The Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival 2024
After the great success of last year’s Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival, the programme for the 2024 Festival is now complete. Printed programmes will be available to pick up from across Exmoor from late August.
The event will again take place primarily in Dulverton Town Hall, with author talks across both Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 November. Other events – book readings, an informal crime writing discussion workshop and a ‘Meet the Author’ session – will take place over the weekend in other venues in our charming Exmoor town.
Tickets will be available to purchase online from 23 September (or earlier on 16 September for those who have become Friends of the Literary Festival – see below).
Click here to join our mailing list to keep updated on all things related to the Literary Festival.
Author talks taking place on the Festival Saturday 16 November in Dulverton Town Hall will include…
World War II
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Jonathan Dimbleby
Bestselling historian Jonathan Dimbleby will be attending the Festival with his new book Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War. June 1944 saw the greatest defeat ever suffered by the German Armed Forces. More than two million Red Army soldiers, facing 500,000 German adversaries, finally avenged their defeat three years earlier. While the same month saw the Allies triumph on the beaches of Normandy, it was in fact the events on the Eastern Front in 1944 that were the knockout blow in the Second World War. Dimbleby’s gripping, masterly narrative sets the drama of the relationships between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin against the history being created on the battlefield, and shows how his victories in 1944 enabled the Soviet leader to dictate the terms of the post-war settlement and lay the foundations for the Cold War.
Dimbleby’s many other titles include The Battle of the Atlantic and Destiny in the Desert: The Road to El Alamein, which was followed by his BBC2 programme Churchill’s Desert War.
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Andrew Lownie
Jonathan Dimbleby will be interviewed by celebrated historical biographer Andrew Lownie, author of the biography of infamous ‘Cambridge spy’ Guy Burgess Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess.
Money Money Money
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Deborah Meaden
Entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den investor, Deborah Meaden, will be welcomed to Dulverton with her new book Deborah Meaden Talks Money. Aimed at 12 to 16 year olds, this is the empowering introduction to money and finance that every young person needs right now. Finance made fun, relatable and personal.
Whether you want to earn money, save money, set goals, or set up and grow a business, Meaden is your personal guide, demystifying the world of finance, and sharing the knowledge and insights that have made her one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs. The book is packed with podcast-style interviews with ordinary young people, as well as top business people and personalities, including Steven Bartlett, Joe Lycett, Gary Neville and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who reveal the secrets to their success – and the mistakes they’ve made along the way.
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Claer Barrett
She will be interviewed at the festival by Claer Barrett, author of What They Don’t Teach You About Money, Financial Times columnist and radio and TV money-agony-aunt, presenting on ITV’s Lorraine and LBC Radio.
Fashion & Country Life
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Plum Sykes
Novelist, fashion journalist and socialite Plum Sykes will appear at the Festival with her new novel Wives Like Us about the lives of the wealthy residents of an imaginary Cotswold village. As a contributing editor at World of Interiors and American Vogue, Sykes brings her in-depth knowledge of the stylish homes and impeccable fashion sense of the uber rich to her humorous writing. Take a grand English country house, one (heartbroken) American divorcee, three rich wives, two tycoons and one (bereaved) butler; put them all into the blender and out comes this impossibly funny novel!
Sykes’ other titles include the bestsellers Bergdorf Blondes, The Debutante Divorcee and Party Girls Die in Pearls.
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Alice Thomson
Plum Sykes will be in conversation with writer and Times journalist Alice Thomson, author of What I Wish I’d Known When I Was Young.
Wild Animals
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Professor Charles Foster
Professor Charles Foster has been described as the most original voice in nature writing today – funny, urgent, poetic, deeply moving and thought-provoking. At the Festival he will be discussing his most recent book Cry of the Wild: Eight Animals Under Siege. Immersing himself (literally!) in the wild for his in-depth research, Foster describes how we have long since isolated ourselves from our fellow animals, banishing them into exile and dominating the land they once roamed. But still they endure on the edges of our existence: a fox grown strong on pepperoni pizza from the dustbins of the East End, a rabbit dodging a bullet, a gannet diving through an oil slick. In spellbinding prose, he gives us a bird’s eye view, or indeed an orca’s or an otter’s, of the wonders and struggles of the natural world. The book brings us face to face, or whisker to whisker, with eight creatures (including humans) that we have pushed to the fringes, imploring us to change our ways.
Foster is a mullti-award winning author and a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
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Rachel Campbell Johnston
Charles Foster will be in conversation with writer and art critic Rachel Campbell Johnston.
