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Events

Tag: huddersfield events

Sex, Spies and Politics – with Stephen May

Enjoy an in-conversation with Stephen May – “The spry, sardonic voice of the new historical fiction” Hilary Mantel.  

Stephen’s latest book Green Ink is based on the real-life story of former Colne Valley MP Victor Grayson, a bisexual hedonist and secret service informant. Victor vanished one night in late September 1920, having threatened to reveal all he knew about Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s involvement in selling honours.  

Was he murdered by the British government? By enemies in the Socialist movement (who he had betrayed in the war)? Did he fall in the Thames drunk? Did he vanish to save his own life, and become an antiques dealer in Kent? 

Whatever the truth, Green Ink imagines what might have been with brio, humour and humanity; and is a reminder that the past was once as alive as we are today. 

“Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events” The Times 

“Vivid and wholly credible recreation of post-Great War London” Robert Edric 

Stephen May is the author of six novels including Life! Death! Prizes! which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader’s Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. He lives in West Yorkshire. 

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request. 

Date: Friday 16 May 

Time: 6pm-7pm 

Location: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP 

Tickets: £5, free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers 

Age guidance: 16+  

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/the-cellar

For further information on essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page. 

Book tickets

Please note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

Joanne Harris – Vianne

THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT!

“Twenty-five years after the publication of Chocolat, I’ve finally chosen to share with you the origin story of Vianne Rocher, the mysterious chocolate-maker (and witch) with the power to change the lives of the people around her.” Joanne Harris 

Vianne is the long-awaited story of Vianne Rocher and begins six years before she opens her scandalous chocolaterie in the small French village of Lansquenet. Just 21 years old, Sylviane arrives in Marseille to start a new life, and charms her way into a job as a waitress in a run-down bistrot. Here, under the guidance of eccentric Guy Lacarrière she discovers the joy of cooking, a secret love affair and, for the very first time, the true magic of chocolate. Yet as she starts to dream of making a future for herself in the town, she finds herself at the centre of a growing conspiracy that will threaten everything she’s fought so hard for. 

Read more: https://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/vianne/ 

Joanne Harris (OBE, FRSL) was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for 15 years, during which time she published three novels, including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche. Since then, she has written 19 more novels, plus novellas, short stories, game scripts, the libretti for two short operas, several screenplays, a stage musical (with Howard Goodall) and three cookbooks. Her books are now published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022. She is a passionate advocate for authors’ rights, and was the Chair of the Society of Authors (SOA) for four years. She is currently a member of the Board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). 

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.  

Date: Saturday 17 May 

Time: 2pm-3pm 

Location: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP 

Tickets: £12 (£10 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers 

Early Bird tickets are now ended

For further information on concession and essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page.

Age guidance: 12+ (U16s should be accompanied by an adult) 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/the-cellar

THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT

Book tickets

Please note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

Sponsored by

A Wilding Year with Hannah Dale

Enjoy an illustrated talk from Hannah Dale, the artist behind successful stationery and gift design company Wrendale Designs, about the ambitious rewilding project that she and her husband have undertaken on their 300-acre farm. 

When Hannah and Jack inherited his father’s farm in North Lincolnshire, they soon realised that the poor soil made it challenging for food production and the perfect candidate for rewilding. 

In her new book, A Wilding Year, she recounts the remarkable process of restoring the farm’s ecosystems, creating a mosaic of opportunities for wildlife at a time when the natural world is in great need of protection. 

Hannah will give a talk about the rewilding process and show some of her stunning sketches and illustrations that capture the beauty and power of nature across the seasons.  

In partnership with the Friends of Marsden Library. Doors 6.30pm with coffee/tea/cakes available to buy. 

Hannah Dale runs Wrendale Designs, a stationery and gift design company that specialises in endearing illustrations depicting British wildlife, which she founded in 2012. Hannah grew up in rural Lincolnshire which has always inspired her watercolour illustrations. Studying art at school before reading zoology at Cambridge, she went on to work as a stockbroker in London before returning to Lincolnshire to find an outlet for her artistic roots and passion for ecology and conservation. Hannah’s previous books include: A Dog’s Life, The Farmyard Set, Born to be Wild, The Young Ones and Flying the Nest. 

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request. 

Thursday 15 May 

Time: 7pm-8pm 

Location: Marsden Mechanics Hall, Peel Street, Marsden HD7 6BW 

Tickets: £10 (£8 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers. 

Early Bird tickets are now ended

For further information on concession and essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page. 

Age guidance: 10+ (under 16s should be accompanied by an adult) 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/marsden-mechanics-hall

Book tickets

Please note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

This event is sponsored by:

Yorkshire crime fiction with AA Dhand & Russ Thomas

For fans of crime fiction, your chance to hear from acclaimed writers AA Dhand and Russ Thomas about their latest Yorkshire-set crime thrillers. 

In AA Dhand’s adrenaline-filled thriller, The Chemist, Bradford pharmacist and pillar of the community Idris Khan goes looking for his missing childhood sweetheart and finds himself in the middle of a turf war between two powerful Yorkshire drug cartels. Praise for AA Dhand: “Outstanding – relentless, multi-layered suspense and real human drama” Lee Child 

Sleeping Dogs by Russ Thomas is a Sheffield-set police procedural novel with shades of Line of Duty – a cold case investigation with an element of police corruption. Written with Russ’s trademark wry humour, it’s a whodunnit with a clever twist. Praise for Russ Thomas: “An intriguing start to a new series, introducing a pleasingly misanthropic new hero” Observer 

AA Dhand was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired his Harry Virdee novels and he has adapted the third book of these for a BBC crime drama series Virdee broadcast in February 2025.

 Russ Thomas was born in Essex, raised in Berkshire and now lives in Sheffield. After a few ‘proper’ jobs (among them: pot-washer, optician’s receptionist, supermarket warehouse operative, call-centre telephonist, and storage salesman), he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day. His highly acclaimed debut novel and first in the DS Adam Tyler series, Firewatching (2020) was followed by Nighthawking in 2021. 

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.  

Supported by:

Creative Scene

Creative People & Places Arts Council funding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date: Thursday 15 May 

Time: 7pm-8pm 

Location: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP 

Tickets: £9 (£7 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers 

Early Bird tickets have now ended

For further information on concession and essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page.

Age guidance: 12+ (U16s should be accompanied by an adult) 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/the-cellar

Book tickets

Please note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.