– Talks, interviews, discussions and readings –
Vanishing species and sugar-beet moons
Friday 3 October – 1615 – 1700 – Wells Maltings auditorium
Artists Tor Falcon and Beatrice Forshall introduce the worlds of their illustrated books. Beatrice explores the lives of strange and wonderful creatures and plants teetering on the brink of extinction – evoked in her book Vanishing Species. Norfolk’s Tor Falcon, author of award-winning Sugar-Beet Moon, will describe what she learned over two years of observational drawing – about lunar cycles, the moon’s relationship with living things, and how to draw in the dark.
An exhibition of their work and Rosie Reeve’s paintings will be open all weekend in the Handa Gallery at Wells Maltings, with free entry except during exhibition drinks. Exhibition drinks on Friday evening from 1830 will be open to Friends of the festival and Friday evening ticket holders only.
£20 evening ticket includes this event plus Richard Mabey at 1730 and exhibition drinks from 1830
Richard Mabey – 50 years in nature and words
Friday 3 October – 1730 – 1830 – Wells Maltings auditorium
In a lively and enlightening discussion, Patrick Barkham interviews the grandfather of nature writing, Richard Mabey. Over more than 30 groundbreaking books Mabey has changed the way we see and respond to the natural world: from Food for Free in 1972 to Flora Britannica, Nature Cure and The Accidental Garden last year’s vivid reflection of life, growth and change in the private spaces we think we own. Aged 84 and still writing, Richard remains a radical, provocative and important thinker on everything from the future of green politics to wilding and nature writing.
£10 for a ticket to this event only or buy whole evening ticket including both talks + exhibition drinks
Julia Blackburn – Lost worlds and healing spells
Saturday 4 October – 1500 – 1600 – Wells Maltings auditorium
Patrick Galbraith interviews celebrated author Julia Blackburn. Julia’s books of memoir, biography, history and poetry cover a huge range – a drowned prehistoric landscape, a Norfolk fisherman-artist, Picasso’s lover, Napoleon in exile, the life of Billie Holiday, a lost African tribe – all with a unique personal perspective. Mary Wesley called Blackburn’s work ‘spellbinding’’. Her newest book Remedies plays with snippets of folklore, cures and preventative spells that explore the Medieval world view.
Rewilding the Sea – Charles Clover
Saturday 4 October – 1630 – 1730 – Wells Maltings auditorium
Mark Cocker interviews author and conservationist Charles Clover about the journey from Clover’s 2004 book and 2009 film The End of the Line, through 15 years of work with the Blue Marine Foundation to his 2022 book Rewilding the Sea – to changing prospects for the world’s oceans since. Find out about the extraordinary capacity of marine environments to recover, given a determined community and local fishermen working together supported by governments – as well as the many challenges that remain. How do thriving ocean species affect other pressing issues – from biodiversity to carbon capture?
Alan Hollinghurst with John Mullan
Saturday 4 October – 1800 – 1900 – Wells Maltings auditorium
Esteemed critic John Mullan, interviews Alan Hollinghurst about his latest book Our Evenings and other internationally acclaimed novels. In stories that range across twentieth-century history Hollinghurst disrupts the traditions of the social comic novel. His nuanced and compelling dramas take place in diverse and vivid settings – from grand, elegant, manicured locations to wild, neglected and hidden corners to overlooked municipal spaces. His second novel The Line of Beauty famously won the Man Booker Prize in 2004, making Hollinghurst the first openly gay writer to achieve that accolade.
Places that make us
Sunday 5 October – 1000 – 1100 – Wells Maltings auditorium
Celebrated poet Katrina Porteous discusses with author and editor Patrick Galbraith the significance of place in an age of accelerating change and displacement. Both writers have immersed themselves in small rural or coastal communities with strong relationships to landscape and the natural world. Reading excerpts from their work, they ask: how can active engagement with the land and sea help us to make sense of who we are?
The Seafarer & nature in the early English world.
Sunday 5 October – 1130 – 1230 – Wells Maltings auditorium
Two poets – Matthew Hollis and Prof Bernard O’Donoghue – explore the ways in which our country’s oldest poems understood the environment of their time and how those insights speak to ecology and literature today. Matthew reads his modern version of ‘The Seafarer’ – about a sailor in exile on a frozen sea. Bernard shares his translation of ‘The Wanderer’ as well as work from his acclaimed new collection, The Anchorage.
– Guided walks and nature sighting –
Nature-sighting boat trip to Wells foreshore
Friday 3 October – 1500 – 1600 – East Quay pontoon, Wells-next-the-sea
Launch into the festival with a boat safari down Wells channel skippered by Nick Groom, to spot newly arriving geese and other wildlife.
Wheelchairs accommodated
Ghost ponds and beavers
Saturday 4 October – 0930 – 1230 – River Glaven valley
Norfolk once had over 30,000 farm ponds as well as beavers that would have made for a biodiverse aquatic wilderness. Join Prof Carl Sayer and Dr Jonah Tosney, find out how old degraded and vanished ponds can be revived from seed banks buried for centuries beneath farmed fields and see what has been achieved at the Glaven Valley’s secure beaver project after four years of activity. Note: one mile of walking, uneven ground and long grass. Medium fitness.
Italian art and the English landscape
Saturday 4 October – 1000 – 1200 – Holkham Hall
Author and art historian Nick Trend describes how Thomas Coke’s grand tour of Italy in the 18th century inspired the creation of the park at Holkham. Nick’s talk will start in the Great Saloon in Holkham Hall before proceeding to the Landscape Room to look at works by Claude Lorraine and other greats in the Earl of Leicester’s collection. Finally we stroll into the park to understand better how the real landscape has changed over the centuries. Note: one mile of indoor and outdoor walking including a staircase and hill. A few mobility scooters are available, plus a lift for wheelchairs.
Salt marsh at low tide
Saturday 4 October – 1200 – 1400 – Holkham marshes
Influential author, naturalist and Head of Conservation on the Holkham Estate Jake Fiennes leads a small group across ground that spends half of every day under the sea. Jake will explore the unique features of this ecosystem whose pathways are created by and for water, what that habitat does for the landscape and biodiversity, and how to look after salt marshes for the benefit of the specialised plants and animals which depend on them. Note: uneven, slippery surfaces. Suitable footwear and sure-footedness required. Please bring a 4WD if you have one, to help with transport to start location.
Waders at dawn
Sunday 5 October – 0600 – 0800 – RSPB Snettisham
Join award-winning author and naturalist Mark Cocker for a guided walk at RSPB Snettisham’s Roost where the unique geography of the Wash creates an internationally celebrated wader spectacular on certain high tides in autumn. Note: walking a mile each way over uneven ground. Please wear suitable outdoor footwear.
Rewilding woods and water
Sunday 5 October – 1300 – 1500 – West Acre
Lunch* in the The Stag at West Acre, then join Natural England’s John Ebbage, estate forester Fraser Bradbury and river conservationist Charles Rangeley-Wilson as they take you on a guided walk of West Acre’s wild woods, brecks and chalk streams. Note: rough walking: suitable footwear and reasonable fitness required. *Ticket price of £20 includes sandwiches.
UEA Poetry bus
Sunday 5 October – 0830 – 1500 – UEA departure and return
Join our bus bringing UEA students to enjoy our Poetry Sunday events: Places that make us with Katrina Porteous and The Seafarer and nature in the early English world with Bernard O’Donoghue and Matthew Hollis (see details above). Return trip includes time to meet the poets afterwards and explore the small fishing port of Wells-next-the-sea with its cafes and shops, salt marsh and quayside. Subsidised ticket price for students.
Literature & Landscape 