Curious Arts Festival 2019

After five years at Pylewell Park in the New Forest, Curious Arts Festival is on the move - physically to Pippingford Park in East Sussex, and with a change of date from July to August Bank Holiday weekend. The keen-eyed among you will notice this is the same date and place as Byline Festival - and, yes, the two are somewhat joining forces, with ticket holders for Curious Arts having access to both festivals.

John Cleese

The event will be opened by John Cleese on Friday 23rd August, and as always at Curious Arts there will be the wonderful mix of music, comedy, and book events, with a full weekend of activities for children running alongside - everything from author events to insect walks, journalism to late-night music - but here our primary interest is in the literary side of things.

Philippa Perry

The mix of authors and genres is as eclectic and diverse as Curious Arts itself - you can see Misha Glenny of McMafia fame chatting crime networks, hacking and dark markets,  Green Carnation Prize-listed author Niven Govinden with his new novel, This Brutal House, psychotherapist Philippa Perry talking about her 'self-help' books How To Stay Sane and The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and your children will be glad that you did),  and Dan Richards recounting his journeys in search of isolation and silence, that led to  Outpost - A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth (excellent for an armchair adventurer like myself!)

Candice Carty-Williams

Tom Rachmam will discuss his Costa-shortlisted, latest novel The Italian Teacher, debut author Candice Carty-Williams her novel Queenie, described as a politicised Bridget Jones about a 25 year old black woman straddling two cultures, and Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers, will be there talking about his new novel, Lanny - a 'missing boy' story that taps into English folklore, described as 'a song to difference and imagination, to friendship, youth and love'

If you prefer 'real life' to fiction, then catch Lemn Sissay talking about his memoir, My Name is Why, which explores his heritage, the meaning of family, and his childhood in care homes, or Guy Kennaway on his personal experience of assisted suicide as recounted in Time To Go.

Other names announced include Ian Birch discussing revolutionary magazine covers, David Nott talking about his time as a voluntary doctor in war zones and areas of natural disaster, and Gina Rippon on her first book for the general reader, The Gendered Brain. You can find more details of these authors and more here on Curious Arts' website.

We attended two Curious Arts Festivals at Pylewell, as guests in 2016 and 2017, and loved every minute of both (except maybe the rain in the second year). The new location is not such an easy one for us to reach, but it would make an excellent excuse to explore an area that I've never visited, so maybe we will be there.

Curious Arts Festival 2018 - literary events

The line up for the literary side is headlined by Kate Mosse who, over the last few years has become a best selling author and household name. Clearly, she will be a hard act to follow but Curious Arts is a festival that is up for the challenge. As of today the full author line up is still to be finalised but looking at who has been announced so far I can genuinely admit to getting excited about it.

Adam Kay trained as a doctor but left to start an alternative career in musical comedy, stand-up and script writing. That is some career jump and one that many people would like to emulate. As you can imagine his book, "This Is Going To Hurt" brings his medical experiences into the into the comedy part of his career. He will be talking about this book and I'm sure laughs will be plenty.

Little Grape Jelly have their performance described as "Little Grape Jelly is a poetry collective formed of Lily Ashley, Grace Pilkington and James Massiah. In their project Hell-p Me, three distinct voices come together to explore the benefits and limitations of communicating online. This is their interaction via email and social media, in free verse and other poetry forms. Each performance offers something new as the conversation continues between shows, detailing the ups and downs of life and love in the digital age. Immediate, honest and fleeting, here is what happens when three different worlds collide on one page."
We've all written emails or texts that have had their meaning misconstrued so we can guess how this can progress and I'm sure it will be entertaining. Well worth following this one across the weekend.

Dolly Alderton and her memoir "Everything I know About Love". On Amazon you can do a little "look inside". I did and frankly I believe this is one I must get along to. Humorous yet naive and hugely entertaining. Well worth going along to this event.

Lou Hamilton is an award winning artist and her latest book "Fear Less" is about great innovators - a fascinating topic about people who have shaped our world. Technology rarely evolves along a logical course but moves in leaps out bounds by people who can dream and are prepared to think in different ways - what's not to love about innovators who help to show us a new way to look at ourselves?

