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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260628T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260628T170000
DTSTAMP:20260626T101232Z
CREATED:20260326T090001Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260626T101232Z
UID:11459-1782662400-1782666000@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:The Traitor's Circle
DESCRIPTION:Jonathan Freedland\nThe Traitor’s Circle\nSunday 28 June 2026\, 4.00pm\nLayer Marney Tower\, Layer Marney\, Near Colchester\, Essex\, CO5 9US\nPrize-winning journalist and acclaimed author of The Escape Artist Jonathan Freedland tells the thrilling true story of one of the most dramatic episodes of the second world war. With deep moral resonance for our own time\, he asks what kind of person it takes to risk everything and stand up to tyranny. \nTickets: £14 (includes entrance to Layer Marney Tower and gardens)\nOr all 3 events for £36\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948 \n  \nThe History Books Ticket Deal\n\nMake an afternoon of it with our History Books ticket deal – £14 per event or all 3 events for £36\nDiscount automatically applied at checkout when tickets for all 3 events are booked: \n12.00pm – Tony McMahon\, Downfall of the Templars\n2.00pm – Emily Hauser\, Mythica\n4.00pm – Jonathan Freedland\, The Traitor’s Circle \nThe History Books at Layer Marney Tower\, Sunday 28 June. \n\n\nEvent Information\n💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.\n📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.\n🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.\n🪑 Seats are unallocated.\n📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.\n☕ Layer Marney Tea Room will be open from 11am serving refreshments\, lunches and snacks.\n🚗 There is free parking at the venue.\n♿ The venue is wheelchair accessible. There are disabled facilities on site. \n  \n\n\nJonathan Freedland\n\nPhoto of Jonathan Freedland © Philippa Gedge \n\n\nJonathan Freedland is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Escape Artist which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford\, Rathbones Folio and Waterstones Book of the Year prizes and in April 2025 was named by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Books of the 21st Century . It was translated into twenty one languages and appeared on numerous Book of the Year lists. \nA Guardian columnist\, Freedland has won awards for Columnist of the Year and Commentator of the Year and is a past winner of an Orwell Prize for Journalism. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s contemporary history series\, The Long View\, and the author of twelve other books\, three of them non-fiction\, including his first\, the award-winning Bring Home the Revolution. Among those books were nine thrillers\, eight of them under the name Sam Bourne\, including The Righteous Men which was a No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. \n\nThe Traitors Circle\n\n\nThe Rebels Against the Nazis and the Spy Who Betrayed Them. \nThe new thrilling non-fiction from the bestselling author of The Escape Artist. \nA thrilling true story of courage\, resistance and\, ultimately\, betrayal in the Third Reich by internationally bestselling author and prize-winning journalist Jonathan Freedland. \nThe Traitors Circle tells the true\, but scarcely known story of a group of secret rebels against Hitler. Drawn from Berlin high society\, they include senior army officers\, top government officials\, two countesses\, an ambassador’s widow\, a young heiress and a former model – all of them meeting in the shadows\, whether hiding and rescuing Jews or plotting for a Germany freed from Nazi rule. \nOne day in September 1943 they gather for a tea party – unaware that one among them will betray the rest to the Gestapo. Pursued to near destruction by a cruel\, calculating detective – a man with the blood of thousands on his hands – theirs is a story of rare heroism\, sacrifice and inspiring endurance in the face of the most brutal regime in history. \nIn another page-turning work of nonfiction\, Jonathan Freedland\, acclaimed author of The Escape Artist\, sheds light on one of the most dramatic episodes of the second world war\, telling a story with deep moral resonance for our own time\, one that asks what kind of person it takes to risk everything and stand up to tyranny. \n\n‘An astonishing true story of courage\, love and betrayal\, told with the verve of a thriller. Freedland is a master at weaving spellbinding entertainments drawn from forgotten corners of history’\n– Mick Herron\n\n\n\n‘A story of unlikely rebels who had much to lose from resisting the Nazi regime\, which so many of their peers supported. What made them trade personal safety for moral rectitude? Freedland’s answer is as tense as a thriller yet perceptive\, thoughtful and\nthoroughly researched. It made me think long after I’d turned the last page’\n– Katja Hoyer\, bestselling author of Blood and Iron\n\n\n\n‘The Traitors Circle rivals Freedland’s superb The Escape Artist. A revelatory account of heroism and treachery in Nazi Germany\, it based on original research and reads like a thriller. Totally gripping and timely’\n– Jonathan Dimbleby\n\n\n\n\nPhoto of Layer Marney Tower © Red Carpet Video
