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A CHRISTIE MYSTERY

by Randall David Cook

JO LOOSEMORE

Jo Loosemore performs Randall David Cook’s new one-woman play about writing, writers and why we love murder mysteries.

Two writers are obsessed with Agatha Christie, but which one is at the book launch? It seems both write about the Queen of Crime, but have both also committed a crime of their own?

‘A Christie Mystery’ plays with the idea of facts, fictions and whose story is really told.

A wonderful opportunity to see this brand new play that has only been performed once before.

Sat 21 Sep 8.30-9.30pm

Flavel Auditorium

Tickets £15

AN AFTERNOON OF CRIME WRITERS

Combined ticket £25

Sat 21 Sep, from 4pm

Please note there will be a 15minute break between each session with book signings in the Library after all three events.

4-5pm: A WRITER’S GUIDE TO MURDER

RL Graham, Orlando Murrin & Jane Corry

From their different backgrounds and life experiences, these popular authors will offer their own five secrets for finding inspiration and ideas for their novels.

R L Graham the pseudonym of a Canadian partnership steeped in history. The husband-and-wife team have a broad range of interests in many periods of history including the 100 Years War and the tumultuous years leading up to the First World War and the post-war re-ordering of the world. Under the pseudonym AJ Mackenzie, Morgen Witzel and his now deceased wife, Marilyn Livingstone, wrote 11 historical crime novels including the popular Simon Merrivale series set in opening years of the Hundred Years War. Morgen is also the author of 38 non-fiction works including historical accounts of the battles of Crecy 1346 and Poitiers 1356. Death on the Lusitania set against the backdrop of the famous ocean liner’s final voyage in May 2015 is the first novel of RL Graham.  www.panmacmillan.com

After being hurled into the culinary limelight as a semi-finalist on MasterChef, Orlando Murrin edited BBC Good Food for six years and founded Olive magazine. He then changed tracks to become a chef-hotelier in Southwest France and Somerset. Orlando has written seven cookbooks and is the President of the Guild of Food Writers. He regularly appears as a guest on TV and radio and presents the BBC Good Food podcast with Tom Kerridge. His move into crime fiction with a culinary edge was inspired by his grandfather who was a Met detective and a MI5 interrogator. He inherited from his grandfather a fascination for crime and mystery. Knife Skills is Orlando’s debut novel. www.orlandomurrin.com

Having read English at University Jane’s first job was as a trainee journalist for the Thompson Organisation the owner of the Times. She then joined various magazines as a staff writer, including Woman’s Own where she interviewed both the famous and people with interesting stories to tell. Following the birth of her first child Jane turned freelance and continued to write for a number of newspapers and magazines. She was also appointed the writer in residence at a high security prison for men for 3 years. Jane’s first novels were about romance and life experiences but her prison experiences led her to conceive her first novel about a young fictional lawyer sent into a prison to defend a convicted criminal. The book was taken up by Penguin and led to further book deals. Jane is now a well-known and highly respected author of psychological thrillers which explore the darker sides of family life. Jane is a best seller on both sides of the Atlantic and her novels regularly feature on the best seller lists in the Sunday Times and the Washington Post.

 www.janecorryauthor.com

5.15-6.15pm: DEATH IN DEVON

Sarah Pearse, Helena Dixon & Hannah Dennison

In this session, chaired by Helena Dixon, the authors will talk about their novels and how certain locations have inspired and influenced their work.

Helena Dixon splits her time between the Black Country and Brixham in Devon where she now lives. Her cosy crime novels are set in the 1930s and feature Miss Underhay, a soon to be married amateur sleuth. Miss Underhay’s various everyday visits to hotels and grand houses soon involve the discovery of an unusual number of dead bodies and mysteries that demand to be solved. Many of the locations in Helena’s novels are well known places in Devon including a particular hotel in Dartmouth. www.nelldixon.com

The locations in Sarah Pearse’s novels are a good deal more sinister.  Sarah lives by the sea in South Devon but in her twenties moved to the Swiss Alpine town of Crans Montana where she was drawn to the history of the sanitoriums in the area. This was the spark for her first novel, The Sanitorium. The pull of strange and creepy places has continued in her next two novels. The Retreat takes place on an island off the English coast and her third novel, recently published, takes place in a Portuguese national park. All three novels have as their central character Detective Elin Warner searching for answers in chilling and dangerous locations. www.sarahpearse.co.uk

Hannah Dennison’s novels are all situated in Honeychurch Hall. The main characters are a mother and daughter duo who reside in the carriage house of a beautiful, if rather dilapidated, estate set in the wilds of the Devonshire countryside. Hannah’s characters are original and eccentric which enables her to bring both humour and intrigue to this charming and popular mystery series.  Hannah lived for many years in California before returning to Devon and whilst on her travels she has had a variety of jobs including working as an obituary reporter, an antiques dealer, a private jet attendant and a Hollywood story analyst.  www.hannahdennison.com

6.30-7.30pm: THIS MUCH IS PERSONAL 

Stephanie Austin & TP Fielden 

In this compelling session, Stephanie Austin and TP Fielden explore how much their own fascinating life stories provide rich material for their novels.

