FRIDAY 2nd OCTOBER
River Readings:
The Hibernia, 11am, boarding from 10.30am, £9, 1pm, boarding from 12.30pm, £9
Actor Simon Williams, his wife Lucy Fleming and Sally Nesbitt will read a choice of poetry and prose. John O’Sullivan will read a selection from his new book, Odd Poems and Slogans.
Ion Trewin with Jane Clark:
Town Hall, 11am, £5
Brian MacArthur, literary editor of the Daily Telegraph, interviews Ion Trewin about his biography of the irrepressible MP, Alan Clark, together with the woman Clark married when she was just 16, his widow Jane.
 Diana Quick:
Kenton Theatre, 11.30am, £6
One of our finest actresses, Diana Quick talks about her memoir A Tug on the Thread in which she traces her roots, back to 19th century India and how they shaped her life as a student at Oxford and star of the classic TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.
Libby Purves:
Kenton Theatre, 1.30pm, £7
The writer and broadcaster who now heads up Radio 4’s Midweek and is a Times columnist talks about her latest novel, Shadow Child in which the heroine, Marion, is doing her best to cope with the death of her son, only to find that the boy she mourns was in many ways a stranger.
Peter Kellner:
Town Hall, 1.30pm, £5
The thousand-year struggle for the vote is the theme of the new book Democracy by the founder of the polling organisation YouGov. With the effects of the scandal over MPs and their expenses still being felt the author will give his analysis of the future, based on the experience of the past.
Kate Williams & Ophelia Field
River & Rowing Museum: Thames Room, 3pm, £5
The two young historians will be discussing what draws them to their chosen period. In Becoming Queen, Williams unveils the stubborn, passionate and opinionated young Victoria while Field turns her attention to the early 1700s in The Kit-Cat Club.
 Jeremy Paxman:
Kenton Theatre, 3pm, £9
His informed and hugely enthusiastic appraisal of the birth of modern Britain is a glorious reminder of how the Victorians made us who we are today. The landmark BBC series won large audiences when it was broadcast and his book, The Victorians, Britain Through the Paintings of the Age is equally compelling.
Sarah Dunant & Gaynor Arnold:
Town Hall, 4.30pm, £5
Two highly respected authors discuss their latests books. Dunant’s third novel, Sacred Hearts, is set in a convent in Ferrara, where 16-year-old Serafina is bundled off to save her family the expense of a dowry, while Arnold’s Booker Prize-listed, Girl in a Blue Dress, is based on the lives of Charles and Catherine Dickens.
Ronald Harwood:
Kenton Theatre, 4.30pm, £7
Actor-turned-screenwriter Ronnie Harwood talks about his life and work which won him an Oscar for the screenplay of Roman Polanski’s The Pianist. He received his third Oscar nomination two years ago for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. His play The Dresser, was his first great success.
Hugo Williams:
River & Rowing Museum, Thames Room, 6pm, £5
Born into a theatrical family (his brother is the actor Simon Williams) Hugo explores his past in his new collection West End Final, which he will read from tonight. Candid and clear, his deceptively simple and often wryly funny poems will appeal to everyone who loves language, and life.
Poetry at Hot Gossip:
Hot Gossip Coffeehouse, 7pm, £5
“Growing up in Ireland, music, words, and art became possibilities of escape,” says the Irish poet John O’Sullivan, who though born in Sligo has visited 55 countries and lived in seven before settling in tropical Bali.
Gyles Brandreth:
Kenton Theatre, 7pm, £7
In this special preview of his forthcoming autobiography, Something Spectacular to Read on the Train, the broadcaster and former MP takes us on a hilarious roller-coaster ride though the corridors of power.
Ben Fogle & James Cracknell:
Kenton Theatre, 8.30pm, £5
Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell will join fellow adventurer Ben Fogle to discuss their Race to the Pole, televised earlier this year. The pair will be interviewed by TV presenter Amanda Hamilton.
SATURDAY, 3rd OCTOBER
Sir Alistair Horne:
River & Rowing Museum: Thames Room, 10am, £5
The Oxford historian Sir Alistair Horne examines the bond between Henry Kissinger, the powerful Secretary of State, and Nixon, his increasingly challenged President.
