Videos

Radical Pilgrimage: The Saffron Trail
7 days, 70 miles, Southend to Saffron Walden
15 – 21 June 2023 as part of Essex Book Festival

Artist, writer and wild-crafter Lora Aziz set off on a 7-day 70-mile Radical Pilgrimage along The Saffron Trail as part of our series of In My Steps: Radical Walks in Essex in 2023.

Starting at Southend Pier, The Saffron Trail hugs The Thames until it reaches Hadleigh Country Park. It then turns inland towards Hockley Woods, before pivoting north towards Danbury, Chelmsford and Great Dunmow, and finally arriving at Saffron Walden, the one-time UK capital of saffron.

How did saffron, an exotic spice with its origins in the Middle East, famous for its healing, dyeing and flavouring properties, land in Essex? Legend has it that a pilgrim smuggled a saffron corm into England in his hollow staff. The corm swiftly took root in Essex. So much so, that by the 1500s the village of Chepyn Walden had metamorphosed into Saffron Walden. The rest is history.

Lora ran a series of creative contemplative and ecological workshops along The Saffron Trail as part of the pilgrimage, which culminatesd in a Moroccan Sufi Gnawa concert at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden.

In collaboration with Appetite Book Club and Red Lion Books.

Award-winning poet and naturalist, Helen Macdonald joined us to talk about her collaboration with musician and writer Sin Blaché. Their book, Prophet, is a dazzling, breath-taking and genre-blending science fiction thriller. Helen was in conversation with Jamie from Red Lion Books.

Please note: as this was a Book Club event there is an assumption that the audience has read the book and this event contains spoilers for the book.

Video by University of Essex.

Our launch day took place on campus at University of Essex and included a community Radical Essex Procession with Beach of Dreams silk pennants, talks, performances, debates, walks and workshops. A joint celebration to mark the 25th edition of Essex Book Festival and the 60th anniversary of University of Essex.

Essex Book Festival patron and University of Essex Chancellor talks us through the day.

In partnership with University of Essex

Multi award-winning and bestselling author, Festival patron and University of Essex Chancellor, Sarah Perry, launched this year’s festival with a talk on her highly anticipated new novel, Enlightenment. This very special opening event celebrated both the 25th edition of Essex Book Festival and the 60th anniversary of University of Essex.

Sarah Perry was in conversation with Chair of Essex Book Festival, Peter Donaldson.

In partnership with University of Essex

As an appetiser for Essex Book Festival 2024, Onyi Nwabineli joined us at Art Exchange, University of Essex, for a conversation about her book, Allow Me to Introduce Myself. Put away your phone and get ready to rethink your ‘harmless’ social media habit in this darkly hilarious page-turner from an exciting new voice. Onyi was in conversation with Maja Antoine Onikoyi.

In partnership with University of Essex

As part of Essex Book Festival 2023 we partnered with University of Essex to host our second Creative Industries Day event for students to introduce them to career options within the creative industries. The event included special guests: Maja Antoine-Onikoyi: Social Media Manager, Odeon Cinemas Group Dan Bird: Editor, Granta Elizabeth Briggs: Editorial Director, Saqi Books Aimee Inglis: Production Manager, The Illuminated Film Co.

With thanks to Naomi Gumede for creating this video of the event.

In partnership with Appetite Book Club

New York Times bestselling author, Abi Daré, joined us at Mercury Theatre, Colchester, for this very special Book Club event to talk about her book The Girl With the Louding Voice.

Daré’s exuberant, moving debut revolves around Adunni; a Nigerian girl regarded as property at the age of fourteen, yet determined to find her ‘louding voice’ and live a life that she controls.

The event was also streamed live on Zoom and was hosted by Jo Coldwell from Appetite Book Club and Red Lion Books.

