Literary Quiz
Friday 27th September
7.30pm for 8.00pm
£14 per person to include a glass of wine
The quiz is a week before the festival weekend. Tables are for six people but we can allocate tables to anyone who wishes to join individually. If you do want to come as a party of six, please be sure to make it clear when you book and to give us the names of your party.
We hope that people attending the quiz will also buy tickets for at least one Bookfest event.
Supper at Ockenden Manor, Cuckfield
with Mel Giedroyc
7pm for 7.30pm
Friday 4th October
Tickets are £70 each, including a glass of sparkling wine at the welcoming reception. A two-course meal with four bottles of wine per table of ten will be served.
Join Mel Giedroyc, author and entertainer, as she talks about her life, career, and writing. Best known for her double act with Sue Perkins and hosting shows like Eurovision, Mel has been entertaining the nation for nearly 30 years.
Tickets go on sale at 9am on 24th August and are only available through the website.
With only 70 tickets available, early booking is advised. We encourage attendees to also buy tickets for other BookFest events.
Saturday 5th October
Image © Christoper Owens
Chris Stokel-Walker
How Al Ate the World:
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence – And What It Means for All of Us
10am – llam
Tickets £14 per person
This is the ultimate ‘start here’ guide for anyone who wants to know more about how Al will affect our lives. With his access to Silicon Valley insiders and a popular touch, Chris has woven together a fast-paced, balanced narrative perfect for the general reader.
Well known as an award-winning stand-up comedian, Dominic is also the author of the recently published Open Links, voted the best golf novel by Golf Monthly. It is a novel for all readers who still dare to dream.
Daisy Goodwin
Diva
with Ruth Pavey
11.30am – 12.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
Location Changed to The Hayloft at The Talbot
This is a novel, not a biography, about Maria Callas. Daisy Goodwin brings to life a woman whose extraordinary talent, unremitting drive and natural chic made her a legend. Callas was a heroine with a superpower, a voice that entranced the whole world and someone who never doubted her own worth.
She became famous not just for her talent, but also for her private life. She wanted recognition, but for her art, not for being the elegant woman at the side of the world’s richest man. But suddenly her relationship with Onassis is over and he leaves her for Jacqueline Kennedy and Maria has to pick up the pieces.
Read More
Daisy Goodwin’s work as a television producer includes Reader I Married Him, Bookworm, and The Nation’s Favourite Poems; she is also the creator of Grand Designs and the ITV programme Victoria. Daisy has also written three best-selling novels.
Antonia Fraser said: ‘I’ve been completely overwhelmed by Diva: by the pleasure of reading such a marvellous ardent, romantic yet utterly worldly book:
Daisy will be in conversation with Ruth Pavey, a writer and journalist who particularly writes about contemporary fiction.
Alex Grant
Sex, Spies and Scandal
The John Vassall Affair
Tim Tate
To Catch a Spy
How the Spycatcher Affair Brought M/5 in from the Cold
With Andrew Lownie
11.30am – 12.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
Location Changed to Downstairs at The Queen’s Hall
In September 1962, John Vassall, a clerk at the Admiralty in London, was exposed as a Soviet spy, having been blackmailed into handing over British defence secrets. Sex, Spies and Scandal covers this dramatic story, featuring a honey trap, espionage, jailed journalists, and a tabloid witch-hunt that nearly toppled Harold Macmillan’s government.
Read More
Alex Grant, a freelance writer and lecturer, and Tim Tate, a multi award-winning documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist, will discuss their books with Andrew Lownie, literary agent and author of Stalin’s Englishman.
Tate’s To Catch a Spy uncovers the British government’s attempts to silence whistleblower Peter Wright and hide truths about Britain’s intelligence services. This conversation promises to delve into espionage, government cover-ups, and political scandals.
Dominic Holland
Takes On Life
1pm – 2pm
Tickets £14 per person
Location Changed to The Hayloft at The Talbot
Dominic is the author of several books including his non-fiction series of comic essays, Takes on Life.
These consist of anecdotes and will form the spine of his presentation. The essays cover everyone’s lives, teasing out the idiosyncrasies which plague us all. The best humour is found in things we can all relate to.
