The summer edition of Derby Book Festival opens on Friday 22 May with 70 events in venues across the city over the following nine days. Full details are available on the Festival website at www.derbybookfestival.co.uk and tickets can be booked online for all events and, for events at QUAD and Derby Theatre, in person or by phone.
The Festival, which will be held from 22 – 31 May, is funded by Arts Council England and the University of Derby, with sponsorship from several local businesses and individuals. This includes Boolers, Cosy, Crystal Care Collection, Derventio Education, Marketing Derby, Penguin PR, Pennine Healthcare, Smith Partnership, The Pepperpot and Pam and John Rivers.
Venues across the city are hosting Festival events include Central Co-op County Ground, Chapel Streets Arts Centre, Derby College, Derby Museums, Derby Theatre, Derbion, Electric Daisy, Kedleston Hall, Landau Forte College, QUAD, St Peter’s Church, Waterstones and city libraries plus Belper Library.
Topics range from fashion to football and from space to spying with over 20 events for children.
This year’s Festival offers in-person and recorded events. A Digital Pass is available giving access to 28 recorded events, which will be available to watch for six weeks after the Festival ends (from Thursday 5 June to Thursday 17 July) for £50. Individual recordings are also available from £5 each. Academics from the University of Derby will present three free CivicLAB events at Derby Theatre Community Hub to talk about their latest research and publications on a broad range of subjects.
Professor Keith McLay, Chair of Derby Book Festival and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Derby, said: “Derby Book Festival continues to bring communities together through a shared love of books, ideas and storytelling.
“The programme for this year offers an engaging, diverse mix of events for audiences of all ages and interests, and we are delighted to be hosting events across the city and county.
“The University of Derby is, once again, proud to support the Festival, and it is great to see so many local businesses and individuals involved.
“We look forward to welcoming visitors from across the region and beyond, to join us in celebrating not only reading but opportunities to connect, learn and be inspired.”
Highlights of the Festival will include:
- Novelists Joanna Cannon and Patrick Gale in conversation about their latest novels
- Historian Professor Janina Ramirez joins us at QUAD sponsored by The Pepperpot
- Waterstones Book of the Year winner, Lucy Steeds at QUAD
- Labour Minister Chris Bryant MP talking about his fascinating biography at QUAD
- Political journalist and author, James Macintyre on Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose
- Guardian sports journalist Jonathan Wilson on the history of the World Cup at QUAD, sponsored by Smith Partnership
- Former English cricketer Ashley Giles at Central Co-Op County Ground sponsored by the Cricket Societies Association
- Jo Hamilton talks about her experience of The Post Office Scandal at QUAD, sponsored by Penguin PR
- Two Cream Tea events with Kate Strasdin and Clare Hunter at Museum of Making, both sponsored by Crystal Care Collection
- BBC Radio 4’s Claudia Hammond talking about her latest book, Overwhelmed, sponsored by Crystal Care Collection
- The biography of the Mitford Girls’ mother, Muv, sponsored by Boolers at Derby College
- A special event at Kedleston Hall with novelist Deepa Anappara, which has strong links with Kedleston Hall’s latest exhibition, How Did We Get Here?
- An expanded children and families’ programme including the popular Bookworms: The Kids Takeover at Electric Daisy (in partnership with Down to Earth Derby) sponsored by Smith Partnership plus Making Science Fun! with Roma Agrawal, learn to create comics with illustrator Laura Howell and an Introduction to Dungeons and Dragons Workshop.
The Festival will once again take over Derby College on Sunday 24 May with seven events held across the day, with a Takeover Day Pass available for £40 for all seven events. The Day also includes Writing Workshops and the fiercely-contested annual Festival Book Quiz.
Following the Festival, on 19 July, there will be an event featuring a new biography of Joseph Wright of Derby at the Old Library, Derby Museum and Art Gallery with Steve Farnsworth, coinciding with the much-anticipated exhibition of Joseph Wright’s paintings which will transfer from the National Gallery.
The two annual primary schools’ Meet the Author events, both to be held at Derby Theatre and sponsored by local firm Cosy, will feature the Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell Boyce and author/illustrator Joe Todd Stanton. These two events will also be live streamed to schools across the city and county, reaching around 12,000 children.
The Festival programme will be available from all Festival venues, as well as from libraries and local cafes and community centres. The Festival is organised in partnership with all the major arts and cultural partners in the city.