In partnership with Essex Libraries

As part of Essex Book Festival 2023, author and TikTok ‘Voice of Change’, Benjy Kusi, joined us for an online Zoom event to discuss his book, Hope This Helps. In partnership with Essex Libraries, this event was hosted by Freya Leslie. The world can often feel like a very scary, complicated and messy place. It’s not always clear what is the correct thing to say, the best thing to do or the right way to be. Hope This Helps gives guidance on things that can appear incredibly difficult to navigate. Centring tolerance, kindness and empathy, Benjy takes us back to our roots as a human race of simply wanting to connect, be heard and enjoy life. #EssexBookFestival #HopeThisHelps

In partnership with EA Festival

Essex is a county both famous and infamous – for its tabloid headlines and reality television, consumer culture and right-wing politicians. It’s a national habit to deride Essex but where this county leads, the rest of Britain often follows. One has to ask, is it England’s dark id? In this fascinating session, journalist and writer Tim Burrows unpacked the history, myths and stereotypes of the county with Essex Book Festival director Ros Green. The FT named The Invention of Essex, Tim’s book, one of the Books to Read in 2023 because he “digs beneath the sensationalism and red-top headlines to paint a deeply sensitive and engaging portrait of a misunderstood county and its people.”

This session took place at EA Festival, Hedingham Castle on 10th June 2023 presented in partnership with Essex Book Festival.

“Plastic Planet”

The photography students at Harlow College present their work on the theme of ‘The Rising Tide’, a response to the 70th anniversary of The Great Flood of 1953.
The students made their work in response to the challenges that global interconnectivity creates and the impact that climate change will have on all of us.
Their work was exhibited at Harlow Central Library throughout June as part of Essex Book Festival 2023.

Part of our Manifesto for Essex programme – a creative platform for young people living in Essex and beyond to express their thoughts and ideas about tackling Climate Change. Follow @manifesto4essex

This project was kindly funded by Essex County Council’s Climate Action Challenge Fund.

The photography students at Harlow College present their work on the theme of ‘The Rising Tide’, a response to the 70th anniversary of The Great Flood of 1953.
The students made their work in response to the challenges that global interconnectivity creates and the impact that climate change will have on all of us.
Their work was exhibited at Harlow Central Library throughout June as part of Essex Book Festival 2023.

Part of our Manifesto for Essex programme – a creative platform for young people living in Essex and beyond to express their thoughts and ideas about tackling Climate Change. Follow @manifesto4essex

This project was kindly funded by Essex County Council’s Climate Action Challenge Fund.

Shay Duke – The Rising Tide booklet

The photography students at Harlow College present their work on the theme of ‘The Rising Tide’, a response to the 70th anniversary of The Great Flood of 1953.
The students made their work in response to the challenges that global interconnectivity creates and the impact that climate change will have on all of us.
Their work was exhibited at Harlow Central Library throughout June as part of Essex Book Festival 2023.

Part of our Manifesto for Essex programme – a creative platform for young people living in Essex and beyond to express their thoughts and ideas about tackling Climate Change. Follow @manifesto4essex

This project was kindly funded by Essex County Council’s Climate Action Challenge Fund.

Launch event of the 2021 festival with the amazing Women of Essex: Sarah Perry, Patron of Essex Book Festival, Syd Moore, Writer, Co- founder of the Essex Girls Liberation Front, Sadie Hasler, Playwright, Journalist and Director of Old Trunk Theatre Company, and honorary Essex Girl, Festival Director Ros Green, who discussed what it means to be an Essex Girl: the jokes, the misconceptions, and the strengths and growing movements that are starting to challenge these preconceptions.

Hosted in partnership with The African and Caribbean Books and Writers Group.

Hailed as the biggest debut of 2020, This Lovely City is a poignant, conversation-starting story set around Brixton’s Windrush community, exploring themes of race, poverty and community in post-war London society.

During this virtual event Louise Hare was in conversation with Ros Green, Director of Essex Book Festival, discussing her debut novel, followed by an interactive Q&A session with members of The African and Caribbean Books and Writers Group and other audience members.

