Day 1: Saturday, 10 June 2023
10:00 - 10:45 am: Avocado Anxiety
Speaker: Louise Gray, Moderator: Joanne Ooi.
Following on from her experience as “The Ethical Carnivore”, when she ate only what she killed or found over the span of two years and authored a book of the same title, Louise Gray has now shifted her attention to fruit and veg. At the Festival, she will discuss her new book Avocado Anxiety and reveal the results of her investigations into some of our favourite fruits and vegetables – the agricultural and commercial systems behind them and how these impact their carbon footprint and nutritiousness.
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11:05 - 11:50 am: Spies of Suffolk
Speaker: Edward Wilson, Moderator: William Sieghart.
Who knew that Suffolk provided the perfect backdrop for spy novels? Edward Wilson, based in Chediston, has written a series of spy fiction starring a protagonist who hails from Lowestoft, William Catesby. Due to Suffolk’s place on the front line of Cold War espionage, there’s apparently plenty of material to populate Edward’s thrillers. William Sieghart will delve into the personal and regional histories that make Edward’s books so compelling and have given rise to a deep and loyal following for his novels.
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12:10 - 12:55 pm: Africa is not a Country
Speaker: Dipo Faloyin, Moderator: Jonathan Walter.
Dipo Faloyin is determined to debunk our preconceptions and stereotypes about Africa. In his book, Africa is not a Country, he examines each country's colonial heritage, and explores a wide range of subjects, from chronicling urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best Jollof rice, to the story of democracy in seven dictatorships. Making his case with humour and generosity, Dipo hopes to make you reconsider everything you thought you already knew about Africa.
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2:00 - 2:45 pm: Inventing Essex
Presented in partnership with Essex Book Festival
Speaker: Tim Burrows, Moderator: Rosalind Green.
Essex is a county both famous and infamous – for its tabloid headlines and reality television, consumer culture and right-wing politicians. It’s a national habit to deride Essex but where this county leads, the rest of Britain often follows. One has to ask, is it England’s dark id? In this fascinating session, journalist and writer Tim Burrows unpacks the history, myths and stereotypes of the county with Essex Book Festival director Ros Green. The FT named The Invention of Essex, Tim’s new book, one of the Books to Read in 2023 because he “digs beneath the sensationalism and red-top headlines to paint a deeply sensitive and engaging portrait of a misunderstood county and its people.”
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3:05 - 3:50 pm: The Future of News
Speaker: Justin Webb Moderator: William Sieghart.
As BBC Radio 4’s longest serving presenter with front-line experience reporting some of the biggest global news stories of the 90s, Justin Webb shared his observations about how journalism, news, audiences and the media industry have evolved since he began his career and how we can clean up or upgrade the media environment so that the news can fulfil its original and most important purpose – accurately and objectively informing the public about important events that affect civic discourse.
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4:10 - 4:55 pm: Country Life
Speaker: Mark Hedges, Moderator: Joanne Ooi.
Veteran editor Mark Hedge talks about the challenges and rewards of leading Country Life, the magazine synonymous with British country living, for the past seventeen years.
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6:30 - 7:15 pm: Milton Jones (comedy)
Brilliant, zany and unique are just a few of the adjectives that describe the genius of Milton Jones’ stand-up comedy — verbal absurdity delivered with unerring, deadpan timing. You will roll with laughter and never forget his outlandishly clever, cleverly outlandish show.
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7:35 - 8:30 pm: Shunta Morimoto (piano)
The winner of the 2022 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, Shunta Morimoto, will dazzle us with a solo recital of Mozart, Brahms and Rameau.
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Day 2: Sunday, 11 June 2023
10:00 - 10:45 am: Invasion
Speaker: Luke Harding, Moderator: William Sieghart.
Luke Harding, the Guardian’s front-line correspondent covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will share some of the experiences and impressions captured in his new book, Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival, in addition to giving us an update on the conflict. As both the Moscow bureau chief of the newspaper and someone who has found himself directly in the cross-hairs of Putin, Luke is uniquely well positioned to analyse and report on the war.