Well known as an award-winning stand-up comedian, Dominic is also the author of the recently published Open Links, voted the best golf novel by Golf Monthly. It is a novel for all readers who still dare to dream.
Helen Chandler Wilde Image © Jamie Lorriman
Lara Maiklem Image © Tom Harrison
Helen Chandler-Wilde
Lost & Found
9 Life-changing Lessons about Stuff
Lara Maiklem
A Mudlarking Year
Finding Treasure in Every Season
with Kate Harris
1pm – 2pm
Tickets £14 per person
Location Changed to Downstairs at The Queen’s Hall
On New Year’s Eve 2018, journalist Helen Chandler-Wilde lost everything in a storage unit fire after a breakup, leading her to re-evaluate her relationship with material possessions.
Her book, Lost & Found, combines memoir, self help, and journalism to explore why we buy and keep things, and how to free ourselves from the burden of owning too much.
Read More
In A Mudlarking Year, Lara Maiklem documents a year of searching the Thames foreshore, finding solace in the treasures revealed by the tide. With over 20 years of mudlarking experience, her first book, Mudlarking, was a Sunday Times best seller.
Helen and Lara will discuss their journeys with Kate Harris, sharing insights on living with less and finding meaning in unexpected places.
Sue Gee
Interactive Creative Writing Workshop
Discovering and developing character in fiction
1.30pm – 3.30pm
Location Changed to Upstairs at The Queen’s Hall
£25.00 per person
‘Who is Sarah? Out of what shadows does she come?’ – John Fowles
Sometimes characters fall on to the page fully formed. More often, getting to know them takes thought and time and drafting. In this lively interactive workshop we will read and discuss examples of strong characterisation from contemporary fiction and write in response to exercises. There will be an opportunity to read your work to the group and to ask lots of questions!
Read More
The workshop will be limited to 12 people and will last for two hours.
In July 2024 Sue Gee was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature for her work with other authors. Her most recent book is Just You & the Page: Encounters with Twelve Writers (2021). She ran the MA in Creative Writing at Middlesex University and currently teaches at the Faber Academy.
Lady Colin Campbell
with Andrew Lownie
Meghan and Harry:
The Real Story Persecutors or Victims
2.30pm – 3.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
Lady Colin Campbell’s book candidly explores how Harry and Meghan, a seemingly perfect couple, lost their way. She details how their choices turned their fate upside down, portraying themselves as victims instead of opting for a more positive path.
With unique access to exclusive circles, Lady Colin Campbell provides genuine insights, concluding that Harry and Meghan are their own worst enemies.
A best-selling author on the British Royal Family, she will discuss her findings with Andrew Lownie, a board member of Bookfest who has also written books about royalty.
Image © Vicky Beddoes
Alexandra Harris
with Peter Guttridge
The Rising Down
2.30pm – 3.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
Location Changed to The Hayloft at The Talbot
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.
Read More
From the painter John Constable to the modernist writer Ford Madox Ford, to the lost local women spanning the Downs, Poland, Australia, Canada, these electrifying encounters inspired the author to imagine lives that were deeply connected through their shared landscape.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Alexandra Harris’s earlier books have been shortlisted for numerous prizes. She is Professor of English at Birmingham University and reviews regularly for the Guardian and other newspapers.
Peter Guttridge, author and West Sussex resident, will be talking to Alexandra Harris.
John Crace
with Gerry Foley
Depraved New World
4pm – 5pm
Tickets £14 per person
Before the recent election, Britain seemed to change prime ministers practically on a monthly basis. Nonsense seemed to spew forth constantly from Westminster over the past few years but the nation was cheered through all the shenanigans by John Crace’s brilliantly lacerating political sketches in the Guardian.
Read More
Taking in everything from Partygate, BoJo’s drawn out farewell, the disastrous reign of Liz Truss, the psychodrama of the Tory leadership contests and the return of Rishi Sunak, John Crace’s Depraved New World is a worryingly funny collection which captures British politics at its most absurd.
And now since 4th July, John has a whole new set of possibilities for his blisteringly hilarious pen and will no doubt find plenty to talk about with Gerry Foley, formerly a political journalist and now a regular interviewer on the literary festival circuit.
