Historic Warwick to host literary history festival

The history of Warwick and its county will take centre stage at this year's Warwick Words Festival.
Tracy Borman is taking part in this year's Warwick Words History Festival.Tracy Borman is taking part in this year's Warwick Words History Festival.
Tracy Borman is taking part in this year's Warwick Words History Festival.

The week-long event, which takes place in the autumn, has been re-branded as Warwick Words History Festival and welcome well-known historians, politicians and writers to the town.

The festival’s executive director Helen Meeke said: “Our history events have always proved very popular and because many recently-published books have been about history, we decided to transform this year’s main festival into a history festival.

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“We will still host authors and guest speakers at morning coffee, afternoon tea, twilight and evening events in the beautiful historic buildings of Warwick, but our focus this year will be history and historical writing, fact and fiction.”

Speakers confirmed to take part will include Alison Weir, Juliet Barker, television personality Dr Janina Ramirez, Tom Holland, Chris Skidmore, Taylor Downing, Marcus Berkman, Tracy Borman and Jacqueline Riding.

The festival is also developing an education project called Warwick Revisited, which will be made up of talks, walks, workshops, music and songs - all drawing on the history of the town. Local historians and writers featured in the programme will include Graham Sutherland, Anne Langley, David Howe, Dr Christine Hodgetts, Julie Moores, Trevor Langley and Graham Downie.

Many of the events will take place at the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick and Master Gerald Lesinski will be talking about its history and gardens.

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There will also be a special extra event on Friday September 16, when popular poet Pauline Prior Pitt makes a return visit to Warwick Words.

The festival itself will take place from October 3 to 9, while Warwick Revisited events will take place in the run-up to the festival.

The full programme will become available in July, but some details and tickets are already available to buy online at www.warwickwords.co.uk

Warwick Words was launched in 2002 and has, over the years, welcomed many well-known figures to the town, including Tony Benn, Jacqueline Wilson and Carol Ann Duffy,