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/the-traitors-circle/
LOCATION:Layer Marney Tower\, Layer Marney\, CO5 9US
CATEGORIES:History,The History Books
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260628T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260628T150000
DTSTAMP:20260626T101211Z
CREATED:20260326T090020Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260626T101211Z
UID:11453-1782655200-1782658800@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Mythica
DESCRIPTION:Emily Hauser in conversation with Lucy Hughes-Hallett\nMythica\nSunday 28 June 2026\, 2.00pm\nLayer Marney Tower\, Layer Marney\, Near Colchester\, Essex\, CO5 9US\nAward-winning classicist and historian\, Emily Hauser\, will take us on an epic journey to uncover the true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. \nIn Mythica\, Dr Emily Hauser tells\, for the first time\, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps\, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems\, piecing together evidence from the original texts\, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies\, she reveals who these women – queens\, mothers\, warriors\, slaves – were\, how they lived\, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them. \n\n‘Bold and intellectually thrilling . . . rigorous scholarship and dazzling feats of imagination.’\n– Tom Holland\, historian and co-host of The Rest is History podcast\n\nEmily Hauser will be in conversation with biographer\, cultural historian and novelist\, Lucy Hughes-Hallett.\nTickets: £14 (includes entrance to Layer Marney Tower and gardens)\nOr all 3 events for £36\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948 \n\n\nThe History Books Ticket Deal\n\n\nMake an afternoon of it with our History Books ticket deal – £14 per event or all 3 events for £36\nDiscount automatically applied at checkout when tickets for all 3 events are booked: \n12.00pm – Tony McMahon\, Downfall of the Templars\n2.00pm – Emily Hauser\, Mythica\n4.00pm – Jonathan Freedland\, The Traitor’s Circle \nThe History Books at Layer Marney Tower\, Sunday 28 June. \n\n\nEvent Information\n💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.\n📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.\n🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.\n🪑 Seats are unallocated.\n📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.\n☕ Layer Marney Tea Room will be open from 11am serving refreshments\, lunches and snacks\n🚗 There is free parking at the venue.\n♿ The venue is wheelchair accessible. There are disabled facilities on site. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nEmily Hauser\n\nPhoto of Emily Hauser © Faye Thomas \n\n \nDr Emily Hauser is an award-winning classicist and historian. She read Classics at Cambridge with Mary Beard\, where she received a double first with distinction and won the prestigious Chancellor’s Medal for Classical Proficiency. \nShe has a PhD in Classics from Yale University\, and was a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. She is now Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter\, and teaches and researches on women’s writing\, ancient and modern. \n\n\n\nMythica\n\n\nAward-winning classicist and historian\, Emily Hauser\, takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. \nContrary to perceptions built up over three millennia\, ancient history is not all about men – and it’s not only men’s stories that deserve to be told. \nIn Mythica\, Dr Emily Hauser tells\, for the first time\, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps\, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems\, piecing together evidence from the original texts\, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies\, she reveals who these women – queens\, mothers\, warriors\, slaves – were\, how they lived\, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them. \nA riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women – from Helen of Troy\, Briseis\, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe\, Athena\, Hera\, Calypso and Penelope – Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics\, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it. \nOrder a copy of the book from bookshop.org. \n\n\n\n\n\nLucy Hughes-Hallett\n\n\nLucy Hughes-Hallett is a biographer\, cultural historian and novelist whose books have won the Samuel Johnson prize\, the Duff Cooper Prize\, the Costa Biography of the Year Award\, the Plutarch Prize\, the Randy Shilts Non-Fiction Award and the Biographers Club Award for an Exceptional Contribution to Biography. \nHer book on Gabriele d’Annunzio\, The Pike\, was named in the Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. Her most recent book is The Scapegoat: the Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham\, which has been described as ‘fabulous’ (The Guardian)\, ‘dazzling’ (Wall Street Journal) and ‘stunningly good’ (The Sunday Times). \nShe is a widely respected critic and in 2020 she was chair of the judges of the International Booker Prize. \nCleopatra: Histories\, Dreams and Distortions\, her first book\, has recently been re-issued in a revised edition. \n \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\nPhoto of Layer Marney Tower © Red Carpet Video
