Write stuff at the Essex Book Festival

The Essex Book Festival is now underway having been opened by Billy Bragg, who spoke about his book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World. Check out the Essex Book Festival websiite for details of this month's events. Highlights include writer-in-residence Syd Moore talking about her Essex Witch Museum mysteries. Plus radioactive stories in the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, a crime-writing masterclass with Nicola Upson, eating like Queen Victoria with Dr Annie Gray, Nicci French on being a husband and wife writing double act, mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick, Guardian columnist Erwin James on writing from inside, Gail Honeyman on Eleanor Oliphant and much more. The Festival runs until the end of March.

Reading matters at the Essex Book Festival

Tomorrow, March 1, sees the start of the Essex Book Festival when it's opened by A L Kennedy. The ubiquitous Sarah 'Essex Serpent' Perry's session is already sold out, but there's plenty more to see, including the excellent Syd Smith (who wrote of tales of Manningtree witchcraft in Witch Hunt and The Drowning Pool), Ruth Rayner and Chris McCully taking literary inspiration from Colchester's Roman wall, local short stories from Essex Belongs To Us, Essex-based crime in James Henry's Blackwater, Alison Weir on Katherine of Aragon at Layer Marney, Brix Smith on life in The Fall at Southend and Jem Lester in Brentwood discussing his novel of taciturn blokes, Shtum. Check out the link for the full programme.

Essex Book Festival kicks off with Grayson Perry

Plenty going on at the Essex Book Festival which runs from March 1-31. Grayson Perry launches the festival at the Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford on Monday, Feb 29, while Radio Essex is broadcasting live from the festival from 2.30pm on Tuesday March 1 in the lead-up to Vince Cable's event After the Storm. Highlights include Zoe Howe talking about her book Lee Brilleaux: Rock'n'Roll Gentleman, Lee Jackson's Dirty Old London session on Victorian London, Helen Dunmore's Exposure, Simon Callow's One Man Band, A N Wilson on Queen Victoria and former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis on her novel The Butcher's Hook. Plus lots of writing classes and a Golden Age of Crime weekend in Southend. Click on the link for the full programme.