2007

SEVENOAKS LITERARY CELEBRATION

PHOTOS OF last year's EVENTS

Sevenoaks Literary Celebration a sellout

Sevenoaks Literary Celebration, now in its sixth year, widened its appeal in 2008 with special events for local book groups and for local schools, and an extra publicity drive.   The result was a soaring demand for seats, and some disappointed book lovers had to be turned away.   Tickets sold particularly fast for Victoria Hislop, best-selling author of The Island, who delighted a capacity audience in the Ship Theatre at Walthamstow Hall on the festival's opening night.

Jill Webster who chairs the organising committee said: 'It was wonderful to see such capacity audiences at all our events.   In 2003, when we ran our first full programme, the audience was composed of about 15 people; this year we had a minimum of 70 at each event, with different people and age groups.    Many more people this year seem to have heard about the Sevenoaks Literary Celebration. I got the feeling that the people of Sevenoaks are proud of having such a successful literary festival, one of only two in Kent, in their town.'
She paid tribute to the hard work of Sevenoaks Bookshop, which handles ticket sales and supplies books for visiting authors to sign, as well as providing sponsorship. Warners Solicitors, Hollybush Residents Association and Sevenoaks Council also give their support.

Publicity Office John Morrison said: 'I think we broke new ground this year. Our tea for book groups with Nicola Beauman, publisher of Persephone Books, drew in a new and younger audience, many of them from outside the town.   And we held a very successful free event at Walthamstow Hall with teenage fiction author Tim Bowler which was attended by 250 students from four Sevenoaks schools.'

Tickets were also in great demand for a literary lunch at the popular Banana Leaf restaurant with Rudyard Kipling's biographer, Charles Allen. The lunch gave the author, who lives in Somerset, the chance to meet for the first time Shoreham resident Prilla Coole, who like him is a great-grandchild of Sir George Allen, who as publisher of the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore gave the 16-year-old Kipling his first job as a journalist (see picture below).

The final event of this year's festival on October 28th is a talk by art historian Sir Roy Strong at Knole on Saving the English Country Church.

Best selling author Victoria Hislop got this year's festival off to an exciting start at the Ship Theatre, talking about how she uses fact and fiction in her historical novels set in Greece and Spain.

Literary favourite Penelope Lively signs books for fans after her talk at St Nicholas Undercroft.

Frank Barnard talking at Sevenoaks Library
about the fighter pilots of World War II

Charles Allen with distant relative Prilla Coole from Shoreham and her daughter Helen Morgan who lives in Biggin Hill.

Charles Allen signs copies of his Rudyard Kipling biography at the Banana Leaf restaurant. Valerie Glencross of Sevenoaks Bookshop is on the left.

Khalis Rahman, owner of the Banana Leaf, with Literary Festival chair Jill Webster and Charles Allen

Pupils from Bradbourne School, Sevenoaks School and Solefields join the girls of Walthamstow Hall for a spellbinding talk and reading by leading teenage fiction author Tim Bowler, winner of the Carnegie Medal.

Tim Bowler signs books for pupils of Solefields and Sevenoaks schools

Hester Davenport talking in St Nicholas Undercroft about the 18th century writer Fanny Burney

Former British Ambassador Sir Rodric Braithwaite speaks to a capacity audience at the Ship Theatre on the Russians in Afghanistan.

Nicola Beauman, publisher of Persephone Books, meets 100 members of local reading groups at Bradbourne School.

Biographer Selina Hastings answering questions from readers about Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. Valerie Glencross of the Sevenoaks Bookshop is on the left.

Sir Roy Strong speaking in the Great Hall at Knole on the 'Saving the
English Country Church', and signing copies of his book ' A Little History of the English Country Church' afterwards.

The Weald Walk 2007, led by Gilly Moysey, visits Long Barn, former home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, before striding out across the Wealden countryside.