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/mythica/
LOCATION:Layer Marney Tower\, Layer Marney\, CO5 9US
CATEGORIES:History,The History Books
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260628T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260628T130000
DTSTAMP:20260626T101150Z
CREATED:20260326T090056Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260626T101150Z
UID:11449-1782648000-1782651600@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Downfall of the Templars
DESCRIPTION:Tony McMahon\nDownfall of the Templars\nSunday 28 June 2026\, 12.00pm\nLayer Marney Tower\, Layer Marney\, Near Colchester\, Essex\, CO5 9US\nWhy were the Knights Templar brutally crushed after years of courageous service in the Crusades? Were they framed for being heretics\, sorcerers and traitors? Do the Templars still exist today? Broadcaster and author Tony McMahon investigates the links between the trials of the Templars and the witch hunt mania that was about to grip Europe. \nTickets: £14 (includes entrance to Layer Marney Tower and gardens)\nOr all 3 events for £36\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948 \n  \n\nThe History Books Ticket Deal\n \nMake an afternoon of it with our History Books ticket deal – £14 per event or all 3 events for £36\nDiscount automatically applied at checkout when tickets for all 3 events are booked: \n12.00pm – Tony McMahon\, Downfall of the Templars\n2.00pm – Emily Hauser\, Mythica\n4.00pm – Jonathan Freedland\, The Traitor’s Circle \n\nThe History Books at Layer Marney Tower\, Sunday 28 June.\n\nEvent Information\n💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.\n📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.\n🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.\n🪑 Seats are unallocated.\n☕ Layer Marney Tea Room will be open from 11am serving refreshments\, lunches and snacks\n📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.\n🚗 There is free parking at the venue\n♿ The venue is wheelchair accessible. There are disabled facilities on site. \n  \n\n\nTony McMahon\n\nPhoto of Tony McMahon © Tony McMahon \n\n\nThe author\, Tony McMahon\, is a regular face on history and science documentaries on TV. He is one of four Truthseekers on History’s very successful three season series as well as Secrets of the Royal Palaces on Channel 5\, William Shatner’s The UnXplained\, Forbidden History\, Strange Evidence\, and many other shows. \nTony McMahon appeared with Tony Robinson and Steve Tibble at the Battle of Evesham Festival in August 2025 to talk about his trilogy of books on the Templars. Downfall of the Templars is the second book. The third\, focusing on the Freemason/Templar link\, will be published in late 2026. \nYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tonymcmahon_historybear\nThe Templar Knight blog: https://thetemplarknight.com/\nSubstack: https://tonymcmahon.substack.com/\nTony McMahon on TV: https://tony-mcmahon.com/ \n\n\nDownfall of the Templars: Guilty of Diabolic Magic?\n\n\nThe Knights Templar – Europe’s first Witches? \nNew evidence from TV historian Tony McMahon proves that the trials of the Knights Templar between 1307 and 1312 foreshadowed the witch trials about to engulf Europe for over 300 years. Many of the alleged crimes of the Templars mirror the charges brought against thousands of witches. Illicit kisses\, demon worshipping\, and desecrating the crucifix. \n\nTony McMahon explains:\n“It’s been overlooked that when the Knights Templar were being tortured and executed\, the king of France was also burning a group of women called the Beguines. He accused a bishop of murdering the queen using magic potions. And he was trying to put a dead pope on trial for diabolism. Something was happening in medieval society. This was the beginning of the notorious witch trials.”\n\n\nPlus\, while the Templars were on trial – others were being accused of sorcery including a bishop and a dead pope. This was part of a new elite obsession with sorcery and necromancy. The disturbing late medieval trend that would claim the lives of so many is investigated by TV historian Tony McMahon in Downfall of the Templars: Guilty of Diabolic Magic? (Pen & Sword publishers). \nMost historians assume the Templars were destroyed by the King of France\, Philip IV\, eager to grab their fabled riches. But author and historian Tony McMahon shows that the Templar trials between 1307 and 1312 were part of a new and sinister wave of prosecutions against alleged sorcerers and necromancers. \nSociety was sliding into superstition and darkness. The Templars fell victim to this trend. As our own time sees an onslaught on science and reason\, the terrible fate of these knights is an object lesson we all need to learn. And with increased interest in witchcraft\, this is a timely book set to provoke widespread interest. \nDownfall of the Templars also investigates whether the knights really did have enormous treasure that they successfully hid away. And it sheds light on organisations today that claim to be modern Templars. \nOrder a copy of the book from bookshop.org.
