Sundream – a new play set in Jaywick and Clacton

Two hot summers 50 years apart. Lifelong Jaywick resident Jackie needs the sea breeze, while newcomer Dave takes “seeing the sunny side” to new extremes! Will she capture the spirit of her youth and triumph over cynicism? Will she finally learn to walk in platform shoes? Will she ever get ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ out of her head?

Event 1
Friday 18th September: 10.30am – 11.30am
Harwich Library

Event 2
Friday 18th September: 2pm – 3pm
Frinton Library

Event 3
Friday 18th September: 5.30pm – 6pm
The Nose Bookshop (part of Walton Art Festival), Walton

Event 4:
Tuesday 22nd September: 11am – 12noon
West Clacton Library

You can book free tickets on Wise Ram Theatre’s website https://www.wiseramtheatre.co.uk/event-list or RSVP by emailing: [email protected].

This project is supported by Arts Council England.

Please note: These are work-in-progress performances and actors will be performing with a script in hand.

Age: Suitable for 12+

There are also a series of 6 community wellbeing workshops for adults in Tendring – Find out more about Green Creative Connections Tendring.

The post Free Events in Tendring – Sundream work-in-progress performances appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Essex Book Festival is unique. It is the only festival of its kind to take place over a one-month period, hosted by over thirty five venues, across one of the UK’s largest and most diverse counties.

We pride ourselves on delivering a broad programme of events including author talks, conversations, guided walks, workshops, panel discussions, family activities, writing surgeries, performances, talk & taste events, live podcasts, exhibitions, writing residences and book club events.

So whether you are an established writer or emerging artist we would like to hear from you.

If you are interested in taking part in Essex Book Festival 2027 please complete our submission form by Friday 11 December.

Due to the large number of submissions, only successful applicants will be contacted. If you have not heard back from us within 4 weeks following the closing date, please assume that your submission was unsuccessful.

The post Author submissions for Essex Book Festival 2027 now open appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Nominations for The Queen‘s Reading Room Medal 2027 are now open.

The Queen’s Reading Room, launched by Her Majesty Queen Camilla in 2023, is a charity working to celebrate and promote the power and benefits of reading. Their Medal celebrates individuals in their communities who are champions of books and literature, and who help others to make room for reading and storytelling in their lives.

The Medalist will have made a demonstrable impact on the people they serve: improving literacy, transforming non-readers into readers, or helping to improve wellbeing by connecting people with other book lovers, and connecting people through stories.

Volunteering and the power of voluntary work is celebrated by this award. Candidates may have formalised their work around reading into a charitable organisation or programme, but it will have begun as voluntary work.

Nominees could be an individual working in the publishing industry, library or other grassroots service, an author, bookseller, or literary festival volunteer, but the quality which makes them outstanding is their commitment to going above and beyond to spread the joy of storytelling.

Nominations may be made by the person themselves or by others and submitted online via the web form: https://thequeensreadingroom.co.uk/nomination/.

The medal nominee must:

Be aged 18 or over
Have conducted their reading activity in the UK
Have conducted some of their activity in the period March 2025-October 2026, and/or, if they are being nominated for activity prior to these years, be able to demonstrate lasting impact to the present day

To hear stories from this year’s finalists and winners, including how they have inspired others to make room for reading, what it means to be a reader and why volunteering is important, head to The Queen’s Reading Room Instagram and YouTube channels.

The post Nominations for The Queen’s Reading Room Medal 2027 are now open appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

An opportunity for young people to get involved in creating a new book podcast.

Are you aged 13-17 years and living in Essex?
Do you share a passion for books and podcasts?
Would you like to learn how to make your own podcast with a group of like-minded young people, and then broadcast it on Chelmsford Community Radio?

If you have answered “yes” to these three questions, then we have just the thing for you.

Essex Book Festival is teaming up with Chelmsford Community Radio on a new project, the Essex Book Worm Podcast, supported by Essex County Council’s Cultural Development Project Fund.

We are looking for 12 young people to devise, shape and present a new monthly 20-minute podcast talking all things books, including interviews with local authors/scriptwriters/poets, book reviews, quizzes.

Participants will learn how to create content, including vox pops, how to conduct an interview, how to edit and shape material, and finally, how to record a podcast for broadcast.

Still interested?

We are hosting two free training sessions on Saturday 19 and Saturday 26 September (10am-4pm) at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, so we will be ready for our first broadcast in October. These sessions will be led by award-winning radio producer Michelle Durant from Chelmsford Community Radio, and writer/educator Emma Kittle-Pey.

If you would like to book you place, and / or find out more, please email [email protected].

This project is supported by Essex County Council’s Cultural Development Project Fund.

The post The Essex Book Worm Podcast appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Capturing the key ideas from the events, Chris sketched and drew thoughout the day turning each of the sessions into a stunning, vivid, colourful visual summary.