Chris Bradford
Lunar/Stellar
For 5-9 years
4pm – 4.45pm
Upstairs at Bookfest
Tickets £8 each regardless of age
Children must be accompanied
by an adult
Lunar is a gripping outer-space survival story filled with fascinating information and facts about the Moon and space travel.
Read More
Luna lives on the Moon but a devastating meteor strike destroys their base and she’s left stranded. She must find a way to survive but she is running out of time.
Learn about the effects of gravity; discover fascinating facts about the Moon and space; find out what it will take to live on the Moon.
Ideal for young action adventure fans and budding astronauts aged 5-9.
Chris’s latest book Stellar will be making its debut at Bookfest. Disaster strikes the International Space Station Museum during a space walk. Stella will need her knowledge of the stars and a whole galaxy of luck to return safely to Earth.
Every child will receive a free LUNAR A5 poster and STELLAR bookmark at the event.
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Giles Smith
with Michael Odell
My My! ABBA
Through the Ages
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of ABBA winning the Eurovision song contest. How is it that half a century ABBA later this Seventies act is bigger than ever? Giles Smith, writer and music fan, sets out to find out why.
Read More
It’s a book about growing old, and the things that never do. And it’s a book about fashion, snobbery, authenticity,critical judgement, the passage of time and the triumphant ability of truly great pop music to transcend all of those things forever.
The Spectator said’,..at last a book that’s worthy of ABBA’,
Giles Smith is the author of the pop memoir Lost in Music and a spoof memoir of the comic-strip footballer Roy of the Rovers. My My! ABBA Through the Ages was the Sunday Times Book of the Week in April. Michael Odell will be in conversation with Giles.
Image © Vicky Beddoes
Henry Jeffreys
with Steven Gale
& Mardi Roberts
Vines in a Cold Climate
7pm -8pm
Tickets £14 per person
From an amateur affair made by retirees to a multi million-pound industry rivalling Champagne, the rise of English wine has been one of the most unexpected stories of the past 30 years.
Read More
Henry Jeffreys explores this revolution driven by changing climate, technology, and the vision and determination of diverse individuals from secretive billionaires to single mothers farming in Kent.
Steven Gale will be in conversation with Henry Jeffreys and they will be joined by Mardi from the Roberts family of Ridgeview Wine Estate who will be talking about the history of this Sussex winery.
Ticket holders will enjoy a tasting of Ridgeview’s appropriately named Bloomsbury sparkling wine.
Poetry & Tea at Ockenden Manor
with Annette Badland
Date and timings have now changed to:
SATURDAY 5th OCTOBER at a slightly earlier time of 3.45pm – 5.15pm
Ockenden Manor
£20.00 per person
We are delighted that Annette Badland is returning to Cuckfield Bookfest to entertain us with more poetry readings, this time from the work of Simon Armitage, our poet laureate. Annette recently narrated Simon’s Hansel and Gretel – A Nightmare in Eight Scenes at the Globe Theatre in London.
Annette is an award-winning actress, known for her roles in Ted Lasso, Big Boys, The Crown and Outlander to name but a few.
This is the perfect gift for poetry lovers and admirers of Annette Badland’s work.
Tea and cake will be served in the elegant surroundings of Ockenden Manor, and Annette will be happy to talk about her long and varied career.
Sunday 6th October
Polly Toynbee
with Steven Gale
An Uneasy Inheritance
10am -11am
Tickets £14 per person
Polly Toynbee’s ancestors have long been leftwing advocates for justice, yet they have always led prosperous lives in academia or journalism. This raises questions about their ideals of class equality.
Through examining her own family, Toynbee explores the myth of mobility and the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.
Read More
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist and broadcaster and one of the most respected, prolific and razor-sharp voices in social commentary.
She will be in conversation with Steven Gale who has worked at literary festivals all over the world.
Gavin Jamieson
 with Tom Ransley
Water’s Gleaming Gold
The Story of Hugh ‘Jumbo’ Edwards
10am -11am
Tickets £14 per person
Upstairs at Bookfest
In early 1943, a solitary airman lies injured and exhausted on an inflatable raft in the Atlantic. He is Wing Commander Hugh ‘Jumbo’ Edwards, the only survivor of a crew of eight and one of the greatest oarsmen of all time. In 1932, he won two rowing Olympic gold medals. Now he must row for his life.
