Woodstock Literary Festival preview (From The Oxford Times)

Woodstock Literary Festival preview

9:45am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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Woodstock Literary Festival describes itself as ‘boutique’, which could be a euphemism for ‘small and exclusive’. But, perhaps because of its timing — just before publishers’ big rush for the Christmas market — it has succeeded in attracting an enviable line-up this year, with many high-profile authors hot-footing it down from Edinburgh.

Appropriately for a festival which holds many of its events in Blenheim Palace, the array of historians at Woodstock is particularly impressive, with Max Hastings, Peter Snow, David Starkey, Lucy Worsley and Peter Hennessy, all of whom have heavyweight books out this autumn.

Antonia Fraser will also be there, talking not about her historical fiction but about her memoir of her husband Harold Pinter. Adam Sisman will be discussing the Oxford historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who ruined his reputation by authenticating the hoax Hitler diaries.

The world of art is well represented, with Andrew Graham Dixon talking about his ground-breaking biography of renaissance ‘bad boy’ Caravaggio.

The festival also offers the unusual opportunity of hearing a ‘sitter’ discuss the process of posing for a portrait, when Oxford author Philip Pullman can be heard ‘in conversation’ with sculptor Martin Jennings, who recently completed a portrait of the writer for the National Portrait Gallery.

Politics will be under the spotlight, with a session on political scandals attracting Times columnist David Aaronovitch and Parliamentary blogger Guido Fawkes. And Peter Hennessy will join a discussion with journalists about whether the coalition has changed British politics for ever.

Fiction is represented by Howard Jacobson, whose novel The Finkler Question has been one of the books most recommended for summer reading. There is also the perennially popular broadcaster and poetry lover Daisy Goodwin, who will talk about her first novel, My Last Duchess.

Another popular author, Allison Pearson, author of I Don’t Know How She Does It, will take her audience back to the world of David Cassidy’s fan club in the 1970s. Jacobson will also discuss his ‘ultimate read’, Dickens’s Great Expectations, with Yasmin Alibhai Brown, author of The Settler’s Cookbook, who will propose two Toni Morrison stories.

There’s an intriguing visit by crime writer Val McDermid, author of the gritty Wire in the Blood series, adapted for TV. Her latest book, Trick of the Dark, features sleuth Charlie Flint, who returns to her old Oxford college to investigate a violent killing. The author, who read English at Oxford in the 1970s, says: “I should stress that my own experiences as an undergraduate at St Hilda’s College did not include murder.”

Also listed under ‘fiction’ is Rupert Thomson, although his book, This Party’s Got To Stop, is supposed to be a true story of a mad few months spent with his two twentysomething brothers following the death of their father.

Everyone’s favourite atheist, the Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins, will present his book The Greatest Show On Earth, a fresh consideration of Darwin’s theory of evolution which was one of the hottest tickets at the Edinburgh Festival.

And there is a treat for cricket fans as Independent sports columnist Brian Viner talks about the forthcoming Ashes series with journalist and bestselling author Marcus Berkmann (Ashes to Ashes) and the former England cricketer Angus Fraser, who played in three Ashes series.

If some of the offerings appear too strenuous, you could relax with Arabella Weir (star of The Fast Show) whose latest book, The Real Me is Thin, gives a hilarious account of her eating history; novelist Kathy Lette, whose witty (and by no means sexist) analysis of the male gender, Men: A User’s Guide, was a huge success earlier this year; and TV impressionist Ronni Ancona.

The festival has stayed faithful to its roots by including some homegrown writers, including Margaret Forster, wife of Blenheim’s archivist John Forster. She became intrigued by Winston Churchill’s grandmother, the 7th Duchess of Marlborough, who has traditionally been portrayed as a Victorian martinet. Margaret Forster’s book Churchill’s Grandmama, is an attempt to redress the balance.

There is also a chance to hear John Banbury, one of three editors of a new book, Woodstock and the Royal Park, published to celebrate the 900th anniversary of a stone wall around a royal park.

The book collects the work of several local historians, telling the story of Woodstock and Blenheim and the effect they had on ordinary people.

Another view comes from Oxford author Jane Bingham, who will talk about her book The Cotswolds: A Cultural History, which looks behind the picture-postcard perfection and investigates how the area has been viewed by artists and writers through the centuries.

l Box Office 01865 305305 www.woodstockliteraryfestival.com