Cuckfield Book Festival 2024 – That’s a Wrap!

The sun always seems to shine on the festival and on Saturday morning, crowds streamed into the Queen’s Hall for a packed day of talks covering the intricacies of artificial intelligence, a novel about Maria Callas, 20th century spies, ABBA and British politics.

Lady Colin Campbell’s views on Meghan and Harry were interesting, to say the least, and there was a highly praised creative writing workshop. Two authors discussed their different views on ‘stuff’ and what to keep and what not to keep. Sussex is full of history and Alexandra Harris’s talk in the Talbot was fascinating. Much hilarity was produced by Dominic Holland, also in the Talbot, who combines writing with comedy.

Even at 10am on Sunday, Polly Toynbee attracted an enthusiastic audience while local author Gavin Jamieson recounted the tale of an Olympic rower.

Two African writers discussed the history of their continent and the account of the ladies-in-waiting of the wives of Henry Vlll provided an unusual insight into English history.

There was a whistle stop tour of Churchill’s life through pictures, a story of a Polish resistance fighter, a forensic description of the business of writing locked-room mysteries and a poignant story of growing-up in the 1990s and the power of music.

Children’s Writing Competition 2024

For this year’s writing competition we invited submissions from children aged 7-13 on the theme of space and exploration, in celebration of World Space Week which coincided with Bookfest.

We were delighted to receive 200+ entries from more than 10 different schools.  Our judges were extremely impressed with the variety of writing styles and forms and the incredible imaginations of the children.

View the winning entries here.

Years 2&3
Dotty Luker – St. Lawrence – 1 st Prize
Mivaan Jhanwar – Northlands Woods 2nd Prize
Finley Shimizu – Holy Trinity Highly Commended
Freya Collins – Holy Trinity Highly Commended

Year 4
Isaac Adams – Holy Trinity 1st Prize
Olivia Cockram – Holy Trinity 2nd Prize
George Deacon – Holy Trinity Highly Commended
Phoebe Lurie – Hurst Highly Commended
Thomas Yu – Hurst Highly Commended

Year 5
Isabelle Cheal – Warden Park Primary Academy 1st Prize
Leo Trezbinksi – Holy Trinity 2nd Prize
Maya Harris – Holy Trinity Highly Commended
Minnie Smith – Holy Trinity Highly Commended

Year 6
Alex Cotter – Holy Trinity 1st Prize

Year 7
Barney Jack – Cumnor House 1st Prize

Year 8
Ben Jiang – Handcross Park 1st Prize
Tom Horner – Handcross Park Highly Commended
Jad Nakouzi – Handcross Park Highly Commended
Matilda Harley – Handcross Park Highly Commended

Year 9
Alela Knowles – Varndean 1st Prize

Huge congratulations to all the winners and everyone who took part.

This year’s Big Book Group choice was obviously a popular one and Sunday ended with the author of a book about lives lived in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.

Once again the festival brought lots of people to the village who enjoyed the opportunity to hear and talk to many different authors. As ever, the festival is so grateful to sponsors, benefactors, supporters and its wonderful volunteers who work so hard to make Cuckfield Book Festival the remarkable event it has become.

We’ll be back next year over the weekend of October 3rd – 5th so do please put the
date in your new diary now!

For more information about the festival, follow us
on social media and join our mailing list.

A special thank you to our 2024 Benefactors:

David and Patricia Butcher, Elspeth Chasser, Marie Dormer and family, Miranda and Richard Grainger, Eileen Carole Hayward, Bridget Keates, David Mortimer, Nicole Patterson, Marion Petitpierre, Susan Ponsford, Gwyn and Meg Price, Jeff Thompson