Read More
This tale of a man of courage and conviction is told by Gavin Jamieson, local author and board member of Cuckfield Book Festival.
Historian Dan Snow said: ‘A true Olympic and rowing hero, and a story that is both fantastic and truly dramatic.’
Gavin will be in conversation with Olympian rower, Tom Ransley MBE. Tom won Olympic gold in the men’s eight at Rio 2016, and bronze at London 2012, and was twice a World Champion. Tom is editor of the rowing magazine, Row360.
Image © Jamie Simonds
Zeinab Badawi
With Ike Anya
An African History of Africa
From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence
11.30am-12.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
This fascinating and epic history is told through the voices of Africans themselves – from the origins of our species, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires with remarkable kings and queens, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence.
For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by Western narratives of slavery and colonialism or simply ignored, An African History of Africa unearths buried histories from across the continent and weaves them into an accessible and essential book, giving Africa its rightful place.
Read More
Zeinab Badawi is an award-winning journalist and film maker and President of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
She will be in conversation with Nigerian author Ike Anya who came to Cuckfield Bookfest last year to talk about his book Small by Small.
Image © Charlie Clift
Adam Kay and Henry Paker
Dexter Proctor the Ten-Year-Old Doctor
1pm – 1.45pm
For 8-11 years
Tickets £8 each regardless of age
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Speaking at four seconds old, earning 87 A-levels by age three, and working as a paediatrician by ten, Dexter is truly extraordinary. Join Adam Kay and Henry Paker in their laugh-out-loud debut fiction book to discover if Dexter can save his job, the school, and find his place in the world.
This interactive session with Adam and Henry promises lots of fun. Bring your drawing materials and get ready for a hilarious adventure. Jacqueline Wilson says ‘children will love all the disgusting parts’
Nicola Clark
with Jo Durrant
The Waiting Game
1pm – 2pm
Tickets £14 per person
Upstairs at Bookfest
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.
Read More
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.
Nicola is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Chichester. Her first book, Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.
Nicola will be talking to Jo Durrant who worked for BBC radio before becoming freelance. She now appears at many literary, history and science festivals as an event chair.
Image © Ger Holland
Sarah Crossan
Where The Heart Should Be
2.30pm – 3.30pm
For 12+ years
Tickets £8 each regardless of age
Irish author Sarah Crossan revisits the time of the Great Hunger in Ireland. The year is 1846 and Nell lives in Ireland where she works as a scullery maid for Lord Wicken. But at least Nell gets fed; the cropshave failed and food is scarce.
Upstairs there is a boy,17 and newly arrived from England. He is Lord Wicken’s nephew Johnny, and his heir. Johnny and Nell fall in love but what does love mean?
Read More
This is Sarah Crossan’s first historical fiction novel and it’s written in verse. It exemplifies her talent for asking big questions but allowing her readers to find their own answers – she is a big hit at book festivals!
Tom Mead
Cabaret Macabre
with Peter Guttridge
2.30pm – 3.30pm
Tickets £14 per person
Upstairs at Bookfest
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.
Tom Mead is a master of the art. His latest book Cabaret Macabre is a locked-room murder mystery set in an English country house just before the Second World War. A body is found in impossible circumstances – a bullet is fired through a locked window without breaking the glass. Sleuth and illusionist Joseph Spector must investigate.
Read More
Tom will be in conversation with Peter Guttridge, himself an author of a locked-room mystery that won the Margery Allingham award, The Box-Shaped Mystery. Both will be discussing the history of the genre and why they enjoy writing them.
Image © JP Masclet
Clare Mulley
with Alan Judd
AgentZo
4pm-5pm
Tickets £14 per person
In Agent Zo, Clare Mulley tells the story of the fearless WW2 Polish resistance fighter, Elzbieta Zawacka.
She was the only woman to reach London from Warsaw as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command and the British Special Forces secretly trained her before she was parachuted back behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Poland. Although hunted by the Gestapo, she took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising and the liberation of Poland.
Read More
Despite her heroism, the Soviet-backed postwar Communist regime not only imprisoned her but ensured that her story remained hidden for many years. Through new archival research and exclusive interviews, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten heroine back to life.
