Bookings open on 24th August
Friends & Benefactors bookings open on 17th August
With less than 8 weeks to go, things are hotting up as we prepare for the next Cuckfield Book Festival. Read on to find out about the launch of our children’s creative writing competition and discover some of our upcoming authors.
We are delighted that Alexandra Harris is attending to discuss her new book The Rising Down, a luminous feat of time travel chronicling lives in a Sussex landscape, murder mystery fiction writers Tom Mead and Simon Toyne with their latest ‘locked-room’ novels and Nicola Clark who explores the untold stories of the lives and secrets of Tudor ladies-in-waiting in her book The Waiting Game.
And there is so much more – you can see all the events on our website so take a look for yourself – we are sure that there is something for everyone covering diverse subjects from politics and history to golf, poetry and music.
Bookings open for Friends & Benefactors on the 17th August and general booking opens on the 24th August. To find out how to become a Friend or Benefactor please visit Support Bookfest.
We look forward to welcoming you to our eighth Cuckfield Book Festival!
West Sussex was the childhood home of cultural historian Alexandra Harris but when she returned, she realised that she barely knew the place at all. She began to probe beneath the surface and the result is a luminous feat of time travel, chronicling lives in a Sussex landscape.
In her new book The Rising Down, Alexandra imagines lives that were deeply connected through their shared landscape from the painter John Constable to the modernist writer Ford Madox Ford, to the lost local women spanning the Downs, Poland, Australia, Canada.
‘Locked-room’ murder mysteries are a very popular crime and detective fiction genre. The crime is committed in circumstances where it would appear impossible for the perpetrator to enter the crime scene, commit the crime, and leave undetected. Join Simon Toyne and Tom Mead who are both masters of the art on Sunday 6th October.
Simon’s Dark Objects is a locked-room mystery set in Highgate where forensics expert Laughton Rees hunts an unusually clever killer who appears to be staging murder scenes just for her in this twisty psychological thriller.
Tom Mead’s latest book Cabaret Macabre is a locked-room murder mystery set in an English country house just before the Second World War, where a body is found in impossible circumstances.
Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen’s ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.
The Waiting Game explores their daily lives, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. As Henry VIII changed wives, these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn’t exist before.
Creative Writing Competition 2024 – Celebrating
World Space Week
Calling all 7-13 year olds!
As this year’s festival falls in ‘World Space Week’ we invite creative writing submissions (max 500 words) on the theme of SPACE AND EXPLORATION. Scan and email your work with your name, school, year group, and contact details to cuckfieldbookfest@outlook.com.
Entries should be written in English. Scan and email your work with your name, school, year group, and contact details to cuckfieldbookfest@outlook.com. For full details, please see our website
Deadline 24th September.
We are delighted that Sarah Crossan will join us on Sunday 6th October with her new novel Where The Heart Should Be, revisiting the time of the Great Hunger in Ireland.
Last year, Sarah visited Cumnor House Sussex to talk to Year 8 pupils – this is what Lotte North, Librarian & Prep Teacher at the school had to say about the event.
“Cumnor’s Year 8 pupils were lucky enough to meet Sarah last year, the Carnegie-winning author and former Laureate. Her books have always flown off the shelves at Cumnor for many reasons, but primarily because they’re mostly written in verse, appealing both to reluctant readers and the generation of children who find it difficult to digest weighty tomes – her books say so much with her chosen and succinct wording. Sarah spoke to us about her upbringing in Ireland, what drew her to verse novels and how she’s cornered the market in the UK.
Most memorably, she showed us that poetry is all around us and that engaging with words goes far beyond the classroom walls.
We would highly recommend joining Sarah’s session at the Bookfest, you won’t regret it. See you there!”
Don’t forget booking opens at 9am on 24th August. Friends and Benefactors get priority booking to events (excluding the Quiz) on the 17th August, a week before booking opens to the public. To find out how to become a Friend or Benefactor please visit Support Bookfest.
You can see a full list of the events on our website in the meantime and follow us on social media for updates as they happen! We look forward to seeing you.
Best wishes
Cuckfield Bookfest Team