Alain de Botton:
Town Hall, 10.30am, £5
Surprisingly little is written about the world of work, says philosopher Alain de Botton author of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, where, with contagious enthusiasm, he introduces us to the worlds of biscuit-making, fishing and rocket science and examines why we work, what work means to us, and the bizarre rituals we adopt in pursuit of it.
River Readings:
The Hibernia, 11am, boarding from 10.30am, £9, 1pm, boarding from 12.30pm, £9
More of the popular readings by actor Simon Williams and his team in an hour of essays, poetry, and extracts from novels old and new. A special guest on this cruise, is prize-winning poet Duncan Forbes, who will be reading from his new collection, Lifelines.
Michael Winner:
Kenton Theatre, 12 noon, £7
In his colourful autobiography, Winner Takes All the bon viveur, film director and acerbic restaurant critic reveals his life of contradictions from shy schoolboy who mingled with celebs at just 14, the lover of fine food who wrote The Fat Pig Diet, and the man who makes chefs tremble but whose catch-phrase is “Calm down, dear”.
Chris Mullin MP:
Town Hall, 12 noon, £5
In A View from the Foothills the Labour MP describes his unusual political career. With an eye for detail and a keen sense of the ridiculous, his diaries, are seen as the most indiscreet and elegant political memoirs since Alan Clark.
Francis Wheen:
Town Hall, 1.30pm, £5
A stalwart of Private Eye and BBC’s News Quiz, satirist Francis Wheen is renowned for his sense of the absurd and is the master of acerbic one-liners. In Strange Days Indeed he recalls joining the counter-culture at exactly the wrong time.
Tony Parsons:
Kenton Theatre, 1.30pm, £6
In his new novel, Starting Over, he looks at what might happen if we really could turn the clock back. Receiving the heart of a 19-year-old gives George Bailey the chance to live his life again. But is youth with all its febrile energy everything it’s cracked up to be or does age have its compensations too?
Conn Iggulden:
River & Rowing Museum, Thames, Room, 1.30pm, £5
The co-author of The Dangerous Book of Heroes, relates tales of heroism and adventure. There are accounts of derring-do by soldiers and explorers but also stories of quiet self-sacrifice from ordinary people who were caught up in events but rose spectacularly above them.
Miranda Carter:
King’s Arms Barn, 2.30pm, £5
The rift between cousins Kaiser Wilhelm and George V in 1914 shook the world, and when three years later, George declined to give refuge to his cousin-by-marriage Tsar Nicholas of Russia, the family ties that once bound Europe were severed. It is brought dramatically to life in the award-winning biographer Miranda Carter’s The Three Emperors.
Sir Max Hastings:
Kenton Theatre, 3pm, £6
Through the accounts of soldiers, civilians and journalists, the distinguished military historian and former Daily Telegraph editor reveals the events and misunderstandings that provoked calls for Churchill’s resignation long before VE Day in Finest Years — Churchill as Warlord 1940-45.
Lionel Shriver:
Town Hall, 3pm, £5
The author found herself famous at 48, when she won the Orange Prize for her bestseller We need to talk about Kevin. Reading from A Perfectly Good Family, she talks about her lean years as a new writer, how her personal life informs her books, and why she changed her name from Margaret Ann.
Julia Jones & Carmen Callil:
King’s Arms Barn, 4pm, £5
Along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham was one of the queens of crime fiction, but today she and her hero, Albert Campion, remain a mystery to all but their keenest fans. Among these are Julia Jones, author of the acclaimed biography The Adventures of Margery Allingham, and Carmen Callil, the founder of Virago, who introduces this event. Vivacious, stylish and witty, Allingham’s novels are a delight that too many have yet to discover.
Tristram Hunt:
Town Hall, 4.30pm, £5
Historian Tristram Hunt’s new book The Frock-Coated Communist profiles Friedrich Engels, the fox-hunting gentleman who championed the working class and a bon viveur who bankrolled Karl Marx and co-founded communism. A fascinating analysis of the man and the friendship that changed the world.
 Penny Smith with Anna Pasternak:
River & Rowing Museum: Thames Room, 4.30pm, £5
GMTV’s Penny Smith, has written two novels about the cut-throat world she knows so well. With her is journalist and novelist, Anna Pasternak, whose own romantic misadventures made it into print.