Miriam Darlington is a nature writer who will be talking about "Owl Sense", her latest book. I caught some of this on Radio 4 and was, frankly, very intrigued. Owls catch our imaginations in ways other raptors don't - silent night time hunters. But are they really? And owls that burrow in the ground? What's that about? Come along and find out.

Sam McKechnie will talk about "Miss Violet’s Doll House", a gorgeous craft book on the pleasures and methods of dollhouse making. Many years ago I made a doll's house for our youngest. Anyone who has done this will know how it becomes obsessive and you want to do a little bit more and more. This is going to be facinating.

...and these few are a selection only of who have been announced so far with more being announced regularly - both fiction and non-fiction. There will, inevitably, be clashes of timetable with so many things going off at the same time around the site but I hope that my choices won't be part of those clashes.

Almost time for Curious Arts Festival ...

by Maryom

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might remember how much we loved our first trip to Curious Arts Festival last year, so we're delighted to have been asked back again. For those of you not 'in the know' it's held in the grounds of Pylewell Park, near Lymington in the New Forest, and this year will run from 21-23 July. You can visit for the day, evening, or all weekend, and, a little unusually for a book festival, events aren't individually charged - one ticket gives entry to all events within your chosen time-slot (though some workshops have a small extra fee).


As the date is getting closer, I've been keeping an eye on the programme, so the important question is Who would I like to see?
Firstly, the literary 'headliners' -

On Friday -  Rachel Joyce, author of best-selling The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,  will be there as part of a tour promoting her latest book, The Music Shop ;

Saturday - Joanna Trollope, author of so many highly-acclaimed novels, talking about her most recent,  City of Friends;

Matt Haig discussing his recently published How to Stop Time, the tale of a man who is much, much older than you'd think, and which is to be filmed starring Benedict Cumberbatch;


On Sunday there's American author Dave Eggers whose Heroes of the Frontier is a tale of one woman's escape to the wilderness
and poet Lemn Sissay.




Then I'd really like to catch Eimear McBride,  whose debut novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing won so many awards  - and there are others I know little or nothing about but sound like they could be interesting. Robert McCrum talking  "life, death and the endgame" in Every Third Thought; Rick Stroud's Lonely Courage telling the stories of female spies employed in WWII; Tony Juniper and What's Really Happening To Our Planet; marine biologist Dr Helen Scales; gardeners to HRH the Prince of Wales Isabel and Julian Bannerman ... I'm just hoping none of these events clash ...

Ed Byrne

The literary events aren't the sum total of Curious Arts Festival though - there's a comedy line up each evening, headed by Ed Byrne on Saturday, and music later at night - ranging from Tom Odell to the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra with the Music of Bond.

Tom Odell

Each day has a selection of  "Curious Adventures" - the festival opens with a cricket match on Friday afternoon, you could join in with a choir, catch a drinks masterclass or listen to the recitation of Paradise Lost, try your hand at life drawing or sculpting something in clay, take part in Jane Austen parlour games, or chill out in the Kanga Wellness Spa.




For children there are arts. crafts and musical activities all day long, writing and songwriting workshops, and films and cartoons to start and end the day. They can go Hunting the Jabberwocky with Jack Union, Victorian Monster Hunter, or on a nature walk where they'll hear tales of insects and the natural world. They probably won't even need the bedtime story session to send them to sleep.

And, as if  the festival wasn't wonderful enough already, there's the food ... alongside pizzas and a BBQ offering rare breed sausages and a hog roast,  there's Japanese cuisine, Nepalese curries, seafood, a pop-up bakery, and a specialist vegetarian supplier, with beers, cider and sparkling wine by Chapel Down, and cocktails by Fever Tree to round off your meal.

All that's left to chance is the weather. Hopefully it will be as gloriously sunny a weekend as last year.

