Now in its sixth year, the Henley Literary Festival opens this week, with attendance records broken before it has even begun.
The festival, which takes place from September 29 to October 5, has breached the 15,000-ticket mark for the first time, and looking at this year’s line-up of 150 talks, Q&As and performances it’s easy to see why. Literary luminaries, historians and adventurers, stage stars and sporting heroes, and even royalty are among the attendees which this year include Princess Michael of Kent, Ranulph Fiennes, Paddy Ashdown, Roger Bannister, David Nicholls and Emma Bridgewater.
Ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup, Wales rugby legend Gareth Thomas will be speaking with award-winning sports writer Michael Calvin on Saturday October 4 about his newly published autobiography. “I’m excited to be able to tell my full story in Proud and really looking forward to sharing it with the Henley Literary Festival audience.” He will look back on a career that saw him become of the leading international try scorers of all time and then one of the highest profile sportsmen to come out while still playing.
Broadcaster Emma Freud returns to the festival for the fourth consecutive year as a host, this time talking with TV presenter and writer Dawn O’Porter on Wednesday October 1, about vintage fashion and much more besides. “I have adored my sessions at the Henley Literary Festival every year. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing Sarah Brown, the world’s finest campaigner; Michael Palin, the world’s nicest man; and Emma Kennedy (the world’s stupidest adult). This year I got a jackpot with Dawn O’Porter – the most fashionable human on the planet. Intellectual it won’t be – I am planning on sitting on her lap. Honest, fascinating, funny and mischievous – I’m hoping.”
From high fashion to tall tales and the Arb’s enthusiasm for travel is well-represented at Henley this year. Harry Bucknall and Nick Hunt aren’t two names you’d instantly recognise but these two gentlemen have taken travel – specifically walking – to a new level and return from lengthy journeys with an endless supply of stories on Wednesday 1st October. Lightning striking his computer bizarrely led to former soldier Harry walking the Via Francigena pilgrimage from London to Rome – every 1,411 blistering mile of it, all documented in Like a Tramp, Like a Pilgrim. Nick’s inspiration is a mere eight decades years old, as Walking the Woods and Water sees him follow the hobnailed boot steps of the 18-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor who charmed his way across Europe and wrote three acclaimed books about his walk. At 18, Nick read A Time of Gifts and dreamed of following in Fermor’s footsteps. In 2011 he did – on foot all the way to Istanbul. 
Using Fermor’s books as his only travel guide, he trekked some 2,500 miles through Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.
And this year The Arbuturian is sponsoring a talk featuring biographer Selina Hastings whose latest book, The Red Earl, is a memoir of her father, the 16th Earl of Huntingdon. Archetypal English eccentric Jack Hastings eloped with a penniless young Italian Catholic and fled to Australia to work as a jackaroo. A talented and accomplished artist, he travelled to Mexico to become a pupil of Diego Rivera and was enthralled by both the artist’s talent and his politics, eventually becoming the first communist member of the House of Lords and a member of Attlee’s government. Selina’s story of her father proves to be an enthralling journey through a life certainly lived. The Red Earl is on Sunday 5th October at 5pm at the Town Hall.
The Festival takes place at venues across Henley including a boat on the Thames and a historic theatre. For full listings, tickets and further information visit www.henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk or call 01491 575948.