Exmoor Farming
And for all who love Exmoor a real treat… The Exmoor Hill Farming Network and The Exmoor Society will provide a taste of the beautiful photographic book they have commissioned together Exmoor Farms: A Year on the Moor. Written by much-loved Exmoor farmer and writer Victoria Eveleigh, with photographs by Eleanor Davis, the project spans a farming year and includes profiles of farms, together with portraits of the people who live and work on them. It includes accounts of the activities, markets and shows that fill the year, highlighting the high and lows faced by farmers on Exmoor.
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Ian May, farmer and Chairman of the Exmoor Hill Farming Network
A Festival panel discussion surrounding the book and farming on Exmoor will be chaired by Ian May, farmer and Chairman of the Exmoor Hill Farming Network alongside panelists Alan Collins (farmer), Jack Buckingham (farmer) and Jane Pearn (the book’s Editor). Copies of the book will be available for purchase in the Town Hall bookshop directly after the session – which will open the Festival on the Saturday morning.
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Woolhanger, Exmoor. As featured in ‘Exmoor Farms: A Year on the Moor’
And on the Festival’s Sunday 17 November the following author talks will take place in the Town Hall…
Gardens & Art
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Caroline Quentin
Much-loved actress Caroline Quentin will be at the Festival with her new book Drawn to the Garden where she shares her life-long passion for gardening in this charming horticultural journey. The book is adorned with her own beautiful illustrations and she reveals the joy she gets from spending time in the garden, whether it be raising seeds in her potting shed or grappling with the best way to grow beetroot. A delightful read!
Quentin is a renowned figure in British comedy, well-known for her lead roles in the award-winning British sitcom Men Behaving Badly and crime drama Jonathan Creek.
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Gaby Huddart
Caroline Quentin will be interviewed at the Festival by her friend Gaby Huddart, Editor of Good Housekeeping Magazine.
Children’s Author
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Former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child CBE
Former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child CBE is one of Britain’s most-loved children’s authors and illustrators. She is best known for the multi-award winning Charlie and Lola picture book series which she introduced in 2000 with I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato. Her other phenomenally successful series, aimed at children and young teenagers is Clarice Bean. Clarice invites readers into her busy life filled with family and friends, as well as those she doesn’t like very much – she admits she is not a very good speller and daydreams a lot!
Clarice Bean Smile is the seventh book in the Clarice Bean series.
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Alice Thomson
Lauren Child will be in conversation with writer and Times journalist Alice Thomson, author of What I Wish I’d Known When I Was Young.
Racing
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Janet Vokes
Lovers of horse racing won’t want to miss Janet Vokes at the Festival, racehorse owner, breeder and author of Dream Horse. Vokes was running the bar in her local working men’s club in a Welsh mining community when she fixed upon the idea of breeding a racehorse. With ambition and tenacity she helped create a local syndicate and bred a foal called Dream Alliance. ‘Dream’ as he was affectionately known was famously raised on an allotment and went on to win the Welsh Grand National. The book (made into the feature film Dream Alliance starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis) is inspiring and moving – the extraordinary story of a woman who defied the odds to breed a champion and bring a community together.
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Charles Blanning
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Racing trainer Johnson White with Dream Alliance
Janet Vokes will be chatting with celebrated Exmoor racing trainer Johnson White and to racing novelist Charles Blanning, author of Rags to Riches and its sequel Electric Rabbit.
Book Club
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Jennie Godfrey
The theme of this year’s Festival ‘Book Club’ talk is to be 20th Century Historical Fiction. A lively panel discussion will feature Sunday Times bestselling author of 2024 Jennie Godfrey with her debut novel, The List of Suspicious Things; popular author Vanessa de Haan with her second novel, A Time to Live; and critically-acclaimed writer Jessica Moor, who will be launching her third novel, Hold Back the Night.
Jennie Godfrey’s book, set in Yorkshire in 1979 at the time of the evil Yorkshire Ripper, is a beautiful story about friendship, community, family and secrets. Godfrey lives in Somerset but was raised in West Yorkshire in the 1970s, giving her the inspiration for this extraordinary debut novel.
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Vanessa De Haan
Vanessa de Haan is a local historical fiction author, journalist and editor. Her first novel The Restless Sea is about the Merchant and Royal Navies during the Arctic convoys of the second world war, and was inspired by family stories. A Time to Live is her second book and is set on a crumbling estate in Devon between the first and second world wars.
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Jessica Moor
Jessica Moor studied English at Cambridge and her debut novel Keeper was published in 2020 to rave reviews and critical acclaim. She was selected as one of the Observer‘s debut novelists of 2020. Hold Back The Night is her third novel and delves into the heart-wrenching themes of 1950s conversion therapy and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
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Kate Lord Brown
The panel will be hosted by historical novelist Kate Lord Brown, author of many bestselling books including The Perfume Garden. Her latest title The Golden Hour is to be released in 2025.