For more info, tickets, details of camping/glamping options, or to pre-book your Curious Adventure check out the Curious Arts website

Curious Arts Festival - round up

by Maryom

I think it fair to say we all loved our weekend at Curious Arts. Sometimes we attended the same events, more often we drifted off our own ways.

One wristband gave entrance to anything and everything, so for the majority of events there was no additional ticketing (a small number of events had limited numbers and so booking was essential, and sometimes there was a small additional cost). Because of this, I felt more inclined to take a chance or two on authors I'd heard of but never read - Andrew Miller, for example - The same applies to Harry Parker, ex-soldier turned author, and his novel about a soldier whose legs are blown off - hearing him speak convinced me this is a novel I should read.

Another advantage was that the audience was able to wander in and out of author events - something which isn't generally allowed, so if one event finishes at say 2pm, and another starts at the same time, you won't be able to see both. Here I was able to leave early or join an event a few minutes in. I think it's a great way to do things. The only down-side is that dashing straight from event A to B leaves no time for buying books or chatting to authors.




Although I mainly split my time between author events during the day, and music at night, the Mole and the Teen were off doing other things - meditation, a panel-style discussion of the morning papers, learning how to be a lazy guru, watching the early evening comedy acts. We saw so much that's it's hard to believe we were only there two days!




We've covered events in greater detail at the links below - most are to other posts here at OurBookReviewsOnline, a couple (as noted) are to other blogs/websites

By Maryom

A Quick Look
My First Festival (MaryomsThoughts)

and author event coverage;
Meg Rosoff
Andrea Wulf
Renee Knight
Joanna Cannon
Harry Parker
Andrew Miller

By The Mole

Family Friendly/Dog Friendly

By Libby

Festival Review:Curious Arts (Cultured Vultures)

Curious Arts Festival - author event - Joanna Cannon

 by Maryom

Joanna Cannon has scored a massive hit with her debut novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - hitting the bestsellers' lists, being translated into innumerable foreign languages, and, as if it matters, one of my favourite books of this year. Coincidentally, she lives quite near me, so I've seen her at book events before but I couldn't NOT see her again, when we were both in the same place.

Cannon isn't one of those writers who always knew that was their calling in life. She left school at 15, going back into education later to retrain as a doctor, but the one thing med-school didn't prepare her for was the emotional impact of the job, and to help her deal with it, she started writing a blog - not discussing any of her patients but talking about her own emotional response to the people she saw. From this she moved on to work on her novel, getting up at 3 in the morning to write (!), then trying to pull in another hour or so during her lunch break.

At this point she was working as a psychiatrist, and it was a profession that taught her to look beyond the label we might put on people - such as alcoholic, or OCD - and see the real person behind. To this she added the misguided public condemnation of Chris Jeffries over the murder of Joanna Yeates - again a case of judging someone on appearance. She believes that generally we should think more kindly of people, be ready to give then the benefit of the doubt and not jump to assumptions. All these thoughts came together for The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, in which, when something odd happens in the quiet suburban atmosphere of The Avenue, the accusing finger of popular opinion has a ready scapegoat to point at.

Interviewer Carrie Plitt was curious why The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is set in the long heatwave of 1976. Mainly due to nostalgia, admitted Cannon, - for the bay City Rollers and Angel Delight, and a time when children were allowed to play freely in the streets - but also from wanting something to bring the residents of The Avenue together - and nothing does that to British people like the weather!

And, possibly that question that authors dread the most, what about her next book? Without going into too much detail we were given some clues - it will be narrated by an elderly woman, and be about growing old, acts of kindness and the legacy one might leave. I can't wait to read it!

Curious Arts Festival - author event - Renee Knight

by Maryom

For my third event of the festival - and bear in mind this is still only Saturday lunchtime - I went to see Renee Knight, author of psychological thriller Disclaimer, who'd whizzed down from Harrogate Crime Festival to chat with fellow author SJ Watson (Before I Go To Sleep, Second Life).
Disclaimer is the story of a middle-aged woman who one day idly picking up a book discovers that the tale told within it bears a remarkable similarity to something that once happened to her... It grew out of a previous, unpublished story which drew heavily on real life events, during the writing of which Knight began to see how awful it must be to pick up a book written by a stranger but based on your life ... and Disclaimer was born.