Charley Boorman:
Kenton Theatre, 4.30pm, £5
In his new book and subject of BBC show, Right to the Edge: By Any Means, Charley Boorman takes in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Japan. Hear how he travels the world’s most exotic countries by quad bike, hovercraft, scooter, canoe, and of course motorbike.
Alec Russell & Tim Ecott:
King’s Arms Barn, 17.30, £5
Writers Alec Russell and Tim Ecott have two very different perspectives on South Africa, the country close to their hearts. Russell, world news editor of the Financial Times, was based there for many years and his gripping portrait of the post-apartheid era, After Mandela, the Battle for the Soul of South Africa, is an eloquent account of a country in flux. Tim Ecott’s Stealing Water is a personal view of his childhood in the badlands of Johannesburg, describing his upbringing among prostitutes and scoundrels with deadpan humour.
Poetry at Hot Gossip:
Hot Gossip Coffeehouse, 7pm, £5
The seven Free Range Poets of Barn Galleries in Remenham, led by Bridget Fraser, director of Artspace, have very different voices but all have one thing in common — they love writing poetry and want to share it with you.
Joss Ackland:
Kenton Theatre, 18.00, £7
In his long career the distinguished actor has been a tea planter, a director of the Mermaid Theatre, and star of more than 60 films. Throughout it all, there was one constant: his marriage to his wife Rosemary, who died of motor neurone disease in 2002. In her last illness, she continued to keep the diary she had written all her life, and Joss asked her permission to publish it; his deeply moving book, My Better Half and Me, is the result.
Irvine Welsh:
Kenton Theatre, 8pm, £7
Irvine Welsh returns to Henley to introduce his up-coming novel, Skagboys, which ends where Trainspotting started. “It’s about daft young guys just out for the buzz on drugs and how their attitudes start to change as they become more defined by the drug,” says Welsh.
SUNDAY, 4th OCTOBER
Carol Thatcher:
Town Hall, 11am, £6
Best known as the daughter of a famous mother, Carol Thatcher has forged her own career through the force of her own personality and wrote the revealing memoir A Swim-On Part in the Goldfish Bowl. She talks about growing up as the PM’s daughter and her own brushes with controversy.
India Knight & Jojo Moyes:
Kenton Theatre, 11am, £7
Sunday Times columnist India Knight’s best-selling books home in on the stuff of women’s lives, and her latest, The Thrift Book, is a timely testament to the art of living well on less. She talks to award-winning romantic novelist Jojo Moyes whose latest novel, The Horse Dancer, provides one of the topics for today’s amusing and entertaining romp through what’s dearest to women’s hearts: shops, horses, shoes and cake.
Gavin Esler & Ian Jack:
Phyllis Court, 11am, £5
In his taut political thriller Power Play, Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler explores the mistrust implicit in our ‘special relationship’ with the US. Ian Jack’s new book, The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain, investigates how contemporary blights have their roots in the past.
River Readings:
The Hibernia, 11am, boarding from 10.30am, £9, 1pm, boarding from 12.30pm, £9
Today actor Simon Williams and friends are accompanied by writer Tom Fort at 11am who celebrates the mystery and magic of our rivers and the River & Rowing Museum’s poet in residence Jane Draycott at 1pm.
Patrick Bishop & Hala Jaber:
River & Rowing Museum, Thames Room, 12.30pm, £5
Two distinguished war reporters talk about life on the front line. Patrick’s electrifying report about 3 Para reveals the reality of their mission. Award-winning foreign correspondent Hala Jaber describes the fall-out of the war in Iraq in her intimate memoir of her quest to find a child for a charity campaign.
SUNDAY, 4th OCTOBER
Stanley Johnson:
Town Hall, 12.30pm, £6
Stanley’s story begins with a bang when his father, an RAF pilot, crash-lands in a Devon field. A few years later, his parents buy a farm on Exmoor where he still has a home. A sparkling raconteur, the original blonde bombshell, father of Boris, tells the story of his life andtimes in great style.
Nicci Gerrard & Sean French:
Phyllis Court, 12.30pm, £5
The best-selling novels of Nicci French are unrivalled for psychological suspense but the biggest mystery of all is that the crime writer is not one person but two; the husband and wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Both have their own distinctive style but as a duo, their tautly plotted books (What to do when Someone Dies is their 11th) speak with one, invariably female, voice.