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11:05 - 11:50 am: Book Launch: One Midsummer’s Day by Mark Cocker
Speaker: Mark Cocker, Moderator: Joanne Ooi. £15
Mark Cocker is undoubtedly one of this country’s top naturalists and nature writers. His staggering oeuvre of 13 books and over 1000 newspaper articles bears witness to his decades-long love and fascination with nature, especially birds. That said, it is an honour and a thrill that Mark has chosen to launch his newest book, One Midsummer’s Day, at EA Festival 2023. The culmination of 16 years of thinking and two years of writing, the book is, on its face, about birds. But really, it is a masterful sum-up of all that is interconnected between nature and man – all perceived during a single day of watching swifts.
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12:10 - 12:55 pm: Rethinking Liberalism
Speaker: Daniel Chandler, Moderator: Joanne Ooi. £15
If you were creating a society from scratch without knowing your identity in advance – rich or poor, black or white, male or female, how would you design it? This is the original question posed by John Rawls, the seminal 20th century American philosopher. In his critically acclaimed book, Free & Equal, Daniel Chandler follows on from where Rawls left off, answering his question with an irresistible argument for a progressive agenda that would fundamentally reshape our societies for the better. He shows how we can protect free speech and transcend the culture wars; get money out of politics; and create an economy where everyone has the chance to fulfil their potential, while sharing prosperity and operating within the finite limits of our planet.
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2:00 - 2:45 pm: Just Passing Through - the Diaries of Milton Gendel
Speakers: Anna Mathias & Cullen Murphy. £15
Anna Mathias and Cullen Murphy delve into the life of Anna’s father, Milton Gendel, the celebrated photographer who lived in Rome for 70 years. Just Passing Through, Gendel’s diaries painstakingly edited by Cullen, are a window thrown open on to the who’s who of artists, writers, and socialites who inhabited la dolce vita and include Mark Rothko, Princess Margaret, Alexander Calder, Anaïs Nin, Gore Vidal and Muriel Spark. His longtime home on the Isola Tiberina was a nerve centre of this glamorous and creative generation, whose comings and goings he immortalised in both words and images.
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3:05 - 3:50 pm: The Radical Potter
Speaker: Tristram Hunt, Moderator: Rowan Pelling. £15
Besides leading one of the top museums in the world, Tristram Hunt is an accomplished historian with several acclaimed books under his belt. At the Festival, he will talk about The Radical Potter, his biography about Josiah Wedgwood who, on top of creating the iconic blue and white jasperware bearing his name, was a pioneering forerunner of manufacturing efficiencies that permanently shaped Britain’s industrial development. Tristram will also talk about what lies ahead for the V&A and what it’s like to captain the world’s most international museum brand.
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4:10 - 4:55 pm: Sir Mark Prescott in conversation with John Lloyd
Sir Mark Prescott is literally a racing legend without peer. At the Festival, he will chat with John Lloyd about his love of animal sports, his biggest triumphs and disappointments, the secrets of his enduring success, his books and much much more. (To those of you know little or nothing about horse racing: If there’s one thing that Sir Mark does as well as training horses, it’s story-telling.)
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5:15 - 6:10 pm: The Remains of Logan Dankworth
Performer: Luke Wright. £18
Bungay-based Luke Wright, one of Britain’s top spoken word artists, returns to EA Festival to perform the third play of his trilogy completed in 2019. The Remains of Logan Dankworth looks at trust, fatherhood and family in the age of Brexit. The show won The Saboteur Award for Best Show in 2020 and was a critical and audience hit at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe.
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6:30 - 7:15 pm: The Meaning of Liff (er, Life) – a conversation with John Lloyd
In this closing session of EA Festival 2023, festival founder Joanne Ooi posed 5 questions to legendary TV producer John Lloyd, leading to some ridiculous anecdotes and absurd pranks.
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