Please note venues may change. Check the website for updates. Programme List Grid Thu 5th Oct Fri 6th Oct Sat 7th Oct Sun 8th Oct Thursday 5th October Dancing With the Red Devil: a Memoir of Love, Hope, and Cancer Sarah Standing £10 | Thursday 5th October 15:20 - 16:20 | Ballroom A wife, a mother, a journalist, a toy shop owner, a grandmother, a great friend, a daughter, and a lover... We Danced on Our Desks: Brilliance and Backstabbing at Sixties Most Influential Magazine Philip Norman £10 | Thursday 5th October 15:20 - 16:20 | St Mary’s Church We Danced on Our Desks is the sequel to world-renowned rock biographer Philip Norman’ s memoir Babycham Night: a boyhood... The Russian Conundrum: How the West Fell for Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It Martin Sixsmith £10 | Thursday 5th October 16:40 - 17:40 | St Mary’s Church Martin Sixsmith will tell the story of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once a successful oil tycoon and one of the richest men... 2MT Writtle: the Birth of British Radio Broadcasting Tim Wander £5 | Thursday 5th October 16:40 - 17:40 | Ballroom Island based author and historian Tim Wander is widely recognised as a world authority on the early days of radio,... Cheers: Wine Tasting with Helen McGinn Helen McGinn £20 | Thursday 5th October 18:00 - 19:00 Titillate your palate with wines chosen by Helen McGinn, the creator of The Knackered Mother’s Wine Club, an award-winning, bestselling... Red on Red: Liverpool, Manchester United and the Fiercest Rivalry in World Football Jim White Philip McNulty £10 | Thursday 5th October 18:00 - 19:00 | Ballroom Liverpool and Manchester. Two gloriously independent-minded, eclectic, culturally vibrant places. Yet the inhabitants dislike each other with a passion that... Fizz Quiz £5 | Thursday 5th October 19:30 - 21:00 | Island Sailing Club Enjoy the hospitality and ambience of the Island Sailing Club while pitting your literary and general knowledge against other festival... Friday 6th October Who Are We Now: Stories of Modern England Jason Cowley £10 | Friday 6th October 11:00 - 12:00 | St Mary’s Church Jason Cowley, editor-in-chief of the New Statesman, will examine contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories to... The Wrens and the Wireless War Peter Hore £10 | Friday 6th October 11:00 - 12:00 | Ballroom The Wrens and the Wireless War, is a talk by Peter Hore about a secret elite of Wrens who waged... What Lies Beneath: My Life as a Forensic Search and Rescue Expert Peter Faulding £10 | Friday 6th October 12:20 - 13:20 | St Mary’s Church Recovering bodies, finding discarded remains, identifying unmarked graves and saving people from locations and situations too dangerous for the normal... Out of the Blue: The Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss Harry Cole £10 | Friday 6th October 12:20 - 13:20 | Ballroom Despite being written off and mocked by even her closest colleagues, Liz Truss slowly but determinedly achieved her goal of... Baking Bliss Melanie Johnson £10 | Friday 6th October 12:20 - 13:20 | LitFest Marquee Melanie Johnson, a food writer, and columnist at Country Life magazine where she has been creating her Kitchen Garden Cook... Mother’s Boy Patrick Gale £10 | Friday 6th October 13:40 - 14:40 | LitFest Marquee Patrick Gale will be exploring how he came to write a novel about Charles Causley, whose poetry still matters, his... The Gift of a Radio: My Life and Other Train Wrecks Justin Webb £10 | Friday 6th October 13:40 - 14:40 | St Mary’s Church Between his mother’s un-diagnosed psychological problems, and his step-father’s untreated ones, life at home was dysfunctional at best for Justin... A Table Full of Love: Recipes to Comfort, Seduce, Celebrate & Everything Else in Between Skye McAlpine £10 | Friday 6th October 13:40 - 14:40 | Ballroom Skye McAlpine’s third cookbook, A Table Full of Love explores the connection between food and love. It’s both a recipe... Old Rage Sheila Hancock £15.00 | Friday 6th October 15:00 - 16:00 | St Mary’s Church Now in her ninth decade, funny, feisty, honest Sheila Hancock will be brilliant company as she talks about her life... Plastic Surgery in Wars, Disasters and Civilian Life Anthony Roberts £5 | Friday 6th October 15:00 - 16:00 | Ballroom Professor Anthony Roberts will explain how his involvement with the Bradford City football stadium fire in 1985 had a major... The Accidental Duchess: From