Gervase Phinn:
Phyllis Court, 1.30pm, £5
In his no-nonsense style tempered by a shrewd eye for character and irrepressible sense of fun, Phinn introduces us to the cast of characters who people his life as a schools’ inspector in the Dales.
Dan Snow:
River & Rowing Museum: Thames Room, 1.30pm, £5
“History is the most exciting thing that has happened to anyone on this planet,” says TV presenter and historian, Dan Snow. He has presented three TV programmes on 20th century war and now goes further back in time to focus on the siege of Quebec.
Jenni Murray in conversation with Gillian Reynolds:
Kenton Theatre, 1.30pm, £6
Presenter of Woman’s Hour for more than 20 years, Jenni Murray reveals in her book Memoirs of a not so Dutiful Daughter how the woman she became — broadcaster, campaigner and feminist — is everything her mother disliked.
Ken Bruce:
Town Hall, 3pm, £5
Tracks of my Years, is the popular section of Ken Bruce’s long-running Radio 2 show where musicians choose their favourite songs. It’s also the title of his autobiography taking him from accountancy to a show that attracts 6.6 million.
Lucy Cavendish & Miranda Glover:
Phyllis Court, 3pm, £5
The popular duo, Cavendish and Glover, make their third appearance at the festival to talk about writing from personal experience. Both of them have used their lives as the starting point of their novels, Cavendish, whose third novel, Storm in a Tea Cup, is published next year, writes domestic comedy using her alter-ego Samantha Smythe as her sounding board. Glover, whose recently-published novel, Meanwhile Street has been acclaimed, takes contemporary life and transforms real events into fiction.
Fay Weldon:
Kenton Theatre, 3pm, £7
One of the pre-eminent writers of our times, Fay Weldon is an icon to many, a thorn in the flesh for a few but for four decades, she has never failed to excite, madden, and interest. She continues to do so in her latest novel, Chalcot Crescent, set in 2013, when the debt crisis has come home to roost.
Blake Morrison & Tim Lott:
Phyllis Court, 4.30pm, £6
Blake Morrison and Tim Lott shot to fame with immensely moving personal accounts of their childhood. Morrison’s And When Did You Last See Your Father became a film with Colin Firth and Juliet Stephenson and his latest book, The Last Weekend, is published next spring. Lott, who remembers his mother and his troubled youth in The Scent of Dried Roses, newly reissued as a Penguin Modern Classic, has written a sequel. To Perish As Fools is published next year.
Jonathan Tulloch:
Town Hall, 4.30pm, £4
Novelist Jonathan Tulloch’s first novel, The Season Ticket, won the Betty Trask Prize for works that are traditional/romantic in style. He will read from his book, A Winding Road, spanning the Chelsea art scene, wartime Ukraine, and the last days of Vincent Van Gogh, discussing what triggers his creativity.
William Dalrymple with Clive Limpkin:
Kenton, 4.30pm, £6
Acclaimed for his histories of the British in India, The White Moghuls and The Last Moghal, William Dalrymple gives a preview of his book, Nine Lives: in Search of the Sacred in Modern India. With him is Clive Limpkin, whose images in India Exposed are a photographic tribute to the country.
MONDAY 5th OCTOBER
Sir Steve Redgrave:
Town Hall, 18.30, £6
An interview with Nigel Starmer-Smith. The unrivalled Olympian, winner of five gold medals and renowned for his campaigning work with disadvantaged young people, Sir Steve Redgrave is a national as well as a local hero. In an exclusive preview for his forthcoming book, he talks to sports commentator Nigel Starmer-Smith about the men and women who have inspired him. From Jonny Wilkinson’s famous dropkick to Brian Clough’s self-belief, Sir Steve narrates tales of sporting icons and his personal mentors, acknowledging the motivation they have given him with passion and awe. Find out the contribution they made to Sir Steve’s triumphs both in and out of the boat, as he strove to overcome diabetes and colitis to win his fifth gold medal in spectacular style. Here he divulges the stories that inspired him and made his dreams a magnificent reality, in an event that, like the man, is unbeatable.
Published on 07 September 2009
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