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/downfall-of-the-templars/
LOCATION:Layer Marney Tower\, Layer Marney\, CO5 9US
CATEGORIES:History,The History Books
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250628T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250628T170000
DTSTAMP:20250416T101258Z
CREATED:20250403T091514Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T101258Z
UID:10225-1751126400-1751130000@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Artists of Great Bardfield - SOLD OUT
DESCRIPTION:Dr Janet Dyson\, Artists of Great Bardfield\nDr Janet Dyson will provide an introduction to the group of artists who gathered in the Essex village of Great Bardfield from the 1930s onwards. \nJanet is a local historian and her book looks at the social history aspect of the ‘Bardfield Artists’\, drawing on the voices and memories of Great Bardfield residents in recalling life in the village before and after the arrival of two young artists in the 1930s. Their fascination for rural north Essex encouraged other artists to settle in Great Bardfield\, which resulted in the extraordinary outpouring of creativity seen during the Open House exhibitions of the 1950s. \nSaturday 28th June\, 4.00pm\nVenue: Between the Lines Bookshop\, The Old Post Office\, High Street\, Great Bardfield\, Braintree\, CM7 4SP\nTickets: £5 includes one drink on arrival\nBox Office:\nTo book tickets either email booksbetweenthelines@gmail.com\nor call 01371 810087 or 07971 255502 (10am to 4pm every day)\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/artists-of-great-bardfield/
LOCATION:Between the Lines Bookshop\, The Old Post Office\, High Street\, Great Bardfield\, Braintree\, Essex\, CM7 4SP\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Author talk,History,Partner Event,SOLD OUT!
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250615T163000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250615T173000
DTSTAMP:20250319T123804Z
CREATED:20250319T123804Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250319T123804Z
UID:10034-1750005000-1750008600@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Always Take Notes (live podcast taping)
DESCRIPTION:Always Take Notes (live podcast taping) featuring Frank Close\nAs the capstone of EA Festival 2025\, we are taping an episode of the UK’s #1 podcast about writing\, Always Take Notes\, co-hosted by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd. \nBesides interviewing authors about their latest work\, in this case\, Destroyer of Worlds by physicist and multi-award-winning science writer Frank Close\, the podcast delves into the creative process\, research\, habits and quirks of each guest\, the better to understand what makes their books so good. \nConsidering that Destroyer of Worlds is a new and seminal history of the atomic bomb authored by one of the world’s top science writers\, strap yourself in for a fascinating look under the hood of what makes Frank Close tick. \n\nIn partnership with EA Festival.\n\n\nSunday 15th June\, 4.30pm\nVenue: Hedingham Castle\, Bayley Street\, Castle Hedingham\, Halstead\, CO9 3DJ\nTickets: £20\nBox Office: eafestival.com\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDestroyer of Worlds by Frank Close\n\n\n\nHenry Becquerel’s accidental discovery\, in Paris in 1896\, of a faint smudge on a photographic plate sparked a chain of discoveries which would unleash the atomic age. \nDestroyer of Worlds is the story of how pursuit of this hidden source of nuclear power\, which began innocently and collaboratively\, was overwhelmed by the politics of the 1930s\, and following devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opened the way to a still more terrible possibility: a thermonuclear bomb\, the so-called “backyard weapon”\, that could destroy all life on earth – from anywhere. \nThe story spans decades and continents\, moving from Becquerel to Ernest Rutherford\, the Cambridge-based\, New Zealand scientist who first split the atom\, expands to include Enrico Fermi in Rome\, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in Berlin and the Joliot-Curies in Paris\, leading to the appearance of Robert Oppenheimer before climaxing with increasingly horrifying developments in the USA and USSR. The roles of three remarkable women – Lise Meitner\, Ida Noddack and Irene Curie – are re-evaluated\, and there are new insights into the work of Ettore Majorana\, Fermi’s mercurial but brilliant assistant\, who mysteriously disappeared in 1938\, possibly after foreseeing the explosive power of nuclear energy. Above all\, this is a story of how knowledge is often advanced by personal convictions and relationships\, an indeed by chance\, in a remarkable way. \n\n  \nOrder a copy of Destroyer of Worlds by Frank Close at the Essex Book Festival online bookshop at bookshop.org \n  \n\n\n\n\nFrank Close\n \nProfessor Frank Close OBE is a physicist\, broadcaster and author. He has been Head of Communications at CERN\, and is now Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College. He won the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday Prize in 2013 for Excellence in Science Communication and