Here are the brilliant illustrations he created:

Downfall of the Templars by Tony McMahon

Mythica by Emily Hauser

The Traitors Circle

Follow Christopher Fenwick on Instagram @christopherfenwick and find out more at www.fenwickstudio.co.uk.

The post Live Illustration at The History Books Day appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Who can resist one of the UK’s leading historians Alison Weir talking about the Boleyn family at Essex Record Office on Tuesday night.

Having said that, just across the road at Chelmsford Library we have Sunday Times and international best-selling author Sarah Vaughan (whose previous novel Anatomy of a Scandal became an instant smash-hit Netflix series), talking about her latest suspense novel Based On A True Story.

It’s going to be hard to choose between those two. The excellent news is that everyone should be home in time for the kick off of England vs. Ghana!

Our final two library event include two more best-selling writers: Vaseem Khan at Colchester Library on Wednesday night and Sophie Hannah at Witham Library on Thursday night.

Vaseem will be taking a deep dive into the world of James Bond with his new series The Q Mysteries, which centre on Major Boothroyd (aka Q), the gadget-maker for M16’s 00 agents.

Sophie, meanwhile, will be marking the 50th Anniversary of the Dorothy L Sayers Society with a talk about the hugely-popular murder-mystery genre, her own books included. The excellent news here is that tickets are still available for both of those events.

We are spreading the net wide over our final weekend with events taking place at Gibberd Garden and Harlow Museum and Gardens in Harlow and Layer Marney Tower near Colchester.

Anyone who is interested in The Knights Templar is in for a huge treat at Layer Marney Tower.

TV presenter and writer Tony McMahon is opening our History Books day on Sunday with a talk about his latest book Downfall of The Templars. For centuries, people have wondered what happened to the fabled treasure of the Templars, including the Holy Grail. Join Tony to find out more.

Tony will be followed by a British scholar of classics and a historical fiction novelist Emily Hauser who has been on a quest of her own.

This time we will travel even further back in time to ancient Greece as Emily reveals the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

Wrapping up the day we have Radio 4 presenter and Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland talking about his latest book The Traitor’s Circle, which details the true story of the Solf Circle—a secret, high-society group of German intellectuals, aristocrats, and diplomats who secretly opposed Adolf Hitler and were betrayed from within.

Those with a passion for the visual arts have a treat in store at Gibberd Garden on Sunday with British painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling talking to art critic and novelist James Cahill about the new monograph Maggi Hambling which marks her 80th birthday.

Followed by fellow British artist and writer Darren Coffield talking about his biography of Henrietta Moraes, the muse of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, and final muse and lover of Maggi Hambling. Our first event with Maggi and James is already sold out but tickets are still available for Darren’s event.

Again, it is going to be difficult choosing between Layer Marney Tower and The Gibberd Garden!

Finally, if the festival has whet your appetite to get cracking on your own novel, book your place on Saturday morning at Harlow Museum for our final writing workshop of the festival, this time led by best-selling Essex author Syd Moore. Syd will also be talking about her own book The Great Deception at Harlow Museum later in the day.

Keep cool and hydrated. And, most importantly, keep reading…

The post The Final Week appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

The question is: Have you booked your tickets for next Saturday’s special day of activities at Lakeside Theatre (University of Essex), which is taking place in collaboration with the Centre for Creative Writing, under the collective banner of The Writers Room?

One of the highlights of this year’s Essex Book Festival, we can’t wait to welcome writers from as far afield as Syria and Namibia, to as close to home as Wivenhoe and Halstead, to join us for a series of intriguing and challenging conversations.

Celebrating the 100th centenary of the birth of J.A. Baker, a pioneer of nature writing born in Chelmsford, is a big part of the day.

This includes a Writing the Archive Workshop led by Dr Andrew Burton, where participants will be invited to dip into the J.A. Baker archive based in the University’s Special Collections for inspiration.

There will be an intriguing panel Nature Memoir: What Next? led by James Canton (author of The Oak Papers and Renaturing) and including Chloe Hadjimatheou, the Observer’s Narrative Editor who broke the incredible story behind the best-selling memoir and film The Salt Path, and Creative Writing student, Helen Oliver-Masters.

Then later in the day we are welcoming London-based The Cabinet of Living Cinema to the Lakeside Theatre for the world premiere of its new film: How To Become A Peregrine, which, based on J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, will be accompanied by a soaring and immersive live soundscape composed by composer Kieron Chissik.

Also included in the day is our panel discussion: Freedom to Write, Freedom to Read, Freedom to Move led by English PEN. Never has it felt more important to support writers from marginalised communities, particularly writers who are no longer able to live in their home country.

This includes panellist Khaled Alesmael, one of our international writers-in-residence 2026: a Syrian queer writer who had a long career in journalism before being forced to flee Syria, and who now lives and works in London.

