Looking Local, Reading Global at Ways With Words Festival
Telegraph Ways With Words at Dartington Hall | Friday 6 July – Sunday 15 July 2012
An array of local authors will be appearing alongside renowned international figures at this year’s Ways With Words Festival in what promises to be a fascinating 10 days of debate and discussion this July.
The significance of place is discussed by a variety of speakers; Caribbean novelist Monique Roffey talks about her novel Archipelago, Noo Saro-Wiwa explores her relationship with her home country Nigeria, and Anthony Gibson considers the influence of the Westcountry landscape on classic writers.
This year has a diverse line-up of literature events, including Clive Fairweather, who will lead a discussion on Alice Oswald’s latest poem ‘Memorial’ and locally-based Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer, talking about his recently published novel The Brave. Nikita Lalwani discusses her new novel The Village, and Indian novelist Anita Desai makes a rare UK appearance to talk about her latest novel The Artist of Disappearance.
Poetry is particularly well accounted for this year, with local press Oversteps Books organising a number of events that celebrate Devon-based poets: ‘Poetry of Place’ looks at the relationship poets have with landscape and location, from Dartmoor to New Zealand via Spain and Sussex. Totnes-based poet Matt Harvey will make a welcome return to the festival presenting the Wondermentalist Cabaret, this time accompanied by a Radio 4 recording crew. Meanwhile Poetry Parnassus, the UK’s largest ever poetry festival, arrives at Dartington from the London Southbank Centre, with international poets hailing from Qatar, Algeria, Eritrea and North Korea.
Ways With Words again proves itself more than just a literary festival. Global economics continues to make the headlines, and as such many of this year’s events focus on financial affairs. Investment management firm Baillie Gifford are sponsoring a group of events, including Philip Coggan discussing the principles of money and Jonathan Fenby examining the presence of China in the global market.
Several speakers offer practicable local solutions in an age of global discourse. Kim Sayer gives an inspiring insight into the Cornworthy allotment scheme, with practical advice for allotmenteers, while The Three Hungry Boys of Channel 4 fame talk about their adventures in the Westcountry making ends meet with recourse only to their intuition.
Ways With Words can always be relied on for a variety of perspectives, and this year is no different. Some speakers will delve into industry in their talks, as in Monty Halls’ exploration of Cornish fishing, and renowned investigative journalist Hsiao-Hung Pai’s film Ghosts, which details the Morecambe Bay tragedy. Others will give accounts of particular countries, as in the talks of Samar Yazbek on Syria, John McCarthy on his time as a hostage in Lebanon and Orlando Figes on life in the Soviet Gulag.
The festival is known locally and internationally as a hub of creative and cultural thought, attracting prominent thinkers and speakers from the local area and around the world. This year’s programme reflects this diversity, with the festival’s most international line-up
As director Kay Dunbar puts it: “These days we are asked to simultaneously source locally and think internationally; at Ways With Words we make sure to do both. The festival serves as the perfect platform to bring these elements together.”
Ways With Words runs from 6-15 July at Dartington Hall. Tickets are available by phone from the festival box office 01803 867373 or from the Ways With Words website
For Ways With Words tickets contact the WWW Box Office on 01803 867373 or visit www.wayswithwords.co.uk. Individual tickets priced £9, day tickets, rover passes and festival packages with accommodation are also available.