How much of their writing is autobiographical, and how do they separate fact from fiction?

Stephanie Austin’s fist crime novel, Dead in Devon was published in June 2019. The books are set in the real town of Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor. Her heroine is Juno Browne, an amateur sleuth and reluctant antique-shop owner with an eclectic selection of friends. Since then, seven Juno Browne novels have been published and the eighth is due to be published in September 2024. Stephanie lives in Devon and when not writing she is actively involved in amateur theatre as an actor and director. www.stephanieaustin.co.uk

TP Fielden was commissioned in 2019 to write the English Riviera Murders, a series of retro mysteries featuring Miss “Judy” Dimont, a feisty Chief Reporter on a local Devon newspaper. The four novels chronicle Miss Dimont’s adventures after leaving the Navy in her new career as a journalist on the Riveria Express, based in the fictional town of Temple Regis. The books are full of murders and intrigue.

The murder mystery trilogy, Stealing the Crown, Burying the Crown and Betraying the Crown follows three years of Royal life in wartime. The lead character Guy Hartford is a British painter who is seconded by the Foreign Office to Buckingham Palace as a temporary courtier where he encounters the secret lives of the Royal Family.

TP Fielden is the pen name of Christopher Wilson, a Fleet Street journalist for many years with columns in The Times, The Sunday Times and The Mail. He is also a successful biographer having written books about Queen Camilla and Catherine, Princess of Wales.  www.christopherwilson.info

Book signings in LIBRARY at 7.30pm

TO BOOK TICKETS FOR EVENTS PLEASE CLICK HERE 

THE FULL BOOK FESTIVAL PROGRAM CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE BOOK FESTIVAL
In partnership with Browser Books, The Community Bookshop and Dartmouth Library

With grateful thanks to our Sponsors:

Clive & Annie Norton

Anthony & Julie Downing

Sally & Edward Benthall

Peter & Camilla Beloe

Sheila & Jonathan Shribman

Janie Harford & James Dodd

John & Lindsay Ellwood

Deborah & Mike Penn

Spencer & Caroline Wigley

and Dart Marina Hotel

 

Parking Information

Parking in Dartmouth is unfortunately a challenge. The Park and Ride will be available for parking during the Book Festival, and although the Park and Ride bus will not be operational, there is a regular bus service into town: the 92 runs every half hour:

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/South%20West/May%202024/92_PLY%20260524.pdf

Parking is available in the Mayors Avenue car park in the town centre for a maximum of 4 hours.

CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP: JOSIE BIRCH & BETHAN WELBY

A fun workshop with Josephine and Bethan - two very talented illustrators (particularly, but not exclusively for children), who live locally.

After a warm-up drawing activity, each child will pick ‘prompts’ from a jar: a character (eg frog), an item (eg burger) and an activity (eg skating), and will take this character on a journey.

The end result will be a small folded book, their creation, which they will be proud to take home! Josie and Bethan will also read some of their own stories. Some some of their illustrative artwork will be on display in The Flavel gallery during the Book Festival.

www.bethanwelbyillustration.com

www.josephinebirch.net

Please note: children must be accompanied by their parent/carers

Sat 21 Sep 10-11.15am

Dartmouth Library

Tickets £5 (suitable for children aged 5-8)

DARTMOUTH’S WAR

Dr Jane Harrold, Dr Richard Porter, Dr Harry Bennett & Michael Pearce

interviewed by Jo Loosemore

The 6th of June, 1944, witnessed the D-Day landings by the Assault Forces of the Allied Nations over some 40 miles of the beaches of Normandy. From the narrow

foothold secured on that day sprang the pregnant series of events which culminated eleven months later in those forces meeting the Russians in the heart of Germany, and the abject surrender of the Third Reich and all for which it stood. Operation "Neptune," the name given to the assault phase of Operation "Overlord," the general plan for the liberation of north-west Europe was indeed appropriate —because without in any way detracting from the magnificent work of the sister services, the Navy was necessarily bound to play the major part in the opening stages of convoy and transport. It was, however, unique in two respects. These were: firstly, the proximity at the scene of operations of the United Kingdom with all its resources as a main base, which facilitated the maximum application of the Allied Sea and Air superiority and secondly, the gigantic scale on which the operation was conceived and launched.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Operation-Neptune-D-Day-Landings-Normandy/

