South Warwickshire Literary Festival
21st September 2024
Victoria House, Leamington Spa CV32 4PT
SWLF Programme
Here you will find the running order for the day.
​
Please buy your festival pass via the buttons below.
​
Festival only £10
​
Festival + 1 Workshop £18
​
Regency Room
Author talks & interviews
​9.45am Welcome and festival opens
​
​
​
10am:
Young Poets
& competition winners
Warwickshire Young Poet Laureate May Vaughan, runners-up Madeline Taylor and Ananditha Venkatramanan, and our Competition winners and runners-up. May has won Heartbreak Productions' Tell a Story competition, the Muriel Kilding Cup at the Leamington Competitive Festival, the Canterbury Tales Chaucer Young Poets Competition 2023 and the Solstice Young Nature Writer's prize. Madeleine is an A-Level student currently studying at Stratford Girls’ Grammar School, Her first published poem featured in the Stratford-Upon-Avon Literary Festival Anthology in 2023.
10.40am:
Local Author
Anthony Ferner
Anthony will be reading from and discussing his novel Small Wars in Madrid. David Aguilera is a Spanish naval officer with the multinational European Defence Force, EuDeFor. But he’s languishing in Madrid, in the flat he shares with his wife their two children. As he awaits the official inquiry into the loss of the vessel under his command, he ponders the decline of his marriage and the stalling of his once stellar naval career. Although a love story, it is love in troubled times, as the fringes of Europe unravel and broader events intrude on individuals’ small lives.
11.20am:
Local Author
Dr Susan C Law
Susan will be reading from her book Dark Side of the Cut, A History of Crime on Britain's Canals and talking about her approach to writing. Dark Side of the Cut reveals the dark and dangerous past of the waterways in 19th-century Britain, when alcohol abuse, theft and violence were facts of everyday life.
​
​
​
​
11.50am:
James Catchpole
James runs The Catchpole Agency in Oxford with his wife Lucy and represents authors and illustrators of children’s picture books, non-fiction and novels, including Polly Dunbar and SF Said. He also writes picture books about disability, drawing on his own experience as an amputee. In this half-hour talk, James will be discussing disability representation in literature, and what it might mean for disabled stories to be told, almost for the first time, by disabled authors..
12.30am:
Anne Harrison
In this half hour talk retired care manager Anne will read from her book Call Me Auntie which starts from how she was abandoned as a baby but welcomed into a loving foster home, only to be moved once more into a challenging children's home. Anne talks about her triumphs and disasters along the way as she lost and found her mother more than once, her search for her roots and eventual discovery of her heritage.
​
​
​
LUNCH
1-2.10pm
Including our very popular Open Mic Session.
​
Please note there is no on-site catering this year but you're very welcome to bring a picnic and enjoy the pretty Victoria House garden (weather permitting of course). If it rains, there's room inside!
​
The raffle will be drawn around 2pm.
2.10pm
Becky Holmes
The Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love With You author talks about her ground breaking, heart breaking and frankly hilarious book in which she defrocks online romance scammers and fraudsters and through her investigations exposes what happens behind the scenes of these frauds. Don't miss this chat with Becky about her eye-opening book.
​
​
2.50pm
Alison May
Following on from her morning workshop at the festival, established author and tutor Alison May gives an inspiring and knowledge-led talk on how to submit your work to agents and publishers.
​
​
​
​
​
​
3.30pm
Kit de Waal - Interview
3.30pm: Join us for this hour-long interview with author Kit de Waal. Kit will be interviewed by ex-Kate Nash agent Beth Lucas.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
4.40pm
Authors Q&A panel
with Alison May, Billy Ivory (Made in Dagenham, The Great Escaper) James Catchpole, Simon Whaley, Sophie Hannah and TBC, compered by author Fran Hill.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
5.4opm
The End is Near...
Thank yous and goodbye.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Landsdowne Room & Newbold Room
Workshops
The cost for the festival and one workshop only is £18
​
Workshop places are limited to only one per ticket - fairness and all that!
​
If you buy a festival and workshop ticket and wish to attend a second workshop,
IF there is space on the day you will be able to pay the extra £8 in cash.
Workshop 1
10.00-11.30am
Ekphrastic poetry: words in dialogue with other art forms with Gwyneth Box.
