Thursday 6th November Archives - Bridport Literary Festival

Event 26 | Tristan Gooley | Hidden Seasons

£14.00

Tristan Gooley - Hidden Seasons - A Calendar of Nature’s Clues and Signs

Bestselling author Tristan Gooley is known for his breathtaking observational skills of the natural world, coupled with the talent and infectious delight he has for translating them into words to share with his readers. In The Hidden Seasons, Tristan shows us how to read the clues that the sun, moon, stars, plants, fungi, animals, water and weather give us - but that we continually miss because we don’t know how and where to look. Spring brings wildflower signs, Summer, coastal clues and grass patterns, Autumn, a time to investigate fungi and in Winter we look to snow and the stars. Seasons will never be the same again.
an illustrated talk - Introduced by Tom Brereton Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2025 @ 10.00 am

Where: The Bridport Arts Centre

Sponsored by: John and Maggie Mills

BUY TICKETS Details
Event 27 | Malise Ruthven | Unholy Kingdom

£14.00

Malise Ruthven - Unholy Kingdom - Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia

In recent years, the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud, has promoted the oil-rich kingdom as an open, liberalising nation that has invested in culture, tourism, and social innovation. But the murder in 2018 of journalist Jamal Khashoggi reveals a darker reality: one of intensifying political and religious repression, all within the tumultuous context of the war in Yemen, sectarian rivalry with Iran, the crisis in Gaza, and volatile relations with the United States. Leading commentator, Malise Ruthven, reconstructs the nation’s history, whilst looking to its future in the hands of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This essential book traces the shifting fault lines in the Middle East to determine Saudi Arabia’s place in our volatile times.

in conversation with David Burnett
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2025 @ 12 noon

Where: The Bridport Arts Centre

Sponsored by: Martin and Lindsay Bowdery

BUY TICKETS Details
Event 28 | Philip Hoare | William Blake and The Sea Monsters of Love

£12.00

Philip Hoare - William Blake and The Sea Monsters of Love
William Blake has inspired 200 years of art, poetry and protest. Weaving between the historical, cultural and personal, award-winning author Philip Hoare reveals a web of creative minds and artistic iconoclasts fired with the wild and revolutionary genius of Blake. Reaching out of his past and into our future, Blake draws together the natural world and metaphysical realms, merging the human and the animal and the spiritual, firing up 20th century artists, filmmakers, poets, writers and musicians with his radical promise of absolute freedom - Derek Jarman and Paul Nash to name but two. This stirring, deeply-felt book brings us back to Blake and shows that art still has the power to create positive change.
an illustrated talk - Introduced by Adam Teasdale
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2025 @ 12 noon

Where: Sir John Colfox School

BUY TICKETS Details
Event 29 | Ian Collins | Blythe Spirit

£14.00

Ian Collins - Blythe Spirit - The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe

Drawing on unparalleled access to letters, notebooks, published works, and conversations from decades of friendship, Ian Collins tells the full story of Ronald Blythe. Intimate, meditative and often laced with a wry humour, Blythe’s writing invited readers to share his enchanting perspective on the world. Yet the ‘real’ Ronald Blythe left school at 14, and educated himself in libraries, churches and walks in the East Anglian landscape. He experienced early poverty, wartime trauma, and his sexuality was kept private except from those closest to him. Collins’ book is a sensitive, revelatory portrait which celebrates a fascinating, complex man and casts new light on one of our greatest writers.
in conversation with Caroline Montagu Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2025 @ 2.00 pm

Where: The Bridport Arts Centre

BUY TICKETS Details
Event 30 | Malik Al Nasir & Miranda Kaufmann | Searching for My Slave Roots & Heiresses

£14.00

Malik Al Nasir - Searching for My Slave Roots - From Guyana’s Sugar Plantations to Cambridge

Miranda Kaufmann - Heiresses - Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery

Paul Lashmar, local investigative journalist with a recently published book on slavery, chairs a discussion with a formidable panel of experts in their field. In Searching for my Slave Roots, Malik Al Nasir unravels the legacies of slavery, plantation economics and the wealth of a slaveholding dynasty that he himself descended from - both enslaved people and prominent slaveholders - and the nuanced ways that historic trauma plays down through generations. Miranda Kaufmann reveals the sugar plantations of the Caribbean generated vast wealth, not only for men, but women also. Heiresses exposes how, for almost two centuries, generations of women became enslavers and plantation owners in their own right and brought huge fortunes back to Britain.
in conversation with Paul Lashmar Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thusday 6th November 2025 @ 3.30 pm

Where: The Bridport Arts Centre

BUY TICKETS Details
Event 31 | Robert Macfarlane | Is A River Alive?

£16.00

Robert Macfarlane - Is A River Alive?
Around the world, rivers are dying from pollution, drought and damming, but a powerful movement is underway to recognise the lives and rights of rivers. At the heart of this book is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings who should be recognised as such in both imagination and law. On a global journey which crosses boundaries of time and space, from Ecuador, India and Quebec, to the chalk stream a mile from his house, Is A River Alive? is Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date. It teems with fascinating ideas, unforgettable characters and stories. in conversation with Sophy Roberts Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2025 @ 5.30 pm

Where: Electric Palace

Sponsored by: Angela and David Neuberger | Sybella and Paul Zisman

SOLD OUT Details
Event 32 | Emma Simpson & Vassos Alexander | Breaking Waves & Swimmingly

£14.00

Emma Simpson - Breaking Waves - Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water

Vassos Alexander - Swimmingly - Adventures in Water

In discovering the joy of wild swimming, both Emma Simpson and Vassos Alexander also discover the tremendous sense of community and inspirational stories at its heart. Breaking Waves is an uplifting memoir about healing wounds, reclaiming a voice and discovering sisterhood. In Swimmingly Vassos finds magic in every stroke, whilst at the same time discussing issues of water quality and the need to experience our bodies of water safely.
in conversation with Lucy Brazier Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2024 @ 7.00 pm

Where: The Bridport Art Centre

BUY TICKETS Details
Event 33 | Victoria Taylor | Eagle Days | THE GEORGE MILLAR LITERARY DINNER

£90.00

Victoria Taylor - Eagle Days - Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain
We are delighted to welcome Victoria Taylor, historian and broadcaster, to talk about her fascinating new book Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, a revelatory study that reexamines the German air force’s role during the RAF’s ‘Finest Hour’. Drawing on extensive new research, including never-before-translated letters, diaries and combat reports, Taylor offers a powerful and deeply human portrait of the men who fought for Hitler’s Luftwaffe in the summer of 1940. Through their words and experiences, she transforms our understanding of the Battle of Britain, revealing the military, political and cultural forces that shaped both their courage and their collapse. Eagle Days is a striking and original account of the air war that changed the course of modern history. Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901

When: Thursday 6th November 2025 @ 7.00 pm

Where: Tithe Barn, Symondsbury

Sponsored by: Venetia Ross Skinner

SOLD OUT Details