Radical Islands
Take a walk on the wild side and help us celebrate Essex’s wonderful islands as part of Essex Book Festival’s ongoing Radical Essex countywide activities in 2025 / 2026.
Walks, talks, pen-friends, picnics, foraging, mud workshops, wild swims…help us to celebrate the rich heritage and history, exquisite nature and wildlife, and communities that make up this island county. After all, Essex does have the most islands of any English county.
Radical Islands Launch
Ken Worpole and Jules Pretty
The Packing Shed, West Mersea
Sunday 01 June, 2.30 – 5.30pm
Join us for an event like no other – take a boat trip to the Packing Shed at Mersea Island, a unique piece of our Essex heritage and join two fascinating talks.
Social historian and writer Ken Worpole, and poet / environmental activist Jules Pretty will be joining us as we all catch the boat from Mersea Island to The Packing Shed for what promises to be a completely fascinating afternoon.
In Brightening from the East: Essays on landscape and memory (2025), writer Ken Worpole details the unique contribution the Essex islands have made to modern notions of ‘Englishness’, not only in landscape character but also in the 20th century story of environmental and social change.
In Sea Sagas of the North, Jules Pretty uses story and saga to explore how the Essex archipelago came to be, and how the Sky People were welcomed with kindness at the shore.
Tickets for this event are very limited so book early to avoid disappointment.