Forthcoming Events

Journalist Tim Burrows writes about society, culture and place for the Guardian, New Statesman, Vice, the Daily Telegraph, Dazed & Confused and Quietus, among others. A recurring subject in his work is Essex and the Thames Estuary. In 2019, his Guardian longread ‘The Invention of Essex’ was published to widespread acclaim and became the basis for his forthcoming book of the same title coming out in June 2023. The Financial Times has tipped Tim’s book as one of The Books to Read in 2023.

Tim’s event is a co-production with EA Festival partner, Essex Book Festival.

In Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?’, Daniel makes a new case for liberalism based on the philosophy of John Rawls. He is an economist and philosopher with degrees in economics, philosophy and history from Cambridge and LSE, and was awarded the prestigious Henry Fellowship at Harvard where he studied under Amartya Sen. In addition to being a researcher at think tanks, he has worked as an advisor in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. He is currently completing his doctorate in economics at LSE, where his research focuses on the impact of technology on inequality and the future of work. Considering that Free and Equal triggered a bidding war among three top publishing houses, it’s no wonder that Thomas Piketty called it a “must-read.”

A multi-award-winning author and naturalist, Mark has published 13 books, among them two epic works about birds, Birds & People and Birds Britannica He has also written about the history of British environmentalism and extinction of indigenous peoples, not to mention 1000 articles for Britain’s leading broadsheets including a regular Country Diary column in the Guardian since 1988. Mark is arguably the nature writer most closely associated with and inspired by East Anglia. His forte is illuminating the twin narratives of natural history and cultural anthropology in all of his writings. At EA Festival 2023, Mark will launch his newest book, One Midsummer's Day.

Dipo Faloyin is the author of Africa Is Not a Country, a portrait of modern Africa that debunks persistent stereotypes in favour of telling a more comprehensive story. “This book should be on the curriculum,” quipped Anglo-Nigerian author Nikki May. As a senior editor and writer at VICE, and frequent contributor to other top publications including The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, and Prospect, Dipo’s writing focuses on race, culture, and identity across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Louise Gray is a leading writer on sustainable food and climate change. Her writings reflect her belief that individuals can make a difference through conscious food choices. After several years covering environmental issues for The Scotsman and The Daily Telegraph, she wrote The Ethical Carnivore, a book based on her experiences of eating only what she killed or found during a continuous two-year period. The book won Best Food Book and Best Investigative Work at the Guild of Food Writers Awards, and was shortlisted for the Fortnum and Mason Food Book of the Year. At EA Festival 2023, she will talk about Avocado Anxiety, her new book exploring the relationships between food and farming.

As a foreign correspondent for the Guardian since 1996, Luke Harding has reported on controversy and conflict from all over the world for over twenty years. In 2007, he moved to Russia and became The Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief, resulting in his last three books, Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House, Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia and Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Remaking of the West, two of which became New York Times #1 best-sellers. Last year, he published Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival, based on his eyewitness experiences from the front lines of that war.

This year is Mark's 17th year as the Editor of Country Life magazine. An editorial mastermind who oversaw 50 specialist titles for IPC Media before taking over its crown jewel, Country Life, Mark has steadily increased sales and advertising revenue through a canny diversification of the magazine’s content. An ardent countryman who grew up in the Cotswolds and lives in Hampshire, Mark seeks “to make the countryside a better place” while upholding its values and traditions. However, it’s putting readers’ interests first that has made Country Life a runaway success in a media environment littered with defunct titles. Among his top editorial triumphs are the editions of the magazine that have been guest-edited by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Dr Tristram Hunt is Director of the V&A, the legendary design museum, and a leading historian. The former MP for Stoke-on-Trent has a doctorate in Victorian history from Cambridge University and is the author of several books including, most recently, The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and The Transformation of Britain which was longlisted for the 2022 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History. His other acclaimed books include Cities of Empire: The British Colonies and the Creation of the Urban World and Marx’s General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels. A senior lecturer in British history at Queen Mary University of London, he appears regularly on BBC radio and television.

Milton Jones is a British comedian renowned for his zany absurdity with his tours customarily drawing 100,000+ people. Besides appearing as a guest panelist on Mock the Week, he has had various shows on BBC Radio 4. Among his many awards, Milton has won Chortle Headliner of the Year, Perrier Best Newcomer and the Sony Award. Milton has also recorded three hugely successful live DVD’s, Milton Jones – The Universe Tour. Part One – Earth, The Lion Whisperer and On the Road, and has written a novel called Where Do Comedians Go When They Die?