Sat 21 Sep 12.15am-1pm

Flavel Auditorium

Tickets £10

There will be a book signing in the library after the talk

EMPIRE JAVELIN: PHILIP KAY-BUJAK

Empire Javelin, an American built LSI (Landing Ship, Infantry) in Royal Navy service, played an important role on D-Day. She carried A Company 116th RCT (the famous ‘Bedford Boys’) across the Channel and her landing craft put them ashore on Dog Green sector as part of the initial assault or ‘suicide wave’, onto Omaha Beach. In telling her story, Philip Kay-Bujak does justice to the contribution of the Royal Navy at Omaha Beach, which has been underestimated in the past.

Philip Kay-Bujak is a former GSA Headmaster and Associate of The Royal Historical Society. He taught English European History for over twenty years and was a public school headmaster. He was and is a Koestler Literary Award winner. Other publications include articles on education and British history and books on local history, Scottish art and the Great War.

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Philip-Kay-Bujak/a/5868

Sat 21 Sep 10.45am - 11.30am

Flavel Auditorium

Tickets £10

There will be a book signing in the Library after the talk

100 YEARS OF STAGE AND SCREEN (Part 2)

Flavel Favourite, Donna Marie Broomfield (soprano) now takes a nostalgic trip through the second half of 100 years of Stage & Screen, from musicals such as West Side Story (1959), Fiddler on the Roof (1964) through to Evita, Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera and many more.

The concert starts at 5.30pm and is followed at 6.30pm by a glass of wine or soft drink in the bar (included in your ticket) and a chance to chat to friends and to Donna. A great way to start the weekend.

Friday 27 September, 5.30pm

Tickets £14 (to include a complimentary glass of wine after the performance)

HISTORICAL FICTION: TIM PEARS & DAVID WEST

 

interviewed by John Suchet

Join Tim Pears and David West as they talk about their work in conversation with John Suchet.

Although their books come under the umbrella of historical fiction, they have a very different approach to the subject, which will be revealed during their conversations.

Brought up in Devon, Tim left school at sixteen, and had an extraordinarily wide range of jobs, before training in film and television directing. He is the award-winning author of eleven novels. ‘In the Place of Fallen Leaves’ won the Hawthornden Prize, and ‘In a Land of Plenty’ was made into a BBC drama. More recently, he has focused on historical settings: ‘In the Light of Morning’, set in Yugoslavia in the Second World War; and the ambitious West Country trilogy set before, during and in the aftermath of the First World War. Tim will discuss his most recent novel, ‘Run to the Western Shore’ (2023) a surprising, powerful, elemental novel set in Roman Britain, about destiny, home and surviving in a world of flux.  

David West fell into historical fiction. He wanted to be a crime writer but could not find a protagonist. He was reading a biography of Sir Francis Drake and discovered that Walsingham had a spy who was feeding him detailed intelligence on the Spanish Armada. He was called Sir Anthony Standen. Standen was David’s mother’s maiden name and it turned out that Sir Anthony Standen was the elder brother of his 10th great-grandfather. The Tudor James Bond was born.

David’s first book is The Spy who sank the Armada and is a fictionalised biography of Sir Anthony Standen.  The subsequent books are historical fiction crime stories featuring Sir Anthony and his fictional children.

www.timpears.com

www.davidvswest.co.uk

Sat 21 Sep 2-3pm

Flavel Auditorium

Edward Scissorhands: Matthew Bourne’s dance version of Tim Burton’s classic film of 1990.

In a castle high on a hill lives Edward; a boy created by an eccentric inventor. When his creator dies he is left alone and unfinished with only scissors for hands until a kindly townswoman invites him to live with her suburban family. Can Edward find his place in the well-meaning community which struggles to see past his curious appearance to the innocence and gentleness within?

Matthew Bourne’s magical dance production of Edward Scissorhands has carved a place in the hearts of audiences worldwide since its premiere in 2005. Based on the classic Tim Burton movie and featuring the hauntingly beautiful music of Danny Elfman and Terry Davies, Bourne and his New Adventures Company return to this witty, bittersweet story of an incomplete boy left alone in a strange new world.

