Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival 2013

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Sun 15 Sep 2013 - Tue 17 Sep 2013

For the fifth year running, the Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival is celebrating the craft of storytelling. Between the 15th - 17th September enjoy a series of talks, readings, and workshops at Ivy House.

Tickets to for the workshops are £22, while the main events are between £7-£12 and can be booked online, by phone or on the day (if there are enough left). There are also free poetry readings in Golders Hill Park, and a kidsfest , where all events are £1 for children and £5 for accompanying adults.

Poetry in the Park is a new event this year that will be taking place on the 15th September between 2pm-5pm. It offers the community a diverse range of live poetry readings from the bandstand in Golders Hill Park. The park is right next to Ivy house and the programme will include local poets such as Dean Atta, Jannie Jacks, and Joshua Seigal.

Kidsfest is also on the 15th September and is from 11.30am-6pm. To get them started, Captain Calamity invites everyone to an interactive workshop based on his eponymous new book series. Next up, the dramatist, David Wood, shows how to make reading fun. I know as a child, reading was something I loathed, so if you have a reluctant reader, this will be a good workshop to attend. In this session, over sevens will enjoy interactive play with novelty books such as The Porridge Pincher. Wood is best known for his picture book adaptations such as The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The book was written and illustrated by Judith Kerr, who will also be making an appearance at the festival. Celebrating her ninetieth birthday, the author will talk about her own life and the inspiration behind her stories.
Other children's activities include a talk by Lauren Child, the author of Charlie and Lola, and a discussion between the producer and performers of the Horrible Histories stage adaptation. One of the most interactive adventures on offer is 'The One Hour Play'. Suitable for all ages, performers will take the ideas of audience members to create characters, scenes, costumes, and a script for a ten minute, three act play.

There are three creative writing workshops available. The first is on the 15th September at 10.45am, and covers the art of the memoir. Realising that many people are daunted by the length of writing an autobiography, Miriam Halahmy will outline how to produce a brief memoir. Later on at 6.30pm, there will be a general writing masterclass. If you would like to attend, you should submit a one-thousand word sample to [email protected], which will be circulated and workshopped in class. The final workshop is on the 16th September at 6.30pm and looks at how to maintain suspense in fiction.

Other events going on over this three day period include a fiftieth anniversary celebration of Doctor Who, a discussion on why critics don't take funny books seriously, a talk given by the Crime Writers' Association, and many more.

#family
#festivals
#fun_for_children
#fun_things_to_do
#hampstead
#highgate
#literary
#things_to_see
#september
!date 15/09/2013 -- 17/09/2013
%wnlondon