One of the things we pride ourselves on at Essex Book Festival HQ is the range of venues we travel to over the festival month, and beyond that the ‘site-specific’ element of some of our festival events themselves. This is particularly the case for this year’s events in Chelmsford Cathedral and St Leonard at-the-Hythe Church in Colchester.
Tudor historian Alison Weir‘s event on Tuesday 10th June, which features her new book The Cardinal, could not be taking place in a more appropriate venue than the magnificent Chelmsford Cathedral given its’ chief protagonist, Cardinal Wolsey’s East Anglian roots.
The same applies for our event with Edward Wilson-Lee whose latest book The Grammar of Angels tells the fascinating story of Renaissance prodigy and polymath Giovanni Pico della Mirandola who dedicated his short, brilliant life to a quest to find the sublime. With angels in The Cathedral’s stained glass, carved into its stones, stitched into its kneelers, and fashioned into its reredoses’, audience members will be in excellent company for Edward’s event on Friday 20th June.
As for St Leonard at-the-Hythe Church, our special 1-day event Spirits, Salons and Sanctuary undoubtedly ‘chimes’ with this wonderful redundant church in the heart of Colchester, which has more than a story or two to tell about spirits and sanctuary. Not so sure about salons!
Join internationally acclaimed cultural historian and writer Marina Warner as she illuminates the concept of ‘sanctuary’ past and present via her new book Sanctuary, which explores how the idea of ‘sanctuary’ has shifted from what was once seen as an ancient rite to something quite different these days.
Meanwhile, poet Philip Terry will take his audience on a tour of his reimagined Purgatoria, which is set on Mersea Island, and poet and novelist Clare Pollard will invite us into the magical fairy-telling salons of Sixteenth Century Paris with her fabulous new novel The Modern Fairies.
Tickets for all events are available now at essexbookfestival.org.uk/events.