Farmer’s Daughter to Belvoir Castle Emma, Duchess of Rutland £10 | Friday 6th October 16:20 - 17:20 | Ballroom Her Grace, Duchess of Rutland will be delving into her past to share her extraordinary journey from Welsh farmer’s daughter... The Seed Detective Adam Alexander £10 | Friday 6th October 16:20 - 17:20 | LitFest Marquee The taste of a Ukrainian pepper in Donetsk 30 years ago had a life-changing effect on filmmaker Adam Alexander. While... Reading, Not Reading Presented by Spiracle Audiobooks Lydia Leonard Malcolm Sinclair £10 | Friday 6th October 16:20 - 17:20 | St Mary’s Church Hearing a good reading is thrilling. This event reveals what makes a reading just that – thrilling. We’ll learn how... No One Got Cracked Over the Head for No Reason: Dispatches from a Crime Reporter Martin Brunt £10 | Friday 6th October 17:40 - 18:40 | Ballroom Martin Brunt draws on the most shocking and harrowing stories he has covered over the past 30 years to document... Uffa: Yachting’s Eccentric Genius Malcolm Turner £10 | Friday 6th October 19:00 - 20:30 | Island Sailing Club Malcolm Turner will bring to life one of Cowes most charismatic characters, Uffa Fox and the Brighstone Barnacles will sing... Saturday 7th October - AM Atlantic BC: An Epic Recreation of a Phoenician Voyage 2000 Years Before Columbus Philip Beale, FRGS £10 | Saturday 7th October 10:00 - 11:00 | Ballroom This illustrated lecture will challenge everything you thought you knew about Columbus and the discovery of the New World. It... Didn’t You Used to be Chris Mullin? Diaries from 2010-2022 Chris Mullin £10.00 | Saturday 7th October 10:00 - 11:00 | St Mary’s Church Former Labour minister, Chris Mullin, launches a new volume of his widely acclaimed diaries. From the demise of New Labour,... Cooking Local Robert Thompson £15 | Saturday 7th October 10:00 - 11:00 | LitFest Marquee Top island chef, Robert Thompson, the youngest chef to be awarded a Michelin Star in his own right, will share... Royal Yacht Squadron Tour £15 | Saturday 7th October 10:30 - 11:45 | Royal Yacht Squadron Join Royal Yacht Squadron Honorary Historian Commodore David Hughes for a tour of this historic building and discover its incredible... Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC Rory Cellan-Jones £10 | Saturday 7th October 11:20 - 12:20 | St Mary’s Church Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees. But until his mother died... Life Wasn’t Boring Colin Groves £10 | Saturday 7th October 11:20 - 12:20 | Ballroom Soldering is a serious, frequently bloody business. That aspect has been documented endlessly. But behind the blood, thunder and de-humanising... Saturday 7th October - PM Foolproof Pastry and Perfect Souffles Cathy Gayner £15 | Saturday 7th October 12:00 - 13:00 | LitFest Marquee There will be no more fear of soggy pastry or failing souffles once you learn the secret of foolproof pastry... The Garnett Girls Georgina Moore £10 | Saturday 7th October 12:40 - 13:40 | St Mary’s Church Georgina Moore’s debut novel is set on the Isle of Wight and asks the question whether children can ever be... Rose, Castle and Crown: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s Citizen Soldiers Patrick Crowley £10 | Saturday 7th October 12:40 - 13:40 | Ballroom Patrick Crowley will tell the unique history of the part-time soldier of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, from the... Adventureholic: Extraordinary Journeys on Seven Continents by Land, Sea and Air Neil Laughton £10 | Saturday 7th October 14:00 - 15:00 | St Mary’s Church From hosting a record-breaking dinner party on Mount Everest and playing golf at the Geographic North Pole, to piloting the... Cooking With Rosemary Rosemary Shrager £20 | Saturday 7th October 14:00 - 15:00 | LitFest Marquee With a strong background in classical cooking and an exuberant personality, Rosemary Shrager has become the star of numerous television... The Tennis Champion that Escaped the Nazis: Liesl Herbst’s Journey from Vienna to Wimbledon Felice Hardy £10 | Saturday 7th October 14:00 - 15:00 | Ballroom Felice Hardy will share the moving story of the escape and survival of her grandmother, Liesl Herbst, who fled Nazi... Royal Yacht Squadron Tour £15 | Saturday 7th October 15:00 - 16:15 | Royal Yacht Squadron Join Royal Yacht Squadron Honorary Historian Commodore David Hughes for a tour of this historic building and discover its incredible... The First Kiss