Jung Chang leads Salisbury Literary Festival lineup

An array of authors will be taking part in the event, which is in its third year and runs from Friday, October 18 to Sunday 20. Internationally bestselling author Jung Chang leads the line-up of authors attending this year’s Salisbury Literary Festival, which is taking place from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 October.

The 2019 festival is the third year of this popular and growing festival, with organisers promising a rich line-up of local, national and international authors, and events for both readers and writers, and adults and children alike.

Festival Director Tom Bromley said: “This year’s festival is all about discovery – discovering your next favourite author, discovering your own writing voice, and discovering the rich literary heritage that Salisbury has to offer. Beginning at Avebury Stone Circle on Friday morning and ending at the Chapel on Sunday evening, we are delighted to be presenting our most exciting and varied programme to date.”

The Literary Festival starts on Friday 18 October with an event in association with Salisbury’s Walking Book Group and local crime author Nicola Ford – leading an Avebury walk around some of the sites that have inspired her fiction. Friday evening then sees the festival welcoming Jung Chang to Salisbury Cathedral. Chang’s first book, Wild Swans, is one of the UK’s biggest selling non-fiction books of all time. Translated in over 40 languages, her books have sold over 15 million copies outside Mainland China, where her writing remains banned. Her long-awaited new biography, Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, is published the day before the festival.

Saturday is the festival’s readers’ day, with a mixture of events at venues across the city. Barney Norris will be on hand to talk about his latest book, The Vanishing Hours. Keggie Carew, winner of the Costa Prize for Biography, will also speak about her work. For crime fans, there will be appearances by Erin Kelly, Paul Burston and Alex Reeve, while for those who like their stories a little more spooky, Laura Purcell and Michelle Paver will also be speaking. Keith Stuart, author of the Richard and Judy bestseller, A Boy Made Out Of Blocks, will talk alongside Richard Roper, whose debut novel has been compared to Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant. Other authors include Emma Kennedy, Ayisha Malik and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, and the day concludes with an event featuring short story writers Irenosen Okojie and Susmita Bhattacharya.

Sunday 20 October sees the return of the popular Writers’ Day at Sarum College, with a full day of writing workshops by leading authors (Paul McVeigh, Susmita Bhattacharya and Yvonne Battle-Felton) as well as sessions on editing, publishing and submitting to literary agents. This year’s Writers’ Day also features bursary places, supported by the Professional Writing Academy, for writers on low incomes.

As in previous years, There will be a full programme of events for children, both in schools and on the Saturday at Salisbury Library. Among the authors featured will be author and illustrator team Nathan Byron and Dapo Adeola, Julia Woolf, Julie Pike, Michelle Harrison and Kirsty Applebaum.

Celebrating Salisbury’s literary heritage remains an important part of the festival programme. Once again, the festival will include its popular literary walks around the city: this year, the focus will be around the Cathedral Close. In terms of Salisbury Greats, the 2019 festival will focus on the work of Michael Gilbert and Edith Olivier: Gilbert was a teacher at the Cathedral School in the 1930s, before becoming one of the UK’s leading crime writers; Wilton-born Olivier was also a leading writer, mayoress and close friend of painter Rex Whistler.

The festival ends with The Next Chapter at The Chapel on Sunday, October 20. This event features readings by the very best of the present-day Salisbury literary scene, with local authors reading from works in progress that are due to be published in the months and years ahead. Among the authors reading will be Barney Norris, Tarn Richardson, Tariq Goddard, Mandy Baggot and Andy Maslen, with all proceeds from the event going to this year’s festival charity, the Trussell Trust.

More information and tickets at salisburyliteraryfestival.co.uk