It's the sort of 'domestic noir' novel that seems to romp up the bestseller charts and Disclaimer is currently No1 in the Sunday Times bestsellers list, and has been translated into 30 languages. Both authors' novels fall into this bracket, of thrillers which are set firmly in seemingly happy domestic situations; the 'chill factor' being that readers can easily imagine themselves transported into such a situation, normal and happy on the surface but with secrets lurking underneath, and, after all, how well do we really know anyone? Both agreed though that 'dometic noir' is not a new genre as such but has been around for a long while - Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Patricia Highsmith's novels being cited as earlier examples.
Asked about influences on her writing, Renee Knight named Lionel Shriver, Zoe Heller, and Colm Toibin, and is currently reading The Circle by Dave Eggers.

The discussion moved on to their fairly similar routes to publication - the first bad novel now hidden in a drawer, the better one that gets published, the usefulness of writing courses (for getting an agent or maybe just for encouraging the budding author to make time to write), and, when all this has paid off, suddenly having to learn to write to publishers' deadlines. The life of a successful author doesn't just involve sitting in solitude writing - there are signings and book events such as this one to attend; fortunately both authors have discovered them to be surprisingly enjoyable - they certainly are for the audience.

Curious Arts Festival - author event - Andrea Wulf

 by Maryom

Most book festivals work on a system of the visitor paying for each event they attend. It's cheaper no doubt but it does mean that I, and no doubt others, rather pick and choose my events, generally authors whose work I've read and liked, occasionally someone who's grabbed headlines or I've heard praised by fellow reviewers. By contrast, at Curious Arts ALL author events (and music, comedy etc) were included in the admission price, and, with them taking place in open-sided tents, it was possible to join proceedings a little late, and to leave a little early. I took advantage of this to catch part of Rowan Pelling's talk with author Andrea Wulf.

Now, I must admit that before she won this year's Costa Biography award I hadn't heard of Andrea Wulf, but hearing her speak so passionately about her subject, Alexander von Humboldt, has convinced me that I'm probably missing out.
Who you might ask (I did) was von Humboldt?
Well, it seems to be only here in Britain that he's unknown; in other countries, not limited to his native Germany, he's as well known as Darwin. Born in Prussia in 1769, his early life was dominated by his mother, and it was only after her death that he could fulfil his dreams of scientific exploration. He headed off to Latin America, climbing mountains, peering into volcanoes, recording the changes in vegetation according to altitude; definitely a very hands-on scientist! I found it fascinating that as early as 1800, he was predicting the impact that human activity might have on climate change, after noticing the devastating effects of clearing and destroying natural habitat as plantations expanded across Latin America.

Although I couldn't stay for the audience questions at the end, I came away feeling that this was a book and an author that I'd missed out on, and should catch up with both as soon as possible.

Curious Arts Festival - author event - Meg Rosoff

by Maryom


Looking at the events programme beforehand, I'd intended arriving at Curious Arts mid-afternoon on Friday with plenty of time to catch Deborah Moggach ... but you know what they say about the best laid plans, and it turned out motorway traffic had other ideas about how I should spend Friday, so my first 'book event' was on Saturday morning - Meg Rosoff talking about her latest novel, Jonathan Unleashed, to Rowan Pelling.

Meg Rosoff is well known as a writer of fiction aimed at teens and YA, and after a string of Carnegie, Whitbread, Guardian, Branford Boase and Costa short-listings and prizes she was recently announced the recipient of this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, but her latest book marks a move to a more 'grown up' audience. She insists it wasn't because of a dare to write a rom-com, but grew out of the first line which popped into her head fully-formed; "Jonathan came home from work one day to find the dogs talking about him" - obviously someone coming home from work is an adult, and the story just evolved from there.

