An enticing and wide-ranging programme has been announced for this year’s Durham Book Festival – all crammed, miraculously, into one hectic October weekend.
Among those gathering to celebrate the power of the written word will be real authors (not an AI bot among them) including Dame Pat Barker, Ann Cleeves, Jonathan Coe, Eliza Clark and Natasha Brown.
Joining them – or at least sharing the programme – will be poets Malika Booker and Andrew McMillan, music fan and political columnist John Harris, shopping guru Mary Portas and Durham University chancellor and former US presidential advisor Fiona Hill.
Steph McGovern and Jeremy Vine, joining the ranks of broadcasters turning to crime (fiction), will be present to talk about their debut additions to the canon, the former discussing Deadline with Ann Cleeves and the latter (a Durham Uni graduate) spilling the beans on The Murder on Line One.
Ann has a new one out, too, so you’ll learn something of new Jimmy Perez story The Killing Stones.
A couple of things leap out.
The first concerns Durham resident Pat Barker, acclaimed author of 16 novels (including the Booker-winning The Ghost Road), who will be joined by daughter and fellow writer Anna Barker to discuss a memoir called Dipped In Ink.
Currently a ‘work in progress’, it’s the result of Anna’s 10-year investigation into her mother’s life, from wartime conception to the publication of her first novel, Union Street, in 1982.
Anna has recently published her first poetry collection, Book of Crow, which is touring as a Durham Book Festival commission (in partnership with Live Theatre) to venues in County Durham during September.
Then there’s the 40th anniversary of Tony Harrison’s powerful poem, v. which was published in 1985 during the miners’ strike and became the subject of a heated debate two years later when Channel 4 proposed to televise it.
Confected outrage whipped up by the tabloid press, focusing on the use of supposedly “obscene” language, gained the broadcast more publicity than the TV producers can ever have hoped for.
To mark the occasion, in an event supported by Manchester Metropolitan University, poets Andrew McMillan, Malika Booker, Jo Clement and Paul Farley will present their ‘reimagining’ of the poem.
Another festival commission will be a dramatic live reading from Eliza Clark's short story collection, She’s Always Hungry, directed by Maria Crocker – to be followed by a Q&A with the author who grew up in Newcastle and in 2023 was named one of Granta magazine’s Best of Young British Novelists.
Fiona Hill will take the stage to discuss her new podcast series, Forged in the North, with bestselling crime writer LJ Ross and Romani storyteller Richard O’Neill, all explaining how their writing was ‘forged’ in the region.
Mary Portas will introduce her memoir, I Shop, Therefore I Am, celebrated novelist Jonathan Coe will introduce his latest, The Proof of My Innocence, described as “a blistering political critique wrapped up in a murder mystery”, and Booker Prize longlisted Natasha Brown will talk about her acclaimed second novel, Universality.
Grainne O’Hare, who won New Writing North’s 2022 Debut Award for Fiction, will feature on a panel with novelists Vincenzo Latronico, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025, and Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2025.
Festival director Rebecca Wilkie, of New Writing North, which produces the event for Durham County Council, said: “This year’s festival really puts a spotlight on the remarkable literary legacy and the powerful voices coming out of the North East, as well as the wider literary landscape.
“There’s a lot to celebrate, alongside three new commissions from brilliant Northern writers, including a major new podcast series from the region, Forged in the North, featuring appearances from North East legends ranging from Sting to Sara Davies.
“This year's festival is a showcase of the very best talent at work today.”
Councillor Lyndsey Fox, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for economy and partnerships, said: “A good book is like an adventure, transporting us to different worlds, introducing us to fascinating characters and making us laugh and cry along the way.
“Durham Book Festival is a celebration of the power of the written word in all its guises.
“It helps to spread the joy of reading among people of all ages and provides an opportunity to showcase talented writers from our own region.
“This year’s line-up is truly inspirational, and I hope it encourages aspiring authors, poets and journalists from County Durham to follow their dreams.”
Furthermore, she hoped the festival would raise the county’s profile as a cultural destination and boost the local economy.
Other notable festival events include…
Ian Leslie with his new biography John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, charting the relationship of Beatles Lennon and McCartney.
John Harris explaining how music helped him connect with his son after an autism diagnosis, recorded in his book Maybe I’m Amazed.
Lanre Bakare, culture correspondent at The Guardian, discussing We Were There, his portrait of Black Britain outside London, with poet Jake Morris-Campbell whose Between the Salt and the Ash explores the North East in the wake of Christianity and coal.
Former cabinet minister Alan Johnson discussing his biography of Harold Wilson with former parliamentary colleague and diarist Chris Mullin.
Author Rachel Cooke with The Virago Book of Friendship and Gabriel Weston and Grace Spence Green with their boundary blurring books, Alive and To Exist As I Am.
And in a live podcast from The Working-Class Library, guest writer Terri White discussing the legacy of Catherine Cookson.
The festival also features events for aspiring children's book writers, programmed in partnership with Children's Books North Network, and sees the return of The Little Read with 500 free copies of Help! We Need a Story, by North East children's author James Harris, distributed by libraries across the county.
Durham Book Festival, founded in 1990 and supported by Durham University and Arts Council England, runs from October 10 to 12 (Friday to Sunday) at Gala Durham.
Peruse the programme on the Durham Book Festival website.