There’s a long tradition of poets finding inspiration in other artists’ work. Originally denoting the vivid description of a scene, ekphrastic poetry has developed to encompass any personal response to a work of art. Whatever your previous poetic experience, this workshop offers a chance to explore voice and point of view, to touch on unfamiliar subjects and situations and to create the groundwork for new poems.
​
Author website: https://gwynethbox.com/
​
​
​
​
Only 7 spaces available Newbold Room
Workshop 2
10.00-11.30am
Starting Your Novel with Alison May
Have you ever dreamed of writing a novel? Have you started and abandoned story ideas over the years? Maybe you loved to write as a child and you long to get back to it? Maybe you have a complete manuscript in a drawer and don't quite know what to do next? Whereever you are on your writing journey, if you'd love to write and publish a novel, then this workshop is for you.
Alison May is a best-selling novelist, editor and writing mentor who has worked with authors who've gone on to be published by Avon, Headline, HQ, Bookouture and many others. In this workshop she'll break novel writing down into its basic building blocks of character, plot and place, and help you create the beginnings of a story you can take away, develop and complete.
​
Alison is a published commercial fiction author writing short stories, novels and novellas. She also writes modern inclusive romcoms as Ally Sinclair, and darker stories as Juliet Bell in collaboration with Janet Gover.
Author website: https://alison-may.co.uk/
​
Only 16 places available Landsdowne Room
Workshop 3
11.35-1.00pm
Travel Writing
with Simon Whaley
Best selling travel writer Simon Whaley will show you how to turn your holidays into cash by writing inspirational travel features.
This workshop is ideal for anyone interested in writing travel articles and draws upon Simon's experience producing travel features for publications including Coast, BBC Countryfile magazine, Britain, and The People's Friend.
​
​
​
Author website: https://www.simonwhaley.co.uk/
​
​
​
Only 8 spaces available Newbold Room
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Workshop 4
11.35-1.00pm
Dream Author: How To Think And What To Do To Make Your Writing Dreams Come True
with Sophie Hannah
A Masterclass with Sophie Hannah
Sophie is an internationally bestselling crime writer and course director of University of Cambridge's new Master's degree in Crime & Thriller Writing. In this workshop for writers and aspiring writing, Sophie will teach participants:
• how to massively increase your chances of success
• how to change incorrect, unhelpful and limiting beliefs
• how to retain full control over your writing dreams and journey, instead of giving your power away to the first agent or editor who shows an interest in you
• how to make sure your dreams, and your definitions of success and failure, aren’t working against you
• how to be your own best and most powerful ally and advocate, throughout your writing life
• how to make brilliant, regret-proof decisions using The Double Best Method
• and how to use Sophie's amazing invention, the Literary Diagnostics method (which is very different from editing), to take your writing to the next level.
Only 4 places available Landsdowne Room
Workshop 5
2-3.15pm
Sensorial and Spiritual Writing with Tom George.
Author Tom George leads a unique workshop to unlock your natural creativity and deepen your relationship with yourself. Taking inspiration from the senses, the body, feelings and the natural world, you will learn to write spontaneously, and produce poetry, prose or whatever comes out! This workshop can help diffuse writing blocks and can also be part of your personal wellbeing or spiritual journey.
Author website: https://tomgeorge.uk/
Only 8 spaces available Newbold Room
​
​
​
Workshop 6
2-3.15pm
Script Writing with Billy Ivory
Award winning screenwriter William Ivory (Made in Dagenham, The Great Escaper, Burton and Taylor) will explore the fundamental building blocks of how to write a script for TV or film. How does the medium differ from the stage, or prose work? How is it best to structure a piece of filmic writing, and above all, what is the KEY element in creating any successful screenplay? Using examples from his own work and those from many films and TV shows you will have seen yourself, Billy will take you on a condensed and rapid fire tour of THE most prolific scripted form. As he puts it: "This is Screenwriting 101!" The session is suitable for those with some experience or none at all, those with intent to be the next Aaron Sorkin, or those who are just curious.
Only 14 places available Landsdowne Room. More details to follow
Support us
We are now registered on Easy Fundraising!
Just scan this QR code to take you to the EF site where you can register to support us through your shopping.