Travel
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Stanley Johnson
In 1961 as an Oxford undergraduate Stanley Johnson began a journey to retrace the footsteps of 13th Century Venetian explorer Marco Polo. Now more than 60 years later Johnson and his youngest son Max have completed the journey, travelling through China faithfully tracking Marco Polo‘s route; visiting places and meeting people rarely encountered by the conventional visitor. This unique book follows Johnson and Max as they retrace Marco Polo’s footsteps both literally and symbolically, at a time when official relationships with China are complicated. Johnson’s account of their journey coincides with the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo‘s death and provides new insights into the journey of Marco Polo from Venice to Beijing, confirming the importance of the Venetian explorer in the present day context.
Johnson is an author, environmental campaigner and former politician. In the Footsteps of Marco Polo is his twenty-sixth book.
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Travel writer and editor Miranda Taylor
Stanley Johnson will be in conversation with travel writer and editor Miranda Taylor.
What else is happening around the town over the weekend?
Our thanks to two of Dulverton’s great supporters of the Festival in 2024 – The Bridge Inn and Dulverton Library. Additional literary events will be taking place in both venues across the weekend.
Words & Music
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Hazel Prior
Local author and Celtic harpist Hazel Prior is well known across the country for her beautifully crafted novels that feature wildlife and environmental themes and are often set on Exmoor. At the Festival,l Prior will read from each of her four original and uplifting titles including the number one bestseller Away with the Penguins, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Between readings in the Bridge Inn, beside the River Barle in Dulverton, Prior will treat the audience to some exquisite music as she plays her Celtic harp.
Hazel Prior’s other titles include Call of the Penguins, Ellie and the Harp Maker, Life and Otter Miracles and Gone with the Penguins. She lives on Exmoor with her husband and a large ginger cat.
FREE admission. Light refreshments will be available.
Crime Writing Discussion
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Louise Douglas
Join two thriller writers in Dulverton Library on the Saturday afternoon for an informal discussion group session entitled ‘An Introduction to Crime Writing’. Top crime author Louise Douglas The Summer of Lies (this year’s follow up novel to her number one bestseller The Lost Notebook) will join Sarah Easter Collins, Exmoor artist and author of her critically-acclaimed debut novel Things Don’t Break On Their Own.
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Sarah Easter Collins
Expect a lively chat and a fascinating insight into the writers, how they got started, how they come up with ideas for plots and characters and how they succeeded in becoming published.
Please note that this is an informal discussion group and not a ‘creative writing workshop’. Members of the audience should not bring along examples of their own writing anticipating comments from the two panelists.
Tickets will be required and numbers will be limited.
Meet The Author
Also in the Library from 3.30 – 5.30 on Saturday 16 November – and a new session for the Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival – will be the opportunity to ‘Meet the Author’. A selection of authors writing on a variety of topics – such as comedy crime, nature, mental health, historical fiction – will be gathered in the Library keen for a chat with visitors about their books and their writing. Discover Jo Middleton Happy Bloody Christmas, Ian Parsons Great Misconceptions: Rewilding Myths and Misunderstandings, Zoe Gibson Quirk Being Loved Back to Life, Powers Ian Mawby The Spirits of Pulhams Mill and Alan Humm The Sparkler. Admission is free and authors’ books will be on sale.
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Jo Middleton
Somerset writer and family blogger Jo Middleton brings her second novel to Dulverton. Middleton has a huge online following as the relatable and candid voice of the Slummy Single Mummy. Her debut title Playgroups and Prosecco: the (mis)adventures of a Single Mum is now followed by the hilarious comedy crime caper Happy Bloody Christmas… Santa’s mysterious death in Anna’s home really is the last thing she has time for at Christmas, but with police officers who could double as the Chuckle Brothers, it looks like it’s up to her to find out what the hell’s gone on. Oh – and figure out what to do with the body before her in-laws arrive. Happy bloody Christmas indeed!
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Ian Parsons
After a 20-year career as a forest ranger Ian Parsons started his own bird watching tour company in Spain. A regular contributor to Bird Watching magazine, he is the author of A Vulture Landscape, Seasonality and his new title Great Misconceptions, Rewilding Myths and Misunderstandings. The term rewilding has become part of the common vernacular and with it has come a lot of misunderstanding and even misuse. This has led to a great many misconceptions about what the word actually means. The book aims to inform, provoke thought and debate and to stimulate conversation about rewilding conservation. It brings together different writers, with different experiences, exploring what rewilding means to them.
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Zoe Gibson Quirk
Zoë Gibson Quirk writes on love and mental health, opening her heart to share her experience of crisis, and how the most everyday acts of love can mean everything. An ode to those who helped her through and an exploration into how love and connection helped her heal and have kept her well.
