Charleston Festival announces programme for special 35th anniversary edition including Judi Dench, Lenny Henry, Don McCullin, Omari Douglas, Jesse Armstrong, David Nicholls and Nicola Sturgeon

Charleston has today announced the line-up for this year’s Charleston Festival, one of the UK’s longest-running literature festivals, which returns for its 35th year between 16 and 27 May 2024. For this anniversary edition, the festival presents one of its most ambitious lineups yet. Much more than just a book festival, this year’s programme delivers unexpected conversations, genre-defying performances and new commissions, bringing together today’s leading voices in visual arts, literature, politics, music and more.

Guests include Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham-Carter, Lenny Henry, Omari Douglas, Don McCullin, Emily Maitlis, Jesse Armstrong, David Nicholls, Nicola Sturgeon, Toby Jones, George Monbiot, Marlon James, Joanna Lumley, Olivia Laing, Nitin Sawhney, Russell Tovey, Jackie Kay, Eleanor Catton, Billy Bragg, Caroline Lucas, Es Devlin, Colm Tóibín and Gilbert & George.

HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights include a special event in which Judi Dench will look back on an extraordinary career with her close friend, collaborator and fellow actor, Bill Nighy. In an original performance, the astute, fierce and funny letters exchanged between Virginia Woolf and her brother-in-law, the art critic Clive Bell, will be brought to life by acclaimed British actor Toby Jones. Marking the centenary of American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin’s birth, Charleston Festival will re-create the legendary debate he had with William F Buckley, featuring star of ‘It’s a Sin’, Omari Douglas, performing as Baldwin, and actor Russell Tovey as Buckley. BAFTA winning actor Helena Bonham Carter will read extracts from historian David Kynaston’s forthcoming book ‘A Northern Wind: 1962-1965′, including from the diaries of her grandmother, the writer, politician and close confidant of Winston Churchill, Violet Bonham Carter. To close the festival, ‘Peep Show’ and ‘Succession’ creator Jesse Armstrong will be in conversation with co-writer Lucy Prebble considering how satire can help keep us sane in a post-truth world.

COMMISSIONS

Each year, Charleston Festival commissions and curates a series of original productions. The 2024 edition will see Bryony Kimmings, writer, comedian and creator of multiple hit touring shows including the critically acclaimed ‘I’m a Phoenix, Bitch!’, deliver this year’s ‘Charleston Monologue’, a reflection on our times written immediately in the weeks before the festival, titled Freakosystem. For this year’s ‘My Life in Art’ event, internationally-renowned photographer Don McCullin will be in conversation with photography critic Sean O’Hagan, reflecting on the moral challenges of capturing images of the harshest realities of conflict. In the ‘What I Believe’ series, inspired by E. M. Forster’s prominent 1939 essay, Lenny Henry will discuss the values he stands by, formed over one remarkable life and career. A special multi-art form event will reimagine two landmarks of modernism, Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’ and Debussy’s ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’, featuring dance, readings and a live performance by celebrated pianists Melvyn Tan and Churen Li. Leading barrister Michael Mansfield KC, who has worked on some of the most controversial cases of our times including the Birmingham Six, the striking miners, and Grenfell, will deliver this year’s ‘Jeremy Hutchinson Memorial Lecture’.

VISIONS OF TOMORROW

To commemorate 75 years since the publication of George Orwell’s ‘1984′, this year’s edition of the Charleston Festival will feature a special programming strand called Visions of Tomorrow, uncovering what the future might look like 35 years from today. Writer and environmental campaigner George Monbiot and economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler, will come together to reimagine a future society, exploring money, fairness and alternatives to neoliberalism. Journalist Sathnam Sanghera and former UN advisor to the USA Peter R. Neumann will speculate on what a new world order might look like once global power structures inevitably shift. And leading figures in the world of artificial intelligence Nigel Toon, Verity Harding and Madhumita Murgia will make sense of the risks and rewards that this explosive new technology promises. In addition, the Orwell Prize shortlist will be announced as part of a special event reflecting on Orwell’s legacy, featuring novelist Sandra Newman and ‘Sherlock’ actor Louise Brealey.

