The Derby Book Festival will return on 31 May - 8 June 2019.
The first authors have been revealed for the fifth Derby Book Festival, which will be held from 31 May – 8 June 2019 in venues across the city. The Festival, which is now a well-established part of the city’s cultural calendar, will celebrate the joy of books and reading and will once again include some of the very best writers in the country.
Authors already signed up for 2019 include Val McDermid, arguably the leading crime writer in the UK today, and recently appointed BBC Editorial Director and former Economics Editor, Kamal Ahmed, whose autobiography, The Life and Times of a Very British Man, recounts his experiences of being brought up in 1970s London with an English mother and Sudanese father. The Festival will also welcome author and former Times Editor, Sir Simon Jenkins as well as James Runcie, best known for his Grantchester series of novels, which have been turned into a successful ITV crime series with James Norton.
The Festival is keen to attract a younger audience with a series of events, including journalist, blogger and author, Dolly Alderton. Her book, Everything I Know About Love, has been shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2018. Dolly will be one of the judges for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Local history is always popular at the Festival and the 2019 Festival will welcome biographer Kate Hubbard who will talk about Bess of Hardwick and the buildings of Elizabethan England, including Hardwick Hall.
The Festival has been keen to celebrate local writing talent and debut authors. This year, historical fiction author Joanna Courtney will be talking about Lady Macbeth in her new book Blood Queen, the first of three novels featuring Shakespeare’s queens. Local author Sophie Draper will be one of the 2019 debut novelists and will talk about her gothic thriller, Cuckoo, which won the York Festival of Writing Friday Night Live Award.
Other Festival authors will be announced in the coming months and tickets for all events will go on sale on 12 April, when the programme is officially launched at a special Derby Reads event in QUAD. Tickets will be available online from the Festival website: www.derbybookfestival.co.uk or in person from the Festival Box Office at QUAD and other venues.
To find out more, visit the Festival website and sign up for more information. You can also follow the Festival on Twitter at: @DerbyBookFest and ‘like’ the Festival on Facebook: www.facebook.com/derbybookfestival
Here's a peek of what's on;
DBF: Derby Reads: 2019 Festival Launch - 10 Apr
Don't Miss, Festivals
The annual Derby Reads event celebrates the launch of the fifth Derby Book Festival programme and will launch our 50-word Flash Fiction writ... read more
TELLING TALES TRAIL - 25 May - 9 June
Festivals, School Holidays
Join us for a trail of tales around the Museum.... read more
FAMILY FRIDAY – MY FAVOURITE BOOKS - 31 May
Festivals, School Holidays
In this session the whole family is welcome to play, make and have fun together.... read more
Based on their book Create Your Own Happy, join authors Penny Alexander and Becky Goddard-Hill for a fun, interactive session offering your... read more
Manchester, August 1819: 60,000 people gathered to hear reformer Henry Hunt campaigning for parliamentary reform to enable voting as a unive... read more
‘HISTORY IS HORRIBLE’ SLEEPOVER - 1 - 2 June
Family Fun, Festivals
Celebrating the Horrible Histories books, join us at the Museum and Art Gallery for a blast into the past and meet some gruesome characters ... read more
Enjoy an audience with Mr Edward Lear, King of the Nonsense Rhyme and Loopy Limerick!... read more
In the summer of 1940, Britain stood perilously close to invasion by the Nazis, but what would a British occupation have looked like?... read more
After the terrific success of The Singular Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, we return with this follow-up stage play.... read more
Festivals
75 years ago, on 6 June 1944, the greatest seaborne invasion in history took place. D-Day saw an epic battle involving 156,000 men, 7,000 s... read more
Acclaimed historian Sarah Knott analyses the real experience of motherhood for women across the ages, from the South Carolina field slave to... read more
Melvyn Bragg in conversation - 7 June
Festivals
Derby Book Festival welcomes broadcaster, author and parliamentarian, Melvyn Bragg (Lord Bragg of Wigton) to their fifth Festival. He has b... read more
Genre Fluid is the culmination of three years of writing, touring and performing at various events and festivals across the country.... read more
On the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, Iestyn Edwards, Bass Baritone, sang at the naval supper on HMS Victory and met Royal Ma... read more
TOTS MAKE AND DO – THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR - 7 June
Family Fun, Festivals
Fifty years ago, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar was first published.... read more
Family Day: A Day of Dragons - 8 June
Family Fun, Festivals
This year’s Derby Book Festival Family Day has an exciting Dragon theme.... read more
