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The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival is 60 this year, and we celebrate with a programme which welcomes back a host of past Directors to share their memories of Cheltenham’s impressive literary heritage. The very first Literature Festival was held in 1949, and consisted of just 9 events – the festival now hosts over 440 events, talks and workshops every year.
Elizabeth Jane Howard was made Festival Director in 1962, and produced an unforgettable event which has since been described as the ‘literary festival’s coming of age’. We are delighted to welcome her back this year to talk about her life and friendship with some of the most fascinating writers of our time, and her own unique relationship with the Festival. As former Festival Directors and judges of the Whitbread Prize both P J Kavanagh and Lawrence Sail will be back at the Festival, as they come together to read from their poetry collections.
The Cheltenham Booker Prize is an annual institution and this year debates the merits of four novels printed in 1969, the first year that the Booker Prize was awarded. It brings together Former Festival Director John Walsh and last year’s Guest Director Kate Adie with Mary Beard, Erica Wagner and Ion Trewin to defend their favourite titles.
As well as examining the Festival’s history we also celebrate this landmark year with a line-up led by ten fantastic Guest Directors. Each brings their own unique flavour to the programme: Alice Roberts has programmed events that relate to the creative aspect of science and art; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has gathered together some of the writers she admires most, including Diran Adebayo and Jackie Kay; and Rageh Omaar joins us to consider how journalism has changed over recent years. Don’t miss Richard Eyre, Sandi Toksvig, Anthony Horowitz, Jonathan Coe, Mark Watson and Monica Ali as each take to the helm for each of their own very special days of events.
View our Guest Director events →
We’ve tagged this post with 60th anniversary, Guest Director, literature on Wednesday 30 September 2009.
