Visit Bath for Bath Festival (Part Two!)

This year Bath is saying hello to its new 10-day multi-arts festival from 19^th-28^th May 2017...

The festival will see music and literary events taking centre stage and will welcome the biggest and

brightest names in these fields to venues across the city of Bath. Over 130 different events have been planned and bookings are already being taken via Bath Box Office, both in person, online, and by telephone on 01225 463362.  

This week we’re focusing on the top events taking place over the second weekend of the festival: Friday 26^th May – Sunday 28^th May.

On Friday 26^th there’s Samantha Ellis shining a light on the Bronte that often gets forgotten. Her new book Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life presents a force of nature and a brave feminist who demands attention and respect. 

Later in the day, number one best-selling author Victoria Hislop will be presenting a powerful combination of stories and photographs that takes her audience around Greece. Her new book Cartes Postales From Greece is “a feast of words and images that pays tribute to Hellinic culture ancient and modern”.  

To round off the day, in the evening the Philharmonia Orchestra will be at Bath Forum playing a superb mix of Brahms and Beethoven, while folk fans might wish to see BBC Folk Award winners Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker at the Assembly Rooms. Both would be a great night out.   

On Saturday 27^th there’s a tough choice to make when it comes to which events to go to. There are events with BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson talking about life on the road and filming in war zones, ex Christie’s auctioneer Charles Hindlip with stories from behind the scenes of one of the world’s most famous auction houses, a past Costa Novel award winner Colm Toibin, and also one with the most recent Costa Novel award winner Sebastian Barry. 

Though for those who fancy a workshop, the book cover workshop with paper artist and illustrator Jessica Palmer might be the way to go. She will be exploring the book as a “beautiful object”, and helping attendees to make covers from papers of many types, colours and textures, cutting images or drawing with mixed media.

While Sunday 28^th sees politics coming to Bath. Harriet Harman will be talking about what being a woman in politics for the past 50 years has meant for her, while Ed Balls will also be discussing his life both in and out of politics (and yes, also his time on Strictly Come Dancing), then the Big Bath Politics Debate sees journalists and broadcasters discussing the big questions of Brexit, the rise of populist politics, and in-fighting in Westminster. However, no fear if you’re someone who avoids politics like the plague.

There are plenty (and we mean plenty!) of other events to indulge in; a Yorkshire shepherdess; publishers tips on how to create a winning submission; writing suspense-filled fiction; and a wide range of authors discussing a huge variety of subjects.

So, lots of reasons to come to Bath this May and to surround yourself with luxury and literature in Dukes Hotel!