LITERATURE

The 2024 Charleston Festival programme involves leading international literary figures such as Colm Tóibín, discussing his latest novel ‘Long Island’, the long-awaited sequel to his 2009 bestseller ‘Brooklyn’; Marlon James, reflecting on ten years since the publication of his Booker-Prize winning novel ‘A Brief History’ alongside David Mitchell, whose own bestseller ‘Cloud Atlas’ celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2024; and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson, author of ‘Gilead’, discussing themes of her new novel ‘Reading Genesis’ in a unique discussion with Revd. Richard Coles. Charleston Festival’s unique pairings include Val McDermid, one of the UK’s most successful crime writers, who will talk about her new book ‘Queen Macbeth’ with former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, while Eleanor Catton, winner of the 2013 Booker Prize for ‘The Luminaries’, will be joined by 2017 Women’s Prize winner Naomi Alderman (The Power) to discuss their latest books, Catton’s ‘Birnham Wood’ and Alderman’s ‘The Future’. A special event for both children and grown-ups will celebrate the magic of children’s literature, featuring Joseph Coelho, Lenny Henry, Joanna Lumley and a very special surprise guest.

ART AND DESIGN

Influential figures in the fields of art and design will take to the stage, including iconic British artist duo Gilbert & George in conversation with Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery; genre-defying artist, designer and activist Es Devlin; artist, potter and cultural icon Grayson Perry; renowned British architect Thomas Heatherwick reflecting on 30 years of his architectural practice; and acclaimed author and writer Olivia Laing in conversation with landscape designer Dan Pearson.

POLITICS

Key political figures and commentators will join this year’s Charleston Festival line-up, including Emily Maitlis, who in a rare reversal of roles, will be in the interview seat to discuss media impartiality and bias. Musician and activist Billy Bragg will be in conversation with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, discussing national identity and whether patriotism can be reclaimed from the far right. John Crace, The Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer, will unpick the political chaos of the last few years with comedian Rosie Holt, whose satirical videos of a fake politician went viral in lockdown, while Baillie Gifford Prize-winner John Vaillant will discuss his new book ‘Fire Weather’, which offers a damning critique of both the oil industry and of climate change discourse.

Explore the full programme for Charleston Festival 2024

Melissa Perkins, Head of Programme and Events, said:

“We’re excited to present a festival for 2024 that is truly multi-genre, and which features some of the most exceptional writers, artists and thinkers of our time. At Charleston Festival we don’t just stage talks. We curate original event concepts with unmissable performance elements, bring together minds from across disciplines for surprising conversations, and commission exclusive new content. Our programme this year is brimming with trailblazing talent and must-see moments that make this anniversary edition unmissable.”

Nathaniel Hepburn, Director of Charleston, said:

“For 35 years, Charleston Festival has taken place in the grounds of the house and studio at Charleston in Firle, a setting that is always memorable for our speakers and visitors alike. This year’s roster promises to be our most exciting yet, delivering new ideas and driving debate on the most pertinent topics of our day – a fitting legacy to the Bloomsbury group who, at Charleston, imagined society differently.”

For press enquiries and media registration for events please contact:

Kitty Malton
kitty@sam-talbot.com
+44 (0) 7514 803 577

For marketing enquiries please contact:

Lucy Brooks
Festivals Marketing Manager
l.brooks@charleston.org.uk

Charleston Festival, 16–27 May 2024
Priority Booking: 27 February 2024, 10am
General Sale: 29 February 2024, 10am

Charleston Friend+, Patrons and Benefactors get access to priority booking for the festival.
Find out more at charleston.org.uk/support

Under 30s members can benefit from discounted £10 tickets to all main festival events.
Join as an Under 30s member now for free: charleston.org.uk/support