Festival: Gladfest!

The festival opens at 12pm – come and have some lunch, check out some of our free activities (suitable for all ages!), meet some friends in the bar, and get ready for the afternoon…

2.30-3.30pm: Tales from the Parish – Reverend Andi looks back….As so many novels have made clear over the years, there’s nowhere more full of stories than a parish. So who better to kick us off than Rector Andi, the recently-retired vicar of Hawarden’s very own St Deiniol’s? Andi will be in conversation with the Library’s Warden, Andrea Russell.

4.00-5.00pm: Mere with Danielle Giles. In 990AD, a Norfolk convent sits in the middle of a mere – a sheet of standing water that serves as both protector and threat. After a young boy mistakenly wanders into the wetlands and returns ‘devil sick’, suspicions from the local community, and fear of the water, start to encroach upon the nuns’ calmly ordered way of life….Continuing the fine tradition of striking literature written about the watery East Anglican landscape, Mere is one of the best books of the year. Come and discover it at Gladfest.

5.00-late: the bar is open! Come and meet your fellow festival goers – make friends, tell stories, start the conversation. With a welcome from the Library’s Warden at 6pm, you’ll be able to grab meals and snacks from our festival kitchen, enjoy a drink from our Gladstone Room bar, and make a night of it. We hear there might be a special musical performance being planned….

Our full day! Keep yourselves fuelled with snacks from our back garden coffee shop, relax in-between talks on our picnic blankets (keep your fingers crossed for the weather!) and settle in to enjoy the day.

10.00-11.00am: A Hymn to Dionysus with Natasha Pulley. Natasha’s back at Gladfest….and this time it’s classical. Described as a ‘hallucinatory exploration of the god of wine, fertility, pleasure and madness’, The Hymn to Dionysus was released earlier this year to a rave response. One of the UK’s most prolific and varied authors, Natasha’s events are known for their wryly funny take on the writing of a novel, while Natasha’s books have created some deeply well-beloved characters – Dionysus (and Phaidros, for those of you who’ve already read it) are no exception. Come and meet them at Gladfest.

11.30am-12.30pm: Overnight with Dan Richards. In his new book – Overnight: Journeys, Conversations & Stories After Dark – Dan Richards explores and celebrates the nocturnal world. As well as a salute those who care and labour while most of us sleep, Overnight is a hymn to vespertine wildlife, dreams, and art. In a series of personal journeys, Dan guides readers from dusk ’til dawn, from night terrors to sunrise on the summer solstice via A&E, bakeries, alpine benightings, mail trains, Moomins, and the Shipping Forecast. Overnight will change the way you think about the hours after dark.

2.00-3.00pm: Faith, Hope and Love: Telling the Story of Gladstone’s Library, with Andrea Russell. Reverend Dr Andrea Russell has been head of Gladstone’s Library for almost three years. What has her new job – that she describes as a cross between Fawlty Towers and the Vicar of Dibley – taught her? Come and find out!

3.30-4.30pm: Staying Hopeful, Doing Better: conversations with the next generation, and with ourselves, with Uju Asika. Here at Gladstone’s Library, one idea lies at the heart of much of what we do: that we want to have a conversation rather than a debate. So when we came across Raising Boys Who Do Better, a book asking for a conversation about boys, about gender, about understanding and participation, about positive change, empowerment, and more, we knew we wanted to be part of that conversation. Uju Asika’s mission to help people feel seen is wider than just one book. As a writer, blogger, creative writing mentor and speaker, she’s started, encouraged, and helped tell more stories than most. Herself a poet, journalist, screenwriter and writer for children, Uju knows all the many ways that stories can connect, grow, and recognise. In her Gladfest event, Uju will share some of her writing and help us, the audience, see how we too can be part of these vital conversations.

5.00-6.00pm: Models, Wives, Orphans, Daughters: The hidden women of twentieth-century art, with Sophie Haydock. Although written about two very different artists – Egon Schiele and Henri Matisse – Sophie Haydock’s two historical novels are united in their vivid bringing to life of the real women who surrounded the men. The Flames is the story of four real women who modelled for Schiele; his fiery sister, Gertrude Schiele, his spirited mistress, Vally Neuzil, and the sisters who are his neighbours, Edith and Adele Harms. Madame Matisse introduces us to those in the outwardly glamorous but chaotic Matisse household: wife Amélie, daughter Marguerite, and finally Lydia, a young Russian émigré who finds employment with the family. Exploring in turn the glorious tipping point of 1913 Vienna and the French Riviera in the 1930s, Sophie’s Gladfest talk covers passion, creativity, politics – and above all, art.