MERE Literary Festival, running this year from 12th to 19th October, brings a host of interesting writers and wide-ranging subjects to St Michael’s Church and the stages of The Grove Building and the Lecture Hall.
With themes that range from the role and life of Black Rod to wartime farming, Nepal to Siberia, and writers as diverse as a former Royal Marine who twice walked right round the coastline of the UK to a talented woman whose first novel featured a wire-haired fox terrier.
Sally Page (pictured), the former philanthropy director at Wiltshire Community Foundation – whose first novel, The Keeper of Stories, featured that sparky and wise terrier – has had a remarkable career that has included floristry, advertising and founding her own fountain pen company. Her new novel is A Curious Ending. She will be in conversation with fellow Dorset novelist Clare Leslie-Hall, author of Broken Country, at The Grove Building on Tuesday 13th, at 7pm.
Simon Cooper, one of the UK’s leading chalk stream conservationists, will be talking about his book Tails from the Mill, at The Grove Building on Monday 12th at 4pm. Later that day, Johnny Fenn and Gurkha double-amputee Hari Budha Magar will talk about The Nepali Way, a book that traces Fenn’s journey across Nepal, from west to east, without a map. The event is at St Michael’s Church at 7pm.
Archers fans will make a beeline for The Grove Building on Thursday 15th to hear Julie Beckett, author of The Archers Unseen, talking to multi-media artist Marina Sossi, and together celebrating storytelling, creativity and the enduring appeal of The Archers.
On Friday 16th at St Michael’s Church, at 2pm, Baroness Minette Batters (pictured), the first woman president of the MNFU, will be talking to former regional NFU director, broadcaster and author Anthony Gibson about her book Harvest, “a memoir and manifesto.”
The final event, on Monday 19th at 6pm at the church, features Lt Gen David Leakey, who was Black Rod from 2010-2018, talking about the role, the history and some of the behind-the-scenes events of this historic Parliamentary post.
For full details of the programme visit mereliteraryfestival.com