Hexham Book Festival is run as a partnership with Queen’s Hall Arts.

Come and be inspired by books, authors, workshops and readings all on your doorstep.

Download the Festival Brochure here.

All events are at the Queen’s Hall unless specified. For more details pick up a festival programme in the foyer.

• Book Festival Ticket Offer: Buy 4 Events Get Cheapest Event Free
  Excludes free events and not to be used in conjunction with other ticket offers.
  [Not available online - Please phone the Box Office for these tickets]

Wednesday 24 April
6.30pm Susannah Clapp: A Card From Angela Carter
Novelist Angela Carter was one of the most vivid voices of the twentieth century. Susannah Clapp, theatre critic of the Observer, knew her until her untimely death of and their friendship was charted via Carter's anarchic postcards to her friend giving a fresh insight into this enduringly appealing writer. Chaired by Caroline Beck
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend) 50% of proceeds go to the charity 'Bright' Hexham Hospital’s Breast Cancer Unit.

8.00pm Edwina Currie: Second Volume of Diaries
Love her or loathe her, Edwina Currie is impossible to ignore especially after those eye-watering revelations about John Major in her diaries. And her second volume, with its candid encounters with friends and colleagues imbued with her own saucy wit, is likely to prove just as compelling. Chaired by Richard Moss, BBC Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)
[Sponsored by Sintons Solicitors]

Thursday 25 April
1.00pm Read Regional
Join New Writing North’s Read Regional poets: Christy Ducker and Anne Ryland who will read from their most recent work; Christy’s pamphlet ‘Armour’ is full of poems that are intriguing, skilful and musically alert. A powerful sense of history pervades Anne’s second full-length collection ‘Unmothering Class’, history played out on the world’s stage as well as within families and the genes passed between them.
At the Robinson Gay Gallery
Free but tickets essential
[Supported by Fentimans]

6.30pm Jenn Ashworth: Friday Gospels (Book Group event)
Jenn Ashworth was brought up as a Mormon, so when she writes about a Mormon family undergoing a revelation about their prodigal son, you know it comes with some authority. A fierce, witty story about what happens when religion and the human heart collides.
Get your group reading ‘Friday Gospels’ and join the region’s book groups for this popular event.
£4.00 / Free to book group members

8.00pm Anne Swithinbank
Before the summer really gets going let experienced gardener, writer and broadcaster Anne Swithinbank ease you into the season. She's worked as a dirt-under-the-fingernails gardener since she studied at Kew in the 1970's but has also written extensively on everything from asters to zantedeschia.
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

Friday 26 April
11.00am Phyllida Law
In a follow-up to the comic 'Notes to My Mother-in-Law', actress Phyllida Law recounts the relationship with her mother who suffered with dementia. Recently widowed and bringing up two daughters (actresses Sophie and Emma Thompson), this is a funny and frank memoir about family, love and duty. Chaired by Hazel Osmond.
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

1.00pm Lisa Chaney: Life writing workshop (Sold Out!)
So, what is your own story? Or is there another one you'd rather tell, but don’t know where to begin? Lisa's experience as teacher, lecturer, and biographer has taught her that there's no such thing as 'ordinary'. It's also honed her ability to both enthuse and draw people out. She now looks forward to the challenge of helping you craft your story.
At the Beaumont Hotel
£15 includes tea and coffee. Places limited so book early!

6.30pm Edward Stourton: Cruel Crossing – Escaping Hitler across the Pyrenees (Sold Out!)
In this forgotten story of the Second World War, writer and broadcaster Ed Stourton tells the epic struggle of those who crossed the hazardous Pyrenees to escape persecution and death. Drawing on interviewees with survivors, he charts a journey full of bravery and friendship but also treachery and betrayal.
At the Forum Cinema
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

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Saturday 27 April
10.30am Lynn Hamel: Goggins
Storytelling and colouring workshop based on the imaginative Goggins books. Come and listen to what the cheeky Goggins are doing and then make up and colour in your own characters! For ages range 3-7yrs.
£3 for children, free for accompanying adults.
Children’s Marquee in Sele Park