Clare Mulley is an award-winning author and historian who regularly contributes to television and radio programmes and reviews non-fiction for the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph and History Today.
Clare will be in conversation with Alan Judd, former soldier, diplomat and author, who regularly writes for the Spectator and the Oldie.
Anna Doble
with Jo Durrant
Connection is a Song
Coming Up and Coming Out Through the Music of the ’90s
4pm – 5pm
Tickets £14 per person
Upstairs at Bookfest
It is 1994, in a loft bedroom in North Yorkshire. 15-year-old Anna sits immersed in the pages of Smash Hits, listening to cassette tapes she keeps in a shoebox. She dreams of living inside the songs. British pop music is about to be transformed and will leap from pop to rave to Britpop. This new universe will change Anna’s life.
This is a powerful coming-of-age story, and also a coming-out story, about growing up in a provincial English town.
Read More
It is the tale of an outsider who, through connections made at gigs and other things, finds the people and the places that will take her to her life.
Anna Doble is a journalist and the digital editor at BBC World Service. She has previously worked at BBC1 and Channel 4 News.
Anna will be in conversation with Jo Durrant who worked for BBC radio before becoming freelance. She now appears at many literary, history and science festivals as an event chair.
Image © Liam Bergin
Sinclair McKay
With Julian Worricker
Meeting Churchill A Life in 90 Encounters
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Location Change – This event will now be held upstairs at the Queen’s Hall
Tickets £14 per person
Published to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, this insightful portrait of Winston Churchill delves beyond well-known political moments, incorporating perspectives from various individuals who encountered him throughout his life.
From Bletchley Park codebreakers to Hollywood stars like Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier, world leaders from Harold Wilson to Gandhi, these lesser-known interactions reveal glimpses of the man behind the legend.
Read More
Examining controversial aspects of his legacy, this multifaceted portrait challenges preconceived notions, inviting readers to reconsider the complexities of Churchill. Despite such a well-documented life, these 90 encounters capture the more elusive aspects of his character, brought out in greater clarity as though meeting him in full colour.
Sinclair McKay is the Sunday Times bestselling author of many books including Berlin, Dresden and The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, He is a literary critic for the Telegraph and the Spectator and lives in London,
Ike Anya will be in conversation with Sinclair.
Adam Sharp
The Wheel is Spinning but the Hamster is Dead
A Journey Around the World in Idioms,
Proverbs and General Nonsense
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Location Changed to The Queen’s Hall
Join wordsmith Adam Sharp for an entertaining show blending stand-up and excerpts from his book as he journeys around the world in idioms, proverbs and general nonsense. Learn unusual insults from France (You are a potato with the face of a guinea pig), how to hurry someone up in the US (You’re going as slow as molasses in January) and what they call a shark in Vietnam (fat fish).
Adam has rounded up the very best ridiculous and hilarious translations from around the globe – so let’s get this show on the road! Or…Let’s saddle the chickens! (German) On with the butter! (Icelandic) Forward with the goat! (Dutch.)
‘Brilliant, hilarious fun – you will LOVE this book’ – Kit de Waal
Sophie Hardach
with Julian Worricker
Confession with Blue Horses
7pm – 8pm
Tickets £14 per person
Location Changed to Downstairs at The Queen’s Hall
Tobi and Ella’s childhood in East Berlin is shrouded in mystery. Both are now adults living in London and both remember their family’s daring and terrifying attempt to escape… but what happened next to their parents and their little brother. And was there ever a painting of three blue horses?
Aaron works in an archive in contemporary Germany piecing together the tragic stories of thousands of families. One file becomes an obsession, which slowly unravels the details of a family torn apart.
In Confession with Blue Horses Sophie Hardach creates an atmospheric and devastating story of lives built and destroyed in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.
Sophie Hardach is a German-born writer and journalist living in London. She is the author of four books, including the Costa-shortlisted Confession with Blue Horses, and works as a feature writer and editor for the BBC.
Julian Worricker, frequent visitor to Cuckfield Bookfest and familiar voice on BBC R4 will be talking to Sophie. If you would like to send in a question before the session, please email it to info@cuckfieldbookfest.co.uk
There is no need to have read the book beforehand to enjoy the session.