Jonathan has been left in charge of his brother's dogs for six months, and quickly comes to see them as more than mere canine companions. All of us pet-owners give our animals credit for feelings and desires they probably don't possess, but Jonathan seems to take this a step further believing the dogs to suffer from anxieties and yearnings for freedom brought about by living in the city.
Meg herself sees no difference between writing for the different age-groups. What she's interested in is character rather than plot, particularly people struggling to find themselves, looking for more out of life than is offered by their current situation - whether that's Pell Ridley running away from home and her wedding in The Bride's Farewell, or Jonathan himself, trying to be a round peg in a square hole, stuck with the wrong girlfriend and in the wrong job. Jonathan Unleashed draws on the time, 15 years (!), that Rosoff spent in advertising before taking the plunge and becoming a writer - although she describes this novel as her 'revenge' on the advertising industry she's happy to acknowledge the fact that a marriage with both partners involved in creative work is tricky, as some-one needs to be the bread-winner and mortgage-payer. She gives her literary influences as Catch 22, The World According to Garp, and Lucky Jim, and the same quirky kind of humour showed through in her reading from Jonathan Unleashed.

Somehow (who knows?) I'd got an idea that Meg Rosoff was a very serious person, but she didn't prove to be - she's funny, sceptical of success and describes herself as dark and twisted; the sort of person I could imagine chatting to for hours.

Curious Arts Festival - Family Friendly/Dog Friendly

By The Mole

The festival is held in the beautiful setting of the New Forest within a short walk of the sea and a clear view of the Isle of Wight.

Because we decided to take Dylan with us we chose to take our own tent and sleeping bags. Being new to camping we had chosen to strictly obey the "no food" on site rule and went with a bag of clothes, our tent, air beds and sleeping bags. (Plus food for Dylan because you can't mess with his diet, sorry - and I don't think this is what the rule is about).

The staff around were extremely helpful and friendly and not officious. The tents varied from 2 man bivouacs to 8 berth star shaped huge things and the families attending similarly varied from couples to families with 3 or 4 children.

I had also expected there to be a few dogs there and was surprised that it was dozens! We all know that not all dogs get on and we don't necessarily know why. Dylan is very much an Alpha who doesn't like to have his face sniffed. Other Alphas are offended by his Alphaness and words can be exchanged but it was great that we met no-one who didn't know and understand their dog and everyone behaved responsibly and got along very well. I suspect Dylan was getting a little tired of all the "What a gorgeous dog, may I say 'hello'?" - something he normally can't get enough of.

Dylan has a very thick coat and struggles with heat so has learnt to look for shade to lie in on warm sunny days and Saturday was one beautiful day. Throughout the weekend we were going to our own events and passing Dylan back and forth as we thought venues might be better for him. At the Jo Cannon event I went to a quiet corner of the tent that still had a very good view of the proceedings and sat on the floor with him while he caught up with a little of his much needed sleep. At Laurence Shorter's Lazy Guru event, which was far less formal, he still managed to find a little shade and masses of attention from other attendees who, at times seemed to forget why we were there!

A complete area of the grounds were set aside for children's events and included outdoor games for them as well. The events ranged from activities of making things to story telling, poetry readings and much more. Having no young children of our own (our 19 year old came with us) we didn't attend any full events but did catch a few minutes of Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson give a reading from the Princess' Blankets, with the children loving it.

With the comedy I think there should have been a warning of content to parents because, at times, some of the language and humour became a little bit adult, although no one seemed to be dragging their children away either.

Now the food... Let's be totally fair - prices were not cheap and we had not expected them to be. The sellers obviously had to pay for their pitch, their staff to be away from home and they also had to ensure that they didn't end up throwing away too much food. (All of which had to be reflected in the cost.) Apparently last year, according to a witness account, by Sunday there was almost no food on site and people had been told they couldn't take their own. And the event was much smaller than this year so the sellers have to take a gamble.