Gibson Quirk is a communications expert and illustrator advocating for mental health awareness. She is the joint founder of Progress Press, a small publishing business whose ethos is to share real experiences from real people on essential topics. Their collectable pocket-sized books invite you to hold different perspectives in your hands –– to pause, think, talk.
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Richard Collis
Secondary school English teacher, Richard Collis, formed the idea of his debut novel The Pool as a young man. Set in the imaginary city of Fenwood, the dying Queen’s daughter Ivy must choose between love and responsibility as evil forces threaten to tear the city apart. Perfect for teenagers and adults alike, this is a story of growing up, making tough decisions and the power of Nature. A keen reader and film fanatic, Collis has relished the opportunity to have his first book published.
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Powers Ian Mawby
Local octogenarian and dyslexic author Powers Ian Mawby will be introducing his historical novel The Spirits of Pulhams Mill. A fast moving entertaining fictional history, ranging through a thousand years, relating dramatic factual events which became engrained in the fabric of local Pulhams Mill in Brompton Regis. Mawby himself lived and worked at Pulhams Mill for forty-two years.
Children’s Story Corner
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Emily Hamilton
Bring your young children to the Bridge Inn on Sunday morning to enjoy cosy book readings in the Festival’s ‘Children’s Story Corner’. Local children’s author and illustrator Emily Hamilton will read The Yawnicorn (for ages 3-5). A magical picture book featuring a very special unicorn, specially designed to help children settle down for bedtime. From the much-loved illustrator of The World Made a Rainbow.
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Emma Bettridge with her dog Nell
Theatre producer and children’s picture book writer Emma Bettridge will read Red is Home (for ages 5-7). This is her second picture book after Goodbye Hobbs. Red the dog lives in two different places with members of his family. There are things he does to feel safe in each home, but on Monday one of those homes will change. How will he cope when things are no longer the same?
FREE admission. Light refreshments will be available.
Become a Friend of the Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival
Would you like to become a Friend of the Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival 2024? This new initiative has been formed to bring together all those who enjoy reading all year round and to encourage a richer and wider development of the event. By becoming a Friend you will give vital support to the Festival organisers in attracting writers of excellence to Dulverton – of both fiction and non fiction. You will also help support our outreach programme which encourages reading and writing across our local schools via workshops and through our annual Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival Children’s Writing Competition (see below) with the awards presented in 2023 by Sir Michael Morpurgo and in 2024 by former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child.
There are many additional benefits to becoming a Friend, including a free ticket to the pre-Festival evening of nostalgia showing clips of ‘Dulverton and Exmoor on Film‘ in October, and an exclusive discount code towards a subscription to Somerset Life Magazine who are pleased to be supporting the Festival this year.
Click here to learn more about becoming a Friend, the associated benefits and how to sign up.
Festival Children’s Writing Competition 2024
This year’s Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival Children’s Writing Competition is under way! Entries are now welcome and must be submitted before Saturday 26 October. Full details can be found in the poster image below. If you’d like a copy of this poster to share with your children, grandchildren or your local school please send an email to hello@visitdulverton.com and we’ll pop one straight over.
Historical novelist Kate Lord Brown will again kindly judge the entries for the Writing Competition and former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child will present the prizes to the winner and runners up on Sunday 17 November. The theme of this year’s competition is to be ‘Magical Exmoor’! Can we expect stories of unicorns, fairies, beasts, wizards, witches…?
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2023 winning competition entrants with Kate Lord Brown and Sir Michael Morpurgo
PopUp Bookshop
Waterstones Barnstaple will again set up the Festival popup bookshop in Dulverton Town Hall for author book signing and sales. A perfect opportunity to purchase dedicated books as Christmas gifts!
Our Generous Festival Sponsors for 2024
The Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival is supported by Dulverton Town Council and generously sponsored by the following local businesses, without whom the event could not take place. We are immensely grateful. Amicus Law Solicitors, the Dulverton Development Programme, Tozers Solicitors, Knight Frank Exeter, Mr and Mrs Prebensen of Dulverton, Risdons Solicitors, Exmoor Magazine, Stockham Farm Exmoor, Jeff Pegrum Landscaping, Exmoor News, Ware Construction, The Bridge Inn, Dulverton, Osteo & Physio Tiverton, Rothwell & Dunworth Antiquarian Books, Winsbere House B&B, Somerset Life Magazine, Waterstones Barnstaple, Paul Hardy Antiques and Exmoor Character Cottages.
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Previous Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festivals…
Take a look back at the authors and speakers that appeared at the 2023 Festival and at the 2022 Festival.