10.30am Barbara Bell: Minimus: Starting Out in Latin
Salve! Want to know what made the centurions of Vindolanda tick? In this taster session for teaching Latin to children aged 7 and over, Barbara Bell uses a mixture of myths, history and language to bring Latin and Roman Britain alive. Understanding of the subjunctive not a requirement...
£7.00 (adults) / £5.00 (Under 14s)

11.00am Tony Juniper: What has Nature ever done for us? and Fred Pearce: The Landgrabbers – The new fight over who owns the earth
Veteran environmental campaigner and activist Tony Juniper proposes a powerful argument that economic development doesn't necessarily mean degrading the natural world. He's joined by science writer Fred Pearce who reveals how the rich and powerful are buying up vast swathes of land leaving subsistence farmers powerless and dispossessed.
£6.00 / £4.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

12.15pm Johanna Sheehan – Sound and Touch
Age range 3-7yrs
£3 for children, free for accompanying adults.
Children’s Marquee in Sele Park

12.30pm Miriam Darlington: Otter Country - In Search of the Wild Otter
Miriam spent a year tracking otters from Devon to the highlands of Scotland, including Northumberland and Cumbria. Following her search through different landscapes, seasons, weather and light, she learns how to track and be around otters, and that the stillness required to actually see this most elusive of creatures can bring many unasked-for wonders.
£6.00 / £4.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

12.30pm Lisa Chaney: Chanel – An Intimate Life
Coco Chanel was raised in dire poverty and rose to be one of the richest, most influential couturiers of the twentieth century. A fearless seducer of men and women who flouted social convention, you'll realise that Chanel was so much more than the champion of the little black dress.
£6.00 / £4.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

2.00pm Mazes, Magic and Mysteries with Teresa Flavin
Author-illustrator Teresa Flavin's fantasy novels for children feature a mysterious castle, magical paintings and mazes and labyrinths that possess awesome powers. In this hands-on workshop, she will introduce children to different kinds of mazes and labyrinths and lead imaginative drawing activities. Participants will use her hand-made mazes as inspiration and have a go at drawing their own! For ages 7-10yrs.
£6 for children, free for accompanying adults
Children’s Marquee in Sele Park

2.00pm Claire Tomalin: Charles Dickens – A life
Claire Tomalin is never one to be daunted by her subject – her other acclaimed biographies include Samuel Pepys, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen - and in her latest biography she paints a gripping portrait of one of the most famous, and complicatedly private, writers in English literature Charles Dickens. Chaired by Caroline Beck.
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

3.00pm Olivia Lomenech Gill: Illustrator of Clare and Michael Morpurgo’s Where My Wellies Take me
Olivia is a fine artist who has exhibited her work across the world. Here she talks about working with Michael and the publishers on ‘Where My Wellies Take Me’, from benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friendeption to completion; she will bring the original mockup of the book, as well as a selection of the original finished artworks which the book was made from. The talk will include questions and answers and be as interactive as possible.
£6.00 / £4.00

3.30pm Neil McKenna: Fanny and Stella – The young men who shocked Victorian England and Wendy Moore How to Create the Perfect Wife.
The trial of Fanny and Stella, two cross-dressed young men, caused a sensation in Victorian Britain. Neil McKenna reveals a story of low life and high camp. And in a real life Pygmalion, Wendy Moore tells the intriguing tale of a young man-of-mean's bizarre attempts to create the perfect wife. Chaired by Dr Simon J James, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Durham University
£7.00 / £5.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

4.30pm Anthony Everitt: The Rise of Rome – The Making of the World's Greatest Empire
How did a small market town come to dominate the Mediterranean world for six centuries with an empire that extended from northern England to Asia Minor? Academic and historian Anthony Everitt explains the astonishing rise and catastrophic collapse of the world's greatest empire.
£6.00 / £4.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

5.00pm Michael Frayn: Skios
On an idyllic Greek island, one man assumes another man's identity and although he can't fool all of the people all of the time, he has a ball trying. This hilarious novel from one of the UK's best-loved humorous writers crackles with mayhem, sexual shenanigans and downright deceit. Chaired by Gerard Foley, Political Journalist and Broadcaster
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

