Event 7

Description

Paula Byrne is the author of the bestselling biographies Perdita, Mad World, The Real Jane Austen, Belle, Kick and The Genius of Jane Austen. She is founder and chief executive of ReLit, the Bibliotherapy Foundation, a charity devoted to the mental health benefits of reading. She is married to Sir Jonathan Bate.

Jo Willett has been a tv drama and comedy producer for all her working life. She has produced many of our most admired and loved programmes: she began her career on a then-new soap opera called Eastenders, before going on to executive produce series such as Pie in the Sky and Love Hurts. She won a BAFTA for A Rather English Marriage and an Emmy for Dirty Tricks. More recently, she produced the revival of the hit comedy Birds of a Feather for Retort/ITV and the popular ITV queries MANHUNT. For the past few years Jo has started a second career writing historical biographies. Her first book, The Pioneering Life of Mary Wortley Montagu, was published in March 2021, and her second, Sarah Siddons, is event 9 in this year’s Bridport Literary Festival.