the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal in 1996. He is the only professional scientist to have won the British Science Writers Prize on three occasions. He has published over 200 research papers in particle physics\, and 20 books. June 10th sees the publication of his newest book\, Destroyer of Worlds\, the first full history of our search for nuclear power and the characters and minds behind it\, from a faint smudge on a photographic plate in 1896 to the H Bomb with the power to destroy all life on earth\, all in just 70 years. \n  \nRachel Lloyd\n\nRachel Lloyd  is co-host of the Always Take Notes podcast as well as the co-editor of Always Take Notes: Advice From Some Of The World’s Greatest Writers (2023). Rachel Lloyd is Deputy Culture Editor at The Economist. As well as overseeing the section’s digital output\, she contributes articles to the newspaper\, app and website\, chiefly about books\, television and film. In 2021 she was nominated for Young Journalist of the Year by the Society of Editors. \n  \nSimon Akam\n\nSimon Akam co-hosts the writing podcast Always Take Notes with Rachel Lloyd and is a British magazine journalist and author. His writing has appeared in many top media including the New Yorker\, the New York Times\, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Simon’s first book\, The Changing of the Guard – the British Army since 9/11\, was published in 2021 and won the Templer First Book Prize\, in addition to being selected by the Times Literary Supplement as a Book of the Year. Simon’s second book\, Snowlines\, will be published in 2026. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nEA Festival\n\nEA Festival is back on the beautiful grounds of Hedingham Castle\, located on the border of Essex and Suffolk in the charming village of Castle Hedingham. With a star-studded line-up\, it will be a dazzling smorgasbord of subjects – from AI and longevity to Christianity and art fraud. We are delighted to be partnering with EA Festival on these fabulous events.\n\nVisit eafestival.com for EA Festival 2025 Programme\, Line-up and to book tickets.\n  \n  \n \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/always-take-notes-live-podcast-taping/
LOCATION:Hedingham Castle\, Castle Hedingham\, Halstead\, Essex\, CO9 3DJ
CATEGORIES:History,Live Podcast,Science
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250614T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250614T190000
DTSTAMP:20250326T100847Z
CREATED:20250403T091519Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T100847Z
UID:10163-1749924000-1749927600@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside
DESCRIPTION:Victoria Shepherd\, Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside\nA thrilling history of mudlarkers\, charlatans\, experts and chancers in the year the Titanic sank and London was growing anew. \nDiving into the underbelly of London’s bustling\, occasionally lawless antiques trade at the turn of the century\, narrative historian Victoria Shepherd paints a compelling scene of the city at the height of empire\, in the midst of its remarkable transformation into a modern metropolis. \n  \nSaturday 14th June\, 6.00pm\nVenue: Read on Sea\, 28 Broadway\, Leigh-on-Sea\, SS9 1AW\nTickets: £5\nBox Office: readonsea.co.uk\n  \n\n\nStony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside: Treasure and Ghosts in the London Clay by Victoria Shepherd\n \nA thrilling history of mudlarkers\, charlatans\, experts and chancers in the year the Titanic sank and London was growing anew. \nJune 1912. A pair of workmen deposit a heavy ball of clay in the antiques shop of George Fabian Lawrence – or ‘Stony Jack’\, as he’s better known. As Lawrence picks through the mud\, a speck of gold catches his eye. A pearl earring tumbles into his hand\, then another. A Burmese ruby follows; then Colombian emeralds\, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and turquoise from Iran; tankards; watches; topaz; amazonite. \nStony Jack has discovered the greatest single cache of Elizabethan treasure. \nDiving into the underbelly of London’s bustling\, occasionally lawless antiques trade at the turn of the century\, narrative historian Victoria Shepherd paints a compelling scene of the city at the height of empire\, in the midst of its remarkable transformation into a modern metropolis. \nOften compared with Sutton Hoo as one of Britain’s key archaeological discoveries\, the Cheapside Hoard not only reveals a new glimpse of Elizabethan society\, but also can be viewed as one of history’s great ‘what ifs’ – so many treasures were smashed\, ignored\, reburied – the time of discovery\, without the huge mechanical diggers of today\, was crucial. \n  \n\n  \nVictoria Shepherd\nPhoto of Victoria Shepherd credit Jennifer Evans \nVictoria Shepherd conceived and produced the ten-part series A History of Delusions for BBC Radio 4 and is author of the book of the same name. \nShe has produced scores of documentaries and major strands for BBC Radio 4 and holds an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. \n  \n\n  \n \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/stony-jack-and-the-lost-jewels-of-cheapside/