7.30pm Joe Simpson: The Sound of Gravity (Sold Out!)
Mountaineer and award-winning writer Joe Simpson will be talking about his career as a climber and his new novel 'The Sound of Gravity', in which a young climber, trapped on a storm-bound mountain face, has to make a split-second decision the repercussions of which will last a lifetime. Chaired by Gerard Foley, Political Journalist and Broadcaster
£10.00 / £8.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friends)

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Sunday 28 April
10.30am Louise Welsh: Writing Workshop: Everything I Know About Writing in Two Hours! SOLD OUT!!
A fast paced master class exploring some key aspects of creative writing through a mixture of discussion and creative writing exercises. Louise Welsh is the author of five novels and has facilitated creative writing in universities and schools. She is a regular Arvon tutor and was Writer in Residence at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art 2010- 2012
£15 Places limited so book early!

1.00pm Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites (Cancelled - please contact Box Office for refunds)
In Mark Billingham's 'The Dying Hours' detective Tom Thorne uncovers a sinister killer who can coerce his elderly victims to take their own lives. Mark is joined by Martyn Waites (one half of the writing duo under the pseudonym Tania Carver), who'll be talking about his new crime novel, 'Choked'.
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

1.30pm Cuckoo
Come and hear the first Cuckoo of the spring! We'll be celebrating the work of New Writing North’s Cuckoo Young Writers groups who write and produce an online literary magazine (www.cuckooquarterly.com). Introducing the first 'Cuckoo Review' with news, reviews and interviews by the region's brightest new young talent and details of how to get involved.
Free but tickets essential

2.30pm Sophie Hannah: The Carrier and Louise Welsh: The Girl on the Stairs
Two mistresses of the psychological thriller, best-selling authors Sophie Hannah and Louise Welsh, talk about their latest chilling books which examine the psychodrama of the tough female mind cracking under relentless pressure. The seemingly everyday lives of their heroines brush up against sinister and darkly intriguing events creating intrigue, suspicion and terror from which there seems no escape.
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

3.00pm Mary and Bryan Talbot: Dotter of her Father's Eyes
This exquisite graphic novel tells the harrowing story of Lucia Joyce, daughter of the writer James Joyce, who was incarcerated in a mental asylum for over thirty years. Part history, part memoir - Mary's father was an obsessive Joyce scholar - this is a book about the tangled relationship between fathers and daughters.
£7.00 / £5.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

4.00pm Martin Bell: In Harm's Way
For decades BBC war correspondent, Martin Bell, had one of the most distinctive and authoritative voices on the news. In his book he examines his time reporting on the Bosnian war in all its human misery and political cynicism and reflects on the uneasy relationship between news and truth. Chaired by Gerard Foley, Political Journalist and Broadcaster
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

4.30pm Matt Hilton and Mari Hannah - (Cancelled - please contact Box Office for refunds)
Matt Hilton's latest fast-paced, adrenaline fuelled thriller tells what happens when honour and vengeance clash when a respected member of the Japanese community is murdered. In, Corbridge based author, Mari Hannah's latest novel, senior detective Kate Daniels investigates a series of grotesque and seemingly unconnected murders across the north-east.
£6.00 / £4.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friends)

5.30pm Chris Mullin: Secret State Revisited
Outspoken former politician, writer and seasoned contrarian Chris Mullin caused a sensation when he wrote 'A Very British Coup' about a titanic power-struggle between the Labour left, press barons and the Establishment. Here he talks about how the book became an inspiration for a major new Channel 4 series set in the US called 'Secret State', staring Kevin Spacey. Chaired by Gerard Foley, Political Journalist and Broadcaster
£7.00 / £5.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

7.30pm Andy Kershaw: No Off Switch
World music pioneer, accidental foreign correspondent and cheeky chappie Andy Kershaw has lived ten lives to most people's one. Whether it's being propositioned by Little Richard or reporting for Radio 4 from the genocide in Rwanda there isn't much he hasn't done. And his record collection weighs seven tonnes!
£10.00 / £8.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