In 2020, Essex Book Festival went somewhere we’d never been before…underwater.

The event was a collaboration between Joel Cahen of Wet Sounds and Chris Adam and Andrew Wright of the Resonance arts collective in Chelmsford and Colchester-based sound-artist Frazer Merrick. Visuals by SDNA and lighting by Joe Lucas.

Together, they transformed Riverside swimming pool, Chelmsford, with soundscapes both above the surface and underwater, to produce an immersive audio-visual performance.

The event was inspired by the novel The Drowned World by JG Ballard. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic future where due to climate change the city of London has been submerged underwater. The sparsely inhabited world above has turned into a thriving tropical environment.

The event proved to be bizarre, magical and astonishing.

A short video from our Escaping Climate Change event which took place at University of Essex, Friday 6th March 2020. The event included debates, performances and activities all about tackling Climate Change.

Celebrating our big Science & Imagination Day at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford for Essex Book Festival 2019, as well as looking forward to 2020: Year of Science & Creativity in Chelmsford and Essex!

Click on the image to play the film.

We launched Essex Book Festival 2019 in Harwich as part of our opening weekend, themed on ‘Secret Water’ to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Arthur Ransome’s book, part of his ‘Swallows and Amazons’ series and set on the Essex coast. Thanks to all those who helped make it happen, including The Harwich Society, the Arthur Ransome Society, BBC Essex and Harwich Festival, as well as all the authors, artists and audiences who took part! Click on the image to start the film.

We invited some enthusiastic friends and supporters to tell us a few words about Essex Book Festival in the run up to March, what it means to them and why people should come along! We hope you enjoy this short film… (click on the image to play the video)

‘Oh, The Places We’ll Go!’ is our new strand of events and activities for families and young people, which we’ll be building on for next March as part of our 20 year anniversary. The launch event celebrated storytelling and activities from around the world, in partnership with Essex Cultural Diversity Project and supported by Essex Children’s University. There was Chinese calligraphy, African drumming, Bollywood dancing, flash fiction writing and bi-lingual storytelling, and it was part of this year’s Chelmsford Arts & Cultural Festival.

As one of our HUB weekends, Firstsite in Colchester hosts Essex Book Festival’s Place weekend: two days of events, talks, panel discussions, workshops and drop in family activities that explore history, heritage and identity. Here is a snapshot of the weekend, with footage of the event and interviews with friends, participants and supporters, including  A L Kennedy, Essex based author and Essex Book Festival Patron; Debbie Bird from Essex Children’s University; Jules Pretty, author of ‘The East Country’; artist, author and activist Hamja Ahsan and Rachel Walton from African Families in the UK.

For Essex Book Festival 2018 we went underground, taking over the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker. This video captures the spirit of the day, with interviews with some of those taking part, including CND Peace Education, artist collective Peeling Onions with Granny, ‘Cambridge Bard’ Glenys Newton, poet Martha Pailing, as well as footage of author talks, our Peace Panel, the Poetry Jukebox and the now infamous Silent Disco, featuring banned music from Estonia with international writer-in-Residence Paavo Matsin.

As part of Essex Book Festival 2018, Metal in Southend hosted a month-long Pop Up Writers House at Chalkwell Hall. This video brings together some of those involved to talk about their experience, including staff at Metal, Syd Moore, Essex Book Festival 2018’s Writer-in-Residence, workshop participants and writers in residence at Chalkwell Hall. (Click on the image to play the video)

Over the last year, we have been hosting a series of events called Stand Up For Diversity, inviting artists, arts organisations, communities and individuals to come along and talk about their own work, and why Diversity Matters in the arts and in our communities. The events are in partnership with Essex Cultural Diversity Project, and funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Essex County Council and Arts Council England.

This short film gives you a snapshot from our Colchester event in Autumn 2017, hosted by the Mercury Theatre.