John is a legendary TV producer whose iconic shows such as Spitting Image and Blackadder have become canonical references of British humour. John believes that anything can be interesting depending on the way it is presented. It is this philosophy which underpins his most recent projects – the TV show QI (which stands for Quite Interesting) and The Museum of Curiosity, his show on BBC Radio Four. John has been an integral part of EA Festival since the Festival’s inception, appearing first as a speaker in 2021, then a moderator and special guest in 2022. This year, John will do stand-up comedy, in addition to moderating the sessions with Sir Mark Prescott and Milton Jones.

As the daughter of photographer Milton Gendel, Anna safekept her father’s diaries for years before turning them over to Cullen Murphy to edit and compile into Just Passing Through, her father’s book of memoirs documenting a life well lived among some of the best-known creatives and socialites of the era including Gore Vidal, Peggy Guggenheim, Princess Margaret, Stephen Spender and Anne Glenconner, among many others. Anna is an educator and writer who has taught Art History and Critical Thinking at top schools and institutions including the Metropolitan Museum and the Cloisters. She lives in Mistley, Essex.

At the age of twelve, pianist Shunta Morimoto won the prestigious First Prize of the Piano Teachers Association of Japan and the acclaimed Fukuda Scholarship Award. In May of 2019, he partook in the Van Cliburn Junior Competition in Dallas, Texas, in a performance that went viral on the internet and won him fans worldwide. What’s more, it led to invitations to perform internationally. In February 2022, at the age of 17, he was unanimously awarded the First Prize in the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition playing the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In February of 2022, he received The Parnassus Society Medal Award and will perform four concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Cullen served as the Atlantic's managing editor from 1985 to 2006, then became editor at large of Vanity Fair for more than ten years. For 25 years he wrote the comic strip Prince Valiant, which was drawn by his father, the illustrator John Cullen Murphy. Cullen's most recent book is Just Passing Through: A Seven-Decade Roman Holiday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022), built around the diaries and photographs of the correspondent, critic, artist, and confidant Milton Gendel.

Sir Mark Prescott is a racing legend sans pareil. In 1969, he took over Heath House Stables in Newmarket and has now trained for longer than any of the other 81 trainers based in the town. His 50-stable yard has produced over 2200 winners, including Hooray, Alborada, Albanova, Alpinista, Pivotal and Marsha. He has also won most of the premier handicaps and trained such multiple winners as Spindrifter, Masafi and Misty Halo. A lover of all country sports, he ran the Waterloo Cup, the Blue Riband of hare coursing, for 17 years and co-authored The Waterloo Cup – the First 150 Years and The Greyhound and the Hare. Most recently, he co-authored Strongholds of Satan, a history of Britain’s racecourses.

After reporting on the General Election and breaking news relevant to younger audiences, BBC tasked Marianna with ferreting out and investigating disinformation, especially conspiracy theories, in both news and social media. She now makes frequent appearances on BBC TV and recently presented the results of her investigation into anti-vaccine campaigns on Panorama. In 2021, Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30 list in Media & Marketing.

One of the iconic voices of British media culture, Justin Webb is the longest serving presenter of ‘Today’, BBC Radio Four’s flagship news and current affairs programme. He is an expert on American news, having served as BBC's North America Editor and its chief correspondent in Washington DC for eight years, reporting on many major global events including the first Gulf war, the civil war in Bosnia, and the fall of the Soviet Union. For his coverage of the Obama presidential campaign, he won Political Journalist of the Year. He is a regular columnist for The Times and Unherd.

Tipped by several commentators as the inheritor of John Lecarre’s mantle, Suffolk-based Edward Wilson lives in Chediston and is the author of eight novels, A River in May, The Envoy, The Darkling Spy, The Midnight Swimmer, A Very British Ending, The Whitehall Mandarin, South Atlantic Requiem and Portrait of the Spy as Young Man, several of them based in Suffolk and informed by his direct experience serving on the battlefields of Vietnam. (Edward served with the 5th SFGA and was decorated for his part in rescuing wounded Vietnamese soldiers from a minefield.) He has taught at Lowestoft College and local schools for thirty years and has written for The Independent, Tribune Magazine, The Guardian and Open Democracy.

Hailing from Bungay, Suffolk, Luke is quite literally one of East Anglia’s great cultural treasures and one of the UK’s most riveting spoken word performers. Delivering his poems with an intensity and charisma that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats, Luke bases his poetry on his own life - as a poet, father and son. Luke is a regular on Radio 4, has won a Fringe First for writing, a Stage Award for performance, and four Saboteur Awards.

