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Waterstones Canterbury Jacky Colliss Harvey – Walking Pepys’s London 5 October | Waterstones Canterbury – Rose Lane | 18:30
Samuel Pepys walked round London for miles. The 2 1/2 miles to Whitehall from his house near the Tower of London was accomplished on an almost daily basis, and so many of his professional conversations took place whilst walking that the streets became for him an alternative to his office. With Walking Pepys’s London, the reader will come to know life in London from the pavement up and see its streets from the perspective of this renowned diarist. The book draws many parallels between his experience of 17th-century London and the lives of Londoners today.
Colliss Harvey’s new book reconstructs the sensory and emotional experience of the past, bringing geography, biography and history into one. Full of fascinating details and written with extraordinary sensitivity, Walking Pepys’s London is an unmissable exploration into the places that made the greatest English diarist of all time.
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Bewdley Festival Peter Clark – The Men of 1924 9 October | St George’s Hall | 14:30
Historian and author, Peter Clark provides an intriguing account of one of the turning points in Britain’s political history: the formation of the first Labour government 100 years ago.
The new Cabinet of January 1924 consisted, as governments had for generations, of twenty white, middle-aged men. But that is where the similarities with previous governments ended, for the election of Britain’s first Labour administration witnessed a radical departure from government by the ruling class. Replacing Stanley Baldwin’s Conservatives were Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour, the majority of whom had left school by the age of fifteen. Five of them had started work by the time they were twelve years old. Three were working down the mines before they entered their teens. Two were illegitimate, one was a foundling, three were of Irish immigrant descent. For the first time in Britain’s history the Cabinet could truly be said to represent all of Britain’s social classes.
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Cheltenham Literature Festival Simon McDonald – Leadership 10 October | The Garden Theatre | 16:00
What does modern-day diplomacy look like?
Sharing their insights are the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2014 Catherine Ashton and former Permanent Undersecretary for the UK’s Diplomatic Service Simon McDonald, who have observed, supported and guided leaders and countries towards collaboration and stability where hope could rise and fall, often in a matter of hours. Chaired by Georgina Godwin.
In his first book, Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy, Simon McDonald assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be called to lead – be it at work, on the sports field, or in the community – the example of top leaders in politics and public service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure out your own approach.
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Travel Book Company Christopher Somerville – The View from the Hill 26 October | The Travel Book Company – Semley | 18:30
During the enforced idleness of the Covid-19 pandemic, Christopher Somerville revisited the 450 notebooks whose pages contain the accumulated thoughts and experiences of a career spent exploring Britain on foot over four decades. The View from the Hill pulls together the cream of this unique crop, following the cycle of the seasons from a freezing January to a Christmas sunrise. In between are hundreds of walks that take in magnificent flora and fauna, ancient traditions and folklore, and geological peculiarities and wonders – all narrated with moving and humorous sensitivity.
There’s no need to move from your chair to go walking in Christopher’s company. Just stir up the fire, fill your glass, and let these spirited tales take you out of here and far away.
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Taunton Literary Festival Peter Clark – The Men of 1924 5 November | Brendon Books | 14:30
The new Cabinet in January 1924 consisted, as governments had for generations, of twenty white, middle-aged men. But that is where the similarities with previous governments ended, for the election of Britain’s first Labour administration witnessed a radical departure from government by the ruling class. Replacing Stanley Baldwin’s Conservatives were Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour, the majority of whom had left school by the age of fifteen. For the first time in Britain’s history the Cabinet could truly be said to represent all of Britain’s social classes.
This unheralded revolution in representation is the subject of Peter Clark’s fascinating new book, The Men of 1924. Who were these men? Clark’s vivid portrayal is full of evocative portraits of a new breed of politician, the forerunners of all those who, later in the last century and in this one, overcame a system from which they had been excluded for too long.
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