LOCATION:Read on Sea\, 28 Broadway\, Leigh-on-Sea\, Essex\, SS9 1AW\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:History,Partner Event
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250612T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250612T200000
DTSTAMP:20250319T110537Z
CREATED:20250403T085029Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250319T110537Z
UID:10017-1749754800-1749758400@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:The Scapegoat
DESCRIPTION:Lucy Hughes-Hallett\, The Scapegoat\nFrom the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize\, a stunning biography of one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic seventeenth-century Englishmen at the heart of political and royal life. Lucy Hughes-Hallett will transport us into a courtly world of masques and dancing\, exquisite clothes\, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck\, gender-fluidity\, same-sex desire\, and appallingly rudimentary medicine. \n\nThis event will include an audience Q&A and after the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by Lucy.\n\nIn partnership with Anglia Ruskin University.\n\n\n\nThursday 12th June\, 7.00pm\nVenue: Anglia Ruskin University\, Bishop Hall Lane\, Chelmsford\, CM1 1SQ\nTickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Students\, Under 27s and Unwaged)\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948\n  \n\n  \nThe Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett\n \nFrom the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize\, a stunning biography of one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic seventeenth-century Englishmen at the heart of political and royal life. \nAs King James I’s favourite\, George Villiers\, Duke of Buckingham was the King’s gatekeeper\, right-hand man and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father\, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and first minister. A dazzling figure on horseback and a skilful player of the political game\, Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power. \nWith a novelist’s touch\, Lucy Hughes-Hallett transports us into a courtly world of masques and dancing\, exquisite clothes\, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck\, gender-fluidity\, same-sex desire\, and appallingly rudimentary medicine. Witch hunts coexisted with Francis Bacon’s empiricism and public opinion was becoming a political force. \nBuckingham’s story was part of a great political drama. Falling from grace spectacularly\, he came to represent everything that was wrong with the country. From kidnappings and murder plots to men weeping in Parliament over civil liberties\, The Scapegoat navigates love\, war-fever and pacifism in a society on the brink of cataclysmic change. In this richly compelling and authoritative account\, Hughes-Hallett summons an era that still resonates today. \n  \n‘Lord Buckingham rockets off the page of this gloriously epic\, seductively detailed biography: a man of impossible contradictions\, at once hubristic warmonger\, tender lover and brilliant power-broker to two kings. Lucy Hughes-Hallett opens a spyhole into the dark\, strange world of the Stuart kings\, with its masques and superstitions\, where a beautiful boy could rise to become the most powerful man in Britain’ – Olivia Laing\, author of The Garden Against Time \n  \nOrder a copy of The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett at the Essex Book Festival online bookshop at bookshop.org \n  \n\n  \nLucy Hughes-Hallett\n \nLucy Hughes-Hallett’s last work of non-fiction was The Pike: Gabriele D’annunzio\, Poet\, Seducer and Preacher of War which won the Baillie Gifford Prize\, the Duff Cooper Prize\, the Political Biography of the Year Award and the Costa Biography Award. In 2020 it was named ‘biography of the decade’ in the Sunday Times. \nSince then Lucy has written the novel Peculiar Ground (set largely in the seventeenth century) which was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize\, and Fabulous\, a collection of short stories. Her earlier books were Cleopatra: Histories\, Dreams and Distortions\, which won the Fawcett Prize (1990) and Heroes\, (2004) \n  \n\n  \n \n  \n 
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/the-scapegoat/
LOCATION:Anglia Ruskin University\, Bishop Hall Lane\, Chelmsford\, CM1 1SQ
CATEGORIES:Biography,History
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250605T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250605T200000
DTSTAMP:20250520T145709Z
CREATED:20250403T085027Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250520T145709Z
UID:9957-1749150000-1749153600@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Human Rights
