborough LitFest is delighted to announce that royal historian and biographer, Robert Hardman, award-winning actress Celia Imrie and acclaimed journalist Zeinab Badawi will join LitFest Patron Sir Simon Russell Beale at this year’s 15th festival from 26 – 29 September 2024.
LitFest is inviting sign up to Friends of LitFest for 2024 to take advantage of priority booking for this year’s festival. For £30, Friends of LitFest will receive a festival brochure and are invited to festival celebrations and events throughout the year. Supporters are also encouraged to become a Golden, Silver or Bronze Friend which attracts further benefits and free tickets. As a charitable arts organisation run by volunteers LitFest is reliant upon financial support from Friends as well as sponsors, ensuring the festival is able to put together a varied programme as well as providing community outreach for schools and families.
Last year we reached more than 1200 children and young people through our free author events for schools, storytelling and craft activities around the town and the first year of our popular Once Upon a Trail along the High Street.
Best known as being an award-winning actor, acclaimed for her film, TV and theatre work, Celia Imrie is also a Sunday Times bestselling author. Imrie will be appearing at LitFest on Sunday 29 September to talk about her latest novel, Meet Me At Rainbow Corner, a moving story encompassing war brides and domestic spies, inspired by real events about a group of women working for GI soldiers during the Second World War.
The award-winning broadcaster and journalist Zeinab Badawi will talk about her first book at this year’s LitFest: An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence, which brings a gripping new account of Africa, as told through the voices of Africans themselves.
Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, Badawi unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story. Badawi will be appearing at LitFest on Sunday 29 September.
Acclaimed royal historian and biographer Robert Hardman’s latest book, Charles III, shows a portrait of a modern monarch, full of insider details behind the challenges as Charles III sets out to make his mark in the 21st century, both in Britain and on the world stage. Hardman draws on unrivalled access to the Royal Family, friends of the King and Queen, key officials and courtiers, plus unpublished royal papers, to chart the transition from those emotionally charged days following the death of the late Queen all through that make-or-break first year on the throne. Hardman will be appearing at LitFest on Saturday 28 September.
Genevieve Clarke, Festival Chair, said: “We’ve been very encouraged to have loyal audience members signing up as Friends of LitFest. It strengthens the festival community and of course allows us to engage new people of all ages in LitFest. It’s also a great way of making sure that you don’t miss out on sell-out events.”
Marlborough LitFest celebrates its 15th year in 2024 from 26-29 September and the festival programme is currently being put together to provide an exciting mix of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s authors and free family activities over the festival weekend.
The full programme will be available in late June with priority booking from 1 July and general ticket sales from 11 July. For more information and regular 2024 festival programme updates, click here
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