Marking the centenary of WW1

As we mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, it seemed fitting to address this theme in the festival.  We have both fiction and non fiction authors who do this.  Firstly, we welcome Clive Ponting who will give a talk about how and why Europe went to war in 1914, based on his book Thirteen Days: Diplomacy and Disaster: The Countdown to the Great War was published in 2002.  This was recently used as the basis for the BBC TV mini-series 37 Days.  Casting your minds back a little less far, to the 1980s, some of you may remember Clive, the civil servant who was charged under the Official Secrets Act for sending information about the sinking of the Belgranoto an MP and a House of Commons select committee. He was found not guilty after his trial at the Old Bailey in 1985.  After leaving the civil service he became a Reader in Politics and International Relations at the University of Wales. He has written 14 books on modern and world history and his Green History of the World has been translated into fifteen languages. 

And then in fiction, we have Vanessa Couchman, who was one of our organising committee last year.  This year she returns as a published author to talk about her debut novel The House at Zaronza.  Set in early 20^th-century Corsica and at the Western Front, it is loosely inspired by a true story.  Maria Orsini, the daughter of a bourgeois family in a Corsican village, and the local schoolmaster carry on a secret romance. Maria’s parents have other plans for her future and she sees her dreams crumble. Her life is played out against the backdrop of Corsica, the ‘island of beauty’, and the turmoil of World War I. This is a story about love, betrayal, loss and reconciliation in a strict patriarchal societ y, whose values are challenged as the world changes.