Of all the the food sellers we all had our favourites but for breakfast the most popular seemed to be Tea Sympathy. They produced an extremely nice cup of tea with a variety of teas on offer and bacon muffins whose popularity had them running out of bacon by Sunday morning and the sausage alternative also ran out before everyone had breakfasted. But for lunch and dinner? Anything from Sushi, to Halloumi fries, to fish and chips, to pizza, to pies. Pies? Why pick on pies? I'm afraid I found the pies to be hugely tempting. Feta cheese and pepper quiches, a quiche with cauliflower, cheese and other stuff, chicken pies, beef pies..., it was a huge range. OK, I opted for the vegetarian quiches mostly because I find that a lot of vegetarian food is made tastier than meat equivalents - and I wasn't disappointed. Would I have wanted to feed a small family from the range of food available? Breakfast would have been fine but trying to get 2 or 3 children to choose and agree might have been a nightmare and the fact that some people were flaunting the "no food" rule did not surprise me and the organisers were not enforcing it this year.

So was it Family Friendly and Dog Friendly? You bet it was. Would we go again? Should the opportunity arise then most certainly and we will be watching the calendar. Was it perfect? Well... a few minor issues which I'm sure will be addressed. Last year there were only about 20 tents but this year that number had risen significantly to possibly 150-200 so the portaloos in the immediate area (there were more elsewhere) were a little inadequate in number. There also was no immediate water available to the tents and a bowser, if nothing else, would have been appreciated. Also as a dog friendly event I would have expected to see dog water bowls (or something) by the event tents, food sellers, or even by the stand pipes. (With some signage to the stand pipes too please? Some were hard to find.)

It was a fantastic weekend and I would recommend it to anyone. The events were hugely varied with something for absolutely everyone. More about the events over the coming days.

Curious Arts Festival - a quick look

We're just back and catching our breath after a fabulous weekend away at A Curious Arts Festival held in the grounds of Pylewell Park in Hampshire. This is an event which mixes literary chat, comedy, fun and games for children, and late night music. We'd heard about it vaguely through social media last year, and were delighted to be invited along in a blogging capacity.

Celia Imrie

Over the next week or so,we'll be talking in greater detail about individual aspects of the festival but for now here's just a taster of what and who we saw.

Meg Rosoff

Skinny Lister

SJ Watson and Renee Knight

Billy Bragg

Jo Cannon

Andrew Miller talking to Paul Blezard

A Curious Arts Festival

by Maryom

Regular readers of the blog will know we're lovers of any form of book festival - from those, such as Edinburgh and Hay, held in purpose built tented 'book villages', to those using bookshops, libraries, theatres, even churches as venues for events (Derby, Lowdham, Chipping Norton) - but the Curious Arts Festival has another approach.

Running over the weekend 22-24 July, in the grounds of Pylewell Park, Hampshire, a single ticket admits you to the festival, then you choose who you'd like to see ( a small number of 'workshop' style events do still require pre-booking because of limited numbers) Tickets can be bought for a single day or evening, or if you choose to visit for the full weekend you can bring your tent and camp for no extra cost (or check out alternative 'ready-pitched' options).

Carol Ann Duffy

Now, when I go along to a book festival, I tend to pick out just the events involving authors I enjoy;  what I like about the fixed price entrance is that I feel it would encourage me to take a chance on unknown authors too. This year's line up ranges from Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, with events for both adults and children, to thriller writers SJ Watson, Stella Rimington and Renee Knight, from household names such as Deborah Moggach to debut authors Jo Cannon, Max Porter and Harry Parker. You can either just sit back and listen to authors talk about books and life, or sign up for one of the writing workshops. Celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, there'll be both a Sonnetathon running the whole weekend, and a Shakespeare Not Stirred master-class in cocktails inspired by the bard!!

Deborah Moggach

The Curious Arts Festival is about more than just books though. There are wine-tasting, yoga and landscape painting activities, a pop-up bookshop, and a programme of music and comedy, with events continuing into the night.

Alice in Wonderland tea-party from 2015

For children there are events running all day - starting with early morning cartoons and films, then puppet-making, a Jabberwocky hunt, their own stand-up comedian, and bug hunts, rounding off each evening with bedtime stories. 

Check out the full list of authors here and more general info, ticket and camping options, here