Dear Festival Friends,

Almost a year in the planning, Stroud Book Festival 2024 is now less than one week away.

If you’re planning to be in Stroud town centre on the morning of Saturday 2^nd November, come and say hello to the Festival team. We’ll be outside Stroud Bookshop, giving out brochures to anyone who still needs one.

If you haven’t booked yet, may we gently remind you that you still have time….just! Tickets are still available for many of our events but are selling fast. Please see our website for the latest information – stroudbookfestival.org.uk/events

Here are a couple more events we’d hate you to miss!

 

*NATURE WRITING DOUBLE BILL”  Buy a ticket for both for £20 (saving £4)

RAISING HARE with Chloe Dalton

Sunday 10th November, 3.00-4.00pm, Sub Rooms

In the first event in a nature writing double bill, we welcome Chloe Dalton to discuss her marvellous debut, “Raising Hare”, which has just been shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.

“Raising Hare” chronicles her journey to rear an abandoned leveret and return it to the wild: a journey that brought her to an epiphany about patience, attentiveness to nature, and how we humans often mess with the lives of these enchanting creatures whose numbers are in steep decline.

THE ACCIDENTAL GARDEN with Richard Mabey (joining us virtually)

Sunday 10^th November, 5.00-6.00pm, Sub Rooms

Even the ecologically minded among us tend to regard gardens as our personal dominions, to shape and cultivate as we desire. But gardens, writes Richard Mabey, are also home to myriads of other organisms, “living, often argumentative beings, with their own ambitions in life”. The conflict between these two power bases, he suggests is a microcosm of what is happening in the wider world, making the garden a powerful metaphor for our troubled planet.

Richard will join us via video call to the Sub Rooms stage, live from his home and garden in Norfolk. Don’t miss this chance to hear from one of the greats of all non-fiction writing.

 

STROUD BOOK FESTIVAL 2024 FINALE:

UNDER MILK WOOD: An Anniversary Celebration in Words & Music with The Clark Tracey Quartet

Sunday 10^th November, 7.30-9.00pm, Sub Rooms

To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black…

2024 marks the 70th anniversary of Dylan Thomas’s most marvellous verse drama, “Under Milk Wood”: in fact the first stage performance took place at the Théâtre de la Cour Saint-Pierre, Geneva in November 1954.

To commemorate this auspicious literary anniversary to the month, we are delighted to bring you a spellbinding celebration of “Under Milk Wood” in words and music.

In 1965, jazz pianist Stan Tracey wrote and released “Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood”, played by the Stan Tracey Quartet.  It is often cited as one of the best jazz recordings ever made.

So we are thrilled to welcome Stan’s son Clark, and his own Clark Tracey Quartet, to perform his father’s celebrated jazz suite. The music will be interspersed with readings from Dylan Thomas’s work by Sharon White and Ben Tracey (Stan Tracey’s grandson) and prefaced by a short in-conversation with Clark about his father’s creative relationship with poets and writers.

 

And finally, here’s a picture of one of our Stroud Book Festival team teddy bears to remind you that the marvellous Teddy Bear Ladies from BBC’s The Repair Shop will also be at the Festival on Sunday 10^th November, 11.45am – 12.45pm at Lansdown Hall.

 

All the latest Stroud Book Festival updates can be found on our website, and on our social media channels:

Twitter: @bookstroud

Facebook: facebook.com/stroudbookfestival

Instagram: instagram.com/stroudbookfestival

 

See you very soon!

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x