Khaled began his career as a radio journalist and writer of children’s poetry for major Arabic broadcasters, before working as a journalist across the Arab world and Europe. Most recently, his debut novel Selamlik (translated from the Arabic by Leri Price) is in development as an art house film, while his second book, which queers the Arab Spring, bears witness to the lives of nine queer Arabs. An English translation is forthcoming from World Editions in 2027.

For more information about our other three panellists joining Khaled for the Freedom to Writer, Freedom to Read, Freedom to Move panel go to essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/freedom-to-read-freedom-to-write-freedom-to-move/.

The post Celebrating J.A. Baker appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

We have a wonderful line-up of authors and events on the menu for this week. We are particularly excited about our three library events with three Sunday Times best-selling authors:

Lesley Kara who will be talking about her latest psychological thriller Troublemaker, as heard on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, at Gray’s Library on Tuesday;

Leading geopolitics expert and journalist Tim Marshall who will be talking about his new edition of Prisoners of Geography at Waltham Abbey Library on Wednesday night;

And finally, the wonderful multimillion-copy bestselling author B.A Paris who will be talking about her latest nail-biting book When I Kill You at South Woodham Ferrers Library on Thursday night.

Tim’s event is already sold out but there are tickets available for Lesley Kara and B.A. Paris.

We’re also really excited to have Siân Hughes, author of the Booker-longlisted and The Authors Club Best First Novel, Pearl, come and talk about her new novel No Such Thing as Monday at Colchester Samaritans Community Centre on Saturday afternoon, following on from Sarah Perry’s event.

No Such Thing as Monday is a full of heart, raw and exhilarating book, that confirms Hughes as a masterful chronicler of life lived on the edge, and people at their most vulnerable.

Anywhere But Here

Talking of people at their most vulnerable, and looking forward to later in the month, we are delighted to be teaming up with Chelmsford Cathedral to welcome award-winning investigative journalist and former Home Office insider Nicola Kelly to the Cathedral on Saturday 20 June to talk Festival Chair Peter Donaldson about her new book Anywhere But Here: How Britain’s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All.

Situated on the beaches and the ports, in the hotels, the courtrooms and the detention centres where the futures of those affected unfold, this is a searing investigation into one of the most urgent issues of our time.

In the words of Caroline Lucas, author of Another England:

‘Beautifully written, bold and brave, ‘Anywhere but Here’ painstakingly separates the reality from the all too frequently toxic rhetoric. A copy should be on every desk not just in the Home Office, but throughout government. A brilliant and hugely timely book.’

The post And We’re Off appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

While most of our ticketed events for families are now sold out, there are still spaces available to join children’s author Sade Fadipe’s The Art Of Playfulness – a writing workshop for grown-ups on how to write a children’s book, inspired by Kes Gray’s ongoing Oi Chelmsford! exhibition at the Museum.

We are also running two complimentary drop-in, hands-on eco-workshops for young people offering an opportunity to have a go at eco-printing using ink made from Essex oak galls, and to write a letter to the future – whatever form that takes – which will become part of a county-wide Young Ones zine.

Come along any time between 12.00pm and 3.00pm to take part in the eco-workshops.

Tickets are free but you will need to book a ticket to gain free entry to the Museum of Chelmsford.

The post Half term fun at Oi Chelmsford! appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Sarah Perry’s father-in-law David died in the autumn of 2022, only nine days after a cancer diagnosis. Until then he’d been a healthy and happy man: he loved stamp-collecting, fish and chips, comic novels, his local church, and the Antiques Roadshow. He was in some ways a very ordinary man, but as he began to die, it became clear how extraordinary he was.

Sarah and her husband Robert nursed David themselves at home. They bathed and cleaned and dressed him, comforted him in pain, sat with him through waking and sleeping, talked to him, sang to him, prayed with him. Day-by-day and hour by hour, they witnessed what happens to the body and spirit as death approaches and finally arrives.

This is not a book about grief: it is about family, and care and love. In the words of writer Rachel Clarke “Please read this book. It may very well change how you live.”

Another Essex author to look out for during the Festival is Lesley Kara, best-selling author of The Rumour (the UK’s bestselling crime fiction debut in 2019 and Channel 5’s adaptation – starring Emily Atack and Rachel Shenton aired in late 2025).

Lesley, who was also born and grew up in Chelmsford, will be talking to fellow Essex author Christine Penhall about her sharp and incisive new novel Troublemaker at Grays Library on Tuesday 2 June. Troublemaker is a masterful psychological thriller which asks: how do you solve a murder when no one believes it took place? How indeed!

Then, of course, we have another best-selling novelist, former television presenter and activist Syd Moore, again also born in Essex, coming to Harlow Museum on the 27 June to talk about her latest novel The Great Deception. Set in Iceland, The Great Deception conjures a world of espionage, mystery and illusion in a war-torn world. Syd is also running Writing the Archive Workshop using the Museum’s collection as inspiration.

Essex Book Festival launches this week so if you have your eye on an event or two, now is the time to get booking!

The post Home Grown Authors appeared first on Essex Book Festival.