Katie Piper among 2018 Literary Festival guests

Wednesday 14 March 2018

The 2018 Guernsey Literary Festival line up is now complete and it includes household names including Jenni Murray, June Sarpong and Dr Rangan Chatterjee.

Bestselling author, inspirational speaker and TV personality Katie Piper is booked to speak on 11 May sharing "the secrets of her confidence" with an insight into her life and her journey since she was the victim of a life changing acid attacker.

In 2009 she set up The Katie Piper Foundation to help other people with burns and scars, enabling them to reconnect with their lives and communities.

There are also a number of other events planned for the Spring event, focusing on families, children and adults.

Claire Allen, who is on the organising committee said: "We always look for a good mixture of talks by well-known fiction and non-fiction authors in order to appeal to as diverse an audience as possible. Every one of the speakers has recently published a book, whether on politics, social issues, health, history, business, music, sport or poetry - as well as stories of overcoming the odds.

"This year’s speakers include media personalities Evan Davis, Jenni Murray, June Sarpong, Gary Younge and John Crace, best-selling novelists Gail Honeyman and Rachel Joyce, inspiring campaigner Katie Piper, scientist Steve Jones, award-winning poet Daljit Nagra, and two amazing endurance athletes, cyclist Juliana Buhring and runner Mimi Anderson. From health comes Dr Rangan Chatterjee and for families we have an event to celebrate the Harry Potter books as well as a Beatrix Potter Tea Party.

Mrs Allen was also pleased to confirm Terry Waite CBE is returning to the festival as a speaker and the Festival's new Honorary Chairman. 

The festival website says it has remained faithful to its principles of "reaching out to the whole community" while offering "an extensive educational and outreach programme in the library, schools and even the prison."

Mrs Allen told Express it offers "a varied programme that appeals to all, from bookworms and aspiring writers to families looking for a fun day out.

"We also offer a thriving education and community programme with writers and speakers going into schools and into the prison. There are also writing workshops for people who write or want to write for publication or for pleasure.

"We are also excited that Annie Barrows, co-writer of the best-selling The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, will be in Guernsey on 14th April to talk about the book and its film adaptation along with the film producer, Paula Mazur and scriptwriter Tom Bezucha."

During the Festival, which is scheduled to run between 10 and 13 May, a number of talks are planned which have a local flavour too. Lara Dearman will be talking about her "powerful debut novel" The Devil’s Claw while there'll also be an exhibition and talk by Philip Eastwood on the life and work of David Bagley.

Duncan Barrett will  be speaking about his latest title, Hitler’s British Isles; Artist Frances Lemmon and poet Jane Mosse will celebrate island folklore with a vibrant collection of paintings and poems, Guernsey Legends, while Patrick Barkham will talk about his book, Islander. There is also a planned opportunity to do a literary walk around Herm with author Paul Sherman, giving snippets of the tales from his book Where Seagulls Dare, and other talks from Herm Island. 

Mrs Allen hopes there will be something for everyone in that long list of events: "We very much hope that we offer a programme of events to appeal to both locals and visitors alike."

Pictured: Events from the 2017 Guernsey Literary Festival from its website

A number of new initiatives are planned as part of the 2018 Guernsey Literary Festival including a membership scheme, which will include priority booking five days before tickets go on sale to the general public. Mrs Allen said it will offer some great prices for those who sign up:

"The membership scheme, which will cost £20 per year, will mean that members can buy up to six tickets on priority booking - and will help support the festival to fund vital educational and outreach work and help the development of the festival. 

"As well as priority booking, the benefits are entry into the Festival book raffle, a regular email newsletter, exclusive members’ offers, a digital membership card and, of course, the knowledge that members’ support is helping the festival deliver another great event. 

"Tickets for members will go on sale on 16 March and tickets will go on sale to the general public on 21 March. More details and instructions of how to join are available online at guernseyliteraryfestival.com, by phoning 07781 143545 or by email."

The event also includes two competitions for members of the public to enter: the WriteStuff aimed at children and Poems on the Move, which is an international poetry competition.

Poems on the Move is an initiative to get poetry published on our buses and at the airport, while WriteStuff gives local children the chance to show off their writing skills with the winners’ presentation due to be held during the Festival, with prizes presented by Terry Waite. The deadline for entries is 23 March. 

You can find out more about the two competitions here.

There is more information about the booking schemes here.