DESCRIPTION:Shami Chakrabarti\, Human Rights\nJoin leading British human rights lawyer and campaigner\, Shami Chakrabarti for a powerful discussion on Human Rights: The Case for the Defence. This urgent\, powerful book demonstrates why human rights matter and why we need to secure further rights to deal with challenges of the present and future. \nThis event will be chaired by Pam Cox. \nThis event will include an audience Q&A and after the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by the author. \n\nThursday 5th June\, 7.00pm\nVenue: Anglia Ruskin University\, Bishop Hall Lane\, Chelmsford\, CM1 1SQ\nTickets: £12 / £10 oncessions (Students\, Under 27s and Unwaged)\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948\n\n\n  \nHuman Rights: The Case for the Defence by Shami Chakrabarti\n \nOur human rights are endangered. After the devastation of World War Two the international community united to enshrine fundamental rights to refuge\, health\, education and living standards. They protected privacy\, fair trials and free speech and outlawed torture\, slavery and discrimination. Their goal was greater global justice\, equality and peace. That settlement is now under attack from opponents on both left and right and populist and authoritarian movements worldwide. Simultaneously\, we are threatened by war\, inequality\, new tech and climate catastrophe\, crises human rights can help us address. \nIn this urgent\, powerful book\, Shami Chakrabarti\, demonstrates why human rights matter and why we need to secure further rights to deal with challenges of the present and future. Outlining the historic national and international struggles for human rights\, from ancient Babylon to the present day\, Chakrabarti is an indispensable guide to the law and logic underpinning human dignity and universal freedoms. This book equips supporters in the battle of ideas and will encourage doubters to think again. \nTo believe in human rights is to believe in human beings. If they – and we – are to survive\, these rights must be owned and understood by everyone. \nOrder a copy of Human Rights by Shami Chakrabarti at bookshop.org \n  \n\n  \nAbout Shami Chakrabarti\n \nShami Chakrabarti is a leading British human rights lawyer and campaigner who has written and broadcast widely and held a number of public roles in recent decades. A legislator in the House of Lords\, she is the author of On Liberty and Of Women. Director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties) from 2003 to 2016\, she was Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2016 to 2020. \n  \n  \n\n  \n  \n \n 
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/human-rights/
LOCATION:Anglia Ruskin University\, Bishop Hall Lane\, Chelmsford\, CM1 1SQ
CATEGORIES:History,Politics
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250601T143000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250601T173000
DTSTAMP:20250529T143202Z
CREATED:20250403T085052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250529T143202Z
UID:9940-1748788200-1748799000@dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk
SUMMARY:Radical Islands Launch - SOLD OUT
DESCRIPTION:Radical Islands Launch\nJoin us for an event like no other – take a boat trip to the Packing Shed at Mersea Island\, a unique piece of our Essex heritage and join two fascinating talks. There will also be an opportunity to explore the small island and Packing Shed building\, ask the authors questions and get books signed. Ticket includes both author talks and boat crossings to and from the island. \nThis event is sold out. If you are interested in attending but don’t have a ticket please contact tickets@mercurytheatre.co.uk to be added to the waiting list. We will then let you know if a ticket becomes available. \nSunday 01 June\, 2.30pm – 5.30pm\nVenue: The Packing Shed\, West Mersea\, Colchester\, CO5 8PA\nTickets: £20\, includes both talks and boat crossing to and from the Packing Shed\nBox Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948\n  \n\nKen Worpole – The Bulwark Shore\n \nThe Essex coastline is one of the longest of England’s seashores\, with many distinctive islands\, some playing a key defensive role in wartime\, while others have provided sanctuaries for wildlife and long-standing residential settlements with rich histories. In Brightening from the East: Essays on landscape and memory (2025)\, writer Ken Worpole details the unique contribution the Essex islands have made to modern notions of ‘Englishness’\, not only in landscape character but also in the 20th century story of environmental and social change. \nOrder a copy of Brightening from the East by Ken Worpole at bookshop.org \n  \nJules Pretty – Sea Sagas of the North\n \nThe isles of Essex once were hilltops. Then glaciers and ice-sheets melted\, and the sea rose up. At that time\, the North Sea was a wide dry plain called Doggerland. The Sky People roamed with all the herds. What happened when they became the first climate migrants\, forced to flee in small boats? In Sea Sagas of the North\, Jules Pretty uses story and saga to explore how the Essex archipelago came to be\, and how the Sky People were welcomed with kindness at the shore. \nOrder a copy of Sea Sagas of the North by Jules Pretty at bookshop.org \n  \n\n  \n \n  \n \n 
URL:https://dev.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/radical-islands-launch/
LOCATION:The Packing Shed\, West Mersea\, Colchester\, Essex\, CO5 8PA\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:History,Radical Islands,SOLD OUT!
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