Felix is a recent graduate from the RCA living in London. Curiosity, in ideas and their communication, underpins all of his work. Board games, mixtapes, films, architectural models, books and more - each offers their own syntax, which he employs selectively to express his ideas. Staging ideas across an eclectic range of channels, he specialises in reconfiguring the relationship between sound and image. From an exhibition reconfiguring the lexicon of classical sheet music to audio-visual commissions for the Royal Academy of Arts, he often arranges new interactions between these two mediums in particular.

John-Paul is an author, artist, journalist and coach. He has written seven books including ‘How To Change The World’ for The School of Life as well as two memoirs, a guide to creativity and a historical novel. Most recently, he published a book of poetry that he illustrated himself. He was on the faculty of The School of Life for seven years and trained for several years with Keith Johnstone, the pioneer of improvisational theatre. Last but not least, he regularly writes and contributes to major UK publications including The Guardian, Telegraph and New Statesman.

Sol Grimshaw moved to London to attend the Guildhall School of music and Drama in 2019. Since living in London he has immersed himself in the jazz scene, focusing especially on the genres of gypsy jazz and early jazz. Sol has performed at several of London’s top clubs including Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express Soho, The Vortex, The Savoy Hotel, Milton Court and Toulouse Lautrec. At EA Festival 2023, the Sol Grimshaw Trio will play a mixture of Django Reinhardt inspired compositions, American Songbook songs and Gypsy Waltz.

A young soprano of prodigious talent who gained scholarship to The Guildhall School of Music at 17, Christina made her operatic debut in 2012 at The State Opera, Prague, as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Adele in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. Since then she has performed at opera houses all over Europe and Russia and sung for audiences all over the world including many heads of state, including the Presidents of the Czech Republic, People’s Republic of China and various EU Countries. She was chosen by José Carreras to join him on his Farewell Tour in 2019 and, in February 2022, her single, A Million Tears, backed by Her Majesty the Queen and 52 Commonwealth countries, topped the classical charts at Number 1. In 2023, Christina will tour France and make her Canadian debut.

Mutiiiny is a creative collaboration and sustainable design studio bringing together the passion and talents of 3 artists, hence the three iii’s! They are Adam (@admosigns), a graphic designer, brand and website creator and sign writer; Jo (@vvravenstyle/@vvravenattire), a stylist, floral designer and vintage clothier; and Peter (@one__fang), a text-based collage artist. Whether it’s salvage furniture or vintage clothing, it’s Mutiiiny’s mission to bring joy and life back to used or discarded objects and fashion. “Our mission is to create not conform, encourage others to become part of our crew and make the world a happier, kinder place.”

A pioneer of eco-entertainment, leading cultural entomologist and storyteller Bridget created Pestival, an international festival about 'the art of being an insect’ and has given insect and bat talks all over the world. In her the capacity of writer, broadcaster and naturalist, Bridget was commissioned to write and perform an Opera for ArtAngel on the ‘Dusk Battle between Bat and Moth that hatched the Butterfly’. Bridget was the first International Art Fellow at the Zoological Society of London and was awarded a Top Female Explorer Award by the Explorers Club of New York in March 2022.

Donna is a personal stylist who dropped Personal Shopping from her consulting services years ago in order to assist clients to make wardrobe decisions with positive impact. With experience spanning more than 10 years, she inspires and assists clients to make more informed, confident wardrobe decisions that push back against the need for quantity or newness. Donna knows the vintage and pre loved markets well. Through her gentle but impactful approach, she helps clients reframe their learned shopping behaviours so they can begin participating in the circular economy.

After completing his theatrical training at Anglia Ruskin University, Steven realised that his true vocation was singing. Despite no formal musical training, his honest and powerful delivery of Musical Theatre, Popular and Rat Pack classics allowed him to build up a big local following and sell out venues across the region including The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge Corn Exchange and Bury Theatre Royal. Due to his down to earth persona as much as his voice, he has been a judge on BBC One’s ‘All Together Now’ and Amazon Prime’s ‘Now That’s Entertainment’, and mentored young talent in his ‘Future Stars’ groups and holds regular Showcase Concerts for local performers to take the spotlight.

Aaliyah is an actor-musician who graduated from Rose Bruford College in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Rather than feeling discouraged by adversity, she penned and produced a collection of songs that would later form the unreleased EP entitled “Call Me By Zhané”, that summer. In 2022, the young actress made her professional theatre debut in Colchester’s Mercury Theatre, starring in their celebratory 50th Anniversary production of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy Of Errors’, then, she debuted in her first musical and tour, as Nettie, the lead in ‘The Colour Purple Musical’. Aaliyah’s style combines neo-soul and RnB with her remarkable talent for freestyling.