Nick Trend £10 | Saturday 7th October 15:20 - 16:20 | Ballroom The story of art doesn’t have to be all about art-historical ‘isms’ and complex academic debate. It often revolves around... The Missing Musk: A Casebook of Mysteries From the Natural World Bob Gilbert £10 | Saturday 7th October 15:20 - 16:20 | St Mary’s Church Mixing history, memoir and nature writing, Bob Gilbert will take you on a journey of discovery, uncovering the truth behind... The Tangle of the Commons Lisa Schneidau £10 | Saturday 7th October 15:20 - 16:20 | LitFest Marquee The Tangle of the Commons tells the story of the British landscape and our relationship with the wild things around... Michael Morpurgo’s Tales from Shakespeare Michael Morpurgo £5.00 – 15.00 | Saturday 7th October 17:00 - 18:00 | St Mary’s Church Michael Morpurgo will present the re-tellings of ten of Shakespeare’s plays, beautifully written with Morpurgo’s warm, accessible, and inimitable style.... The Captain’s Apprentice: Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Story of a Folk Song Caroline Davison £15 | Saturday 7th October 19:30 - 20:30 | Ballroom Caroline Davison will explore the world of Edwardian folk music, and its influence on the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. In... Sunday 8th October - AM The One Day Box: A Life-Changing Love of Home Flora Soames £10 | Sunday 8th October 10:20 - 11:20 | LitFest Marquee Interior designer Flora Soames founded her eponymous firm in 2009 and launched an acclaimed collection of fabrics and wallpapers in... The Real Prime Suspect: From the Beat to the Screen. My Life as a Female Detective Jackie Malton £10 | Sunday 8th October 10:20 - 11:20 | Ballroom Jackie Malton, the inspiration for legendary TV detective Jane Tennison in Lynda La Plante’s Prime Suspect, joined the police force... Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I: the Mother and Daughter Who Changed History Tracy Borman £10 | Sunday 8th October 11:40 - 12:40 | Ballroom Tracy Borman will examine one of the most extraordinary mother and daughter stories of all time – Anne Boleyn, the... Vectis: An exploration of Wight’s ancient and modern identity Professor David Tomalin £5 | Sunday 8th October 11:40 - 12:40 | LitFest Marquee We ‘Islanders of Wight’ relish our separation from the ‘North Island’. But how far back does this distinction go? Professor... Royal Yacht Squadron Tour £15 | Sunday 8th October 11:45 - 13:00 | Royal Yacht Squadron Join Royal Yacht Squadron Honorary Historian Commodore David Hughes for a tour of this historic building and discover its incredible... Sunday 8th October - PM Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey Wendy Joseph KC £10 | Sunday 8th October 13:00 - 14:00 | St Mary’s Church Wendy Joseph KC recently stepped down as one of only a handful of judges qualified to preside over murder trials... The Red Hotel: the Untold Story of Stalin’s Disinformation War Alan Philps £10 | Sunday 8th October 13:00 - 14:00 | Ballroom Using recently opened M15 archives Alan Philps brings to life an intriguing and previously unexplored episode of Second World War... Censoring History Andrew Lownie £10 | Sunday 8th October 13:00 - 14:00 | LitFest Marquee Documents are the lifeblood of historians, enabling them to build a picture of the past but Andrew Lownie argues that... The Last Remains Elly Griffiths £10 | Sunday 8th October 14:20 - 15:20 | St Mary’s Church Elly Griffiths will talk about the Last Remains the fifteenth book in the number one Sunday Times bestselling series, The... Fighting for Life: The Twelve Battles That Made Our NHS and the Struggle for Its Future Isabel Hardman £10 | Sunday 8th October 14:20 - 15:20 | LitFest Marquee Award -winning journalist Isabel Hardman will tell the gripping story of a beloved institution through the people who keep it... Red Wine and Bloody Murder Wendy Joseph KC Elly Griffiths Jackie Malton £15 | Sunday 8th October 15:40 - 16:40 | St Mary’s Church Sit back and enjoy a glass a wine while a retired judge, Wendy Joseph KC, a mystery writer, Elly Griffiths,... Music and Literary Heaven: A Joyous Evening of Poetry, Jazz, Song, and Humour Maureen Lipman Norma Winstone Jeremy Robson Art Themen Nikki Iles Dave Green £40 | Sunday 8th October 18:00 - 20:30 | Northwood House Actress Maureen Lipman, singer Norma Winstone, poet Jeremy Robson and a group of outstanding musicians bring the 2023 Isle Wight Literary Festival...