‘The story of Edward Scissorhands has never felt timelier. In an era when uniqueness and identity are both celebrated and reviled, the story of how we treat anyone who appears to be different in our communities is as poignant and relevant now, as when my dear friend Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay for Tim Burton’s legendary movie fable some 33 years ago... If you come to see it in cinemas, I hope that you too will fall in love with the enchanting story of Edward Scissorhands, the incomplete boy left alone in a strange new world.’
Sir Matthew Bourne, Artistic Director, New Adventures

Filmed live in March 2024 at the Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff, this ’visually arresting and ceaselessly inventive’ (★★★★★ Metro) production is ‘the perfect treat for all the family’ (★★★★★ The Times).

SELF-PUBLISHING: CHELLA ADGOPUL - HONEYBEE BOOKS

 

Chella will give a talk on self-publishing, followed by a question and answer session. Chella has run a small literary festival for writers in Charmouth, has given numerous talks and also lectured on self-publishing at Cambridge University.

She has been running a self-publishing company for about 12 years, and has helped publish over 200 books to date. She also keeps up to date with other people offering digital services, such as Amazon and Lulu, to cover different routes to self-publishing.

‘I think self-publishing offers a huge potential for all sorts of interesting projects to find their audiences, so I’m keen to help people find the best way forward for them, whatever that might be.’

www.honeybeebooks.co.uk

Sat 21 Sep 1-2pm

Flavel Studio

Tickets £15

There will be a Q & A after the talk

STORYTELLING WORKSHOP: KATY CAWKWELL 

Albina, Gogmagog and Brutus - Murderous Princesses and Gentle Giants in South Devon

Katy Cawkwell brings the mythical history of our land to life, with strange tales of the extraordinary sisters who first landed on these shores, their giant children and the warriors who landed at the mouth of the river Dart intent on conquest...

The performance will be followed by a workshop where participants explore the story further and create their own retelling of the myth. Katy Cawkwell has been storytelling for 25 years, featuring at international festivals from India to Iceland and captivating audiences of all ages.

www.katycawkwell.co.uk

Sat 21 Sep

2-4pm

Dartmouth Library

Tickets £5 (suitable for children aged 9-13)

WW2 HISTORY: THE KID ON SLAPTON BEACH

FELICITY FAIR THOMPSON

In December 1943 three thousand ordinary people on the Devon coast were forced to leave the area near Slapton Sands - but without knowing why. Twelve year-old Harry is one of them, but his most precious possession, the only photograph of his father, is left behind and Harry goes back for it.

In April 1944 in the disastrous secret D-Day rehearsal called Exercise Tiger at Slapton Sands, nearly a thousand men died. It was just five weeks before D-Day. And Harry was on that beach.

Harry’s story has kept history alive and accessible. It encourages all of us to remember the sacrifice and bravery of the ordinary people and the Allied troops who were involved in this difficult episode of the Second World War.

Felicity Fair Thompson’s presentation will be about the writing of the novel which is a fictionalised account of the events at Slapton on that historic day, why she wrote the book, a description of the events at Slapton and the wonderful reaction that the story has had 80 years on.

Sat 21 Sep 9.15-10am

Flavel Auditorium

Tickets £10

There will be a book signing in the auditorium after the talk and question and answer session.

WW2 HISTORY: THE KID ON SLAPTON BEACH – 80 YEARS ON

FELICITY FAIR THOMPSON

This film is adapted from The Kid on Slapton Beach written by Felicity Fair Thompson and is a commemoration of the D-Day Landings.

In November 1943 Devon County Council was advised by the War Office that Slapton Sands was to be evacuated to enable part of the South Hams to be used for practice assault landings. The evacuation required the clearance of 30,000 acres and the movement of 3,000 men women and children who had to take all their belonging, livestock, pets and farm equipment. The local people had just six weeks to pack up and move away.

Many went to relatives and friends but some moved away from the area never to return. They made way for 15,000 US troops who over the following months engaged in battle exercises in readiness for the D-Day landings. 80 years on 92-year-old Harry can finally speak on television about what he remembers.

The film is 30 minutes long and will be shown over 2 hours so there will be time for 3 or 4 showings. Felicity has offered to give a short introduction before the film is shown and a few words at the end.  As the film is shown from 10am this will only be possible on the second and third showings of the film as Felicity will be occupied with her presentation about the writing of the book from 9am to 10.30am.

Felicity Fair Thompson was born in Australia. She currently lives on the Isle of Wight where her interest in photography and travel expanded into film making. Her most recent film Carisbrooke Castle was shown on Sky and That’s Solent. Her published writing includes a coffee table memoir, three novels, two children’s stories, three staged plays and many scenic travel features. Felicity teaches Creative Writing and she mentors young actors.  

Sat 21 Sep 10am-12pm

Flavel Studio

Free drop in event