John Crace A Farewell to Calm

With the starting line looming – it’s less than four weeks until this year’s first event featuring poet and writer Robert Hamberger leading a literary expedition through Epping Forest – the challenge is deciding how to fit everything in. Something, given the nature of Essex Book Festival, that is not always easy, or indeed possible.

For example, how can we reasonably choose between Victoria Shepherd talking about her fabulous debut book A History of Delusions: The Glass King, A Substitute Husband, and A Walking Corpse at Maldon Library, and The Guardian’s hilariously funny, outrageously acerbic political satirist John Crace taking Westminster to task in his latest book A Farewell To Calm: How To Survive The New Normal? An ongoing dilemma in Festival HQ.

The same applies for Maggie Gee who will be talking about her book The Red Children at Brentwood Library at exactly the same time that writer Nick Higham will be sharing insights into his fascinating book The Mercenary River – a tale of greed, complacency, high finance and low politics – at Grays Library, and Sunday Times Bestseller Anna Whitehouse of ‘Mother Pukka’ fame talking about her explosive debut novel: Underbelly at Anglia Ruskin University. Don’t know about you but we’re down to drawing straws this end…

See you very soon!


Greenwood Words – Burnham-on-Crouch

We’re really excited to be heading to Burnham-on-Crouch on 2nd June for our bumper one-day event Greenwood Words: part of our Jubilee celebrations, including performances by leading East Anglian storytellers Glenys Newton and Marion Campion who will be channelling King Canute, Neptune and The Green Man amongst others, a host of free family arts and crafts workshops all focusing on The Natural World, plus a plethora of pop-up writing desks dotted around town waiting to be scribbled at.

William Sieghart Poetry Pharmacies 3x2

One thing not to be missed is William Sieghart’s The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul.

Come along to this unique event to hear William, publisher, philanthropist and founder of the Forward Prizes for Poetry speak about how poetry has been such an obvious source of inspiration and comfort during the pandemic, and beyond that, his ‘live prescriptions’ and poem suggestions for the audience, their friends and loved ones.

In the words of Stephen Fry:

“Here is balm for the soul, fire for the belly, an arm around the lonely shoulder, a matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss.”

Stephen Fry

Find out more about The Poetry Pharmacy


The Human Library – Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
Mercury Theatre – 11th June

organizers_bookshelf human library

What is The Human Library? Just like a real library, visitors to The Human Library can borrow a book from a range of titles. The difference is that the books are People, and reading is a Conversation. Books in our Human Library come from all walks of life, and each has a different story to tell.

Come along, connect with people you wouldn’t normally meet, and help us celebrate positive differences in our community.

Find out more about The Human Library