Monday 29 April
6.30pm Guy Opperman: Doing Time
Hexham Conservative MP and former criminal barrister Guy Opperman argues that the 'revolving door' of prisoner re-offending could be substantially reduced if inmates were taught basic literacy and numeracy skills. In an impassioned argument, he recommends that interested parties such as faith groups, charities and communities could run 'Big Society' prisons which in the long term would be better for all of us.
£4.00

8.00pm Gavin Hewitt: The Lost Continent
The BBC's Economics editor, Gavin Hewitt, tells how Europe was seduced by the dream of a single currency which led to easy money, a wild spending binge and ultimately crippling debt for generations. Find out how Europeans reaped the financial whirlwind and how we might save ourselves from it.
£10.00 / £8.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

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Tuesday 30 April
1.00pm Iron Press (Sold Out)
Eileen Jones and Shelley Sclater read from a new anthology of short stories. Root edited by Kitty Fitzgerald re-affirms the North East’s status as a vibrant area for new writing. Fifteen stories range from relationships, gardening, bullying, loss, a circus bearded lady and God's choice in work wear.
At the Robinson Gay Gallery
Free but tickets essential
[Sponsored by Fentimans]

6.30pm Psiche Hughes: Beryl Bainbridge – artist, writer, friend.
Psiche Hughes was a close friend of the late writer Beryl Bainbridge for over fifty years. This affectionate portrait shows another aspect of the author's creativity, that of a prolific and dedicated artist who painted scenes from her novels as well as friends and lovers in a colourful quirky style.
At the Westside Contemporary Fine Art Gallery (Map)
£7.00 / £5.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

8.00pm Philip Hughes: Tracks-Walking the Ancient Landscapes of Britain (Sold out!)
Philip Hughes is a walker and artist drawn to remote landscapes of mountain and coast with strange and arresting features such as tors, brochs and standing stones. His beautiful book charts his twenty year exploration of some of Britain's wildest places in his words, drawings and spare, luminous paintings.
At the Westside Contemporary Fine Art Gallery (Map)
£7.00 / £5.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

• Combined Ticket Offer: Psiche Hughes & Philip Hughes: Both events and glass of wine £12.00 / £8.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

Wednesday 1 May
2.00pm John Hegley Workshop
A no experience required writing and drawing workshop, with a bit of singing. All abilities will hopefully be catered for, in a light-hearted session with the poet and his music and the muses of the assembled...and we ALL have them. Please bring an image that is important to you for one of the creations...
At the Beaumont Hotel
£15 Places limited so book early!

7.30pm John Hegley: Peace, Love and Potatoes
Fans of one of the country's best-loved performance poets John Hegley know to expect the unexpected in his work. In his new collection they won't be disappointed as humour, sadness, poignancy, love and root vegetables jostle for attention in his carefully wrought, wryly amusing verse.
£10.00 / £8.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

Thursday 2 May
7.30pm Alistair Moffatt: The Highland Clans
Writer and broadcaster, Alistair Moffatt, traces the history of the Scottish clans, from tight-knit tribes bound by family and loyalty to a worldwide diaspora united by a sense of kinship and a tough history of poverty and emigration. Chaired by Graham Usher, rector of Hexham Abbey
Hexham Abbey
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

Saturday 18 May
11.00am Lionel Shriver: Big Brother
Lionel Shriver, whose book 'We need to talk about Kevin' distinguished her as the mistress of unsettling fiction about families. Here she takes a scalpel to her latest weighty subject, that of the psychological, social and economic effects of obesity.
At the Forum Cinema
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friends) includes refreshments

Thursday 23 May
6.30pm Alan Johnson: This Boy
The early life of MP Alan Johnson, who grew up London in the 1950's, was marked by the same harsh conditions of poverty, bad housing and family tragedy as millions of others. The unusual fact is that he went on to become Labour's Home Secretary and one of the most well-respected politicians of his day. In 'This Boy' he recounts his life through the swinging sixties, the violence of the race riots, and marriage and fatherhood whilst still a teenager. But it's not just one man's story - it's also the story of post-war England.
Theatre Queens Hall
£8.00 / £6.00 (benefit conc / student / Book Festival Friend)

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For more details pick up a festival programme in the foyer, download it here or go to www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk 

Hexham Courant preview of Hexham Book Festival Click here