Bridport Literary Festival: Day 3

Day Three: Tuesday 04 November

Event 12 | Roger Morgan-Grenville | The Restless Coast

10.30am at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF

Tickets: £12.00 THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT

Britain has over 10,000 miles of coastline, steeped in history. The Restless Coast is a moving and beautiful account of a journey around it. Both delightful travelogue and passionate defence, Roger Morgan-Grenville shines a powerful spotlight on the thin line that defines our status as islanders; interwoven are the modern challenges that the shoreline faces, and the extraordinary natural history of the coastline. At once informative, angry and funny, what emerges is a very personal love letter to our island edge.

Event 13 | Iain McGregor | The Hiroshima Men

12noon at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF

Tickets: £12.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Iain McGregor

Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima attack comes a riveting history based on new interviews and research. Built in top secret by the US, the weapon killed tens of thousands. Iain MacGregor’s vivid narrative recounts the decade-long journey toward this moment that changed the world. It charts the race through several key characters: from Robert Oppenheimer, to the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, to writer John Hersey. Both thrilling and nuanced, Iain MacGregor writes a deeply human account of the bombing’s meaning and aftermath.

Event 14 | Claire Leslie Hall | Broken Country

2pm at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF

Tickets: £12.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Claire Leslie Hall

A moving account of love, loss and family, Clare Leslie Hall’s novel follows seventeen year old Beth when she first meets Gabriel, over a heady, intense Summer. When Gabriel leaves, it is Frank who picks up the pieces. Together they build a home, and watching her husband and son riding a tractor across their farm, Beth feels sure that this was the life she was supposed to lead. However, when Gabriel returns, all Beth’s certainty crumbles – even after ten years, their connection is instant. A love story with the pulse of a thriller, Broken Country is a heartpounding novel of impossible choices and devastating consequences.

Event 15| Bijan Omrani | God Is An Englishman

3.30pm at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF

Tickets: £12.00 THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT

Christianity in England is in decline and Bijan Omrani argues that this is the most momentous change to occur in English history. He shows how a religion that has been part of our story for over 1700 years was instrumental in the creation and development of the nation. He demonstrates its profound cultural impact, from architecture and literature to our very landscape and the structure of our everyday life and language. Its enormous influence, he contends, shouldn’t be lightly abandoned.

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Event 16 | Sue Roe | Hidden Portraits

5pm at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF

Tickets: £12.00 THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT

Sue Roe examines the individual stories of the women with whom Pablo Picasso shared his life. These six extraordinary women were instrumental in Picasso’s career, yet long dismissed as passive models or muses. Hidden Portraits delves deeply into the women’s experiences, to tell the true story of Picasso’s women from their point of view. This enthralling book spans seventy years, from Bohemian Montmartre to glittering 1920s French Riviera, through Paris under Nazi occupation and beyond – the result is a riveting, atmospheric read.

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Event 17 | Manni Coe | Little Ruins

6.30pm at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF

Tickets: £12.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Manni Coe

Beginning a new chapter, Manni Coe and his partner buy a crumbling but beautiful old farmstead tucked into a remote valley in Andalusia. It’s perfect for their unconventional family of three: Jack, Manni and his youngest brother, Reuben who has Down Syndrome. Despite the idyllic surroundings, Manni starts to realise that the scars from his childhood might not have healed at all, and a single and terrible event threatens everything the three of them have spent so long building together. Little Ruins is a heart-mending exploration of human connection, nature’s gifts and the power of love in all its forms.

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Event 18| Miranda Cowley Heller | What The Deep Water Knows

7pm at Sladers Yard, West Bay Road, West Bay DT6 6EL

Tickets: £12.00 (£30.00 with a 1 course supper) from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Miranda Heller Cowley

Miranda Cowley Heller grew up in New York before moving to LA, leaving her job as Magazine Editor to become Head of drama at HBO, overseeing numerous successful series including The Wire and The Sopranos. Her debut novel, The Paper Palace, written in 2021, sold over 2 Tuesday 4th Nov million copies worldwide, and was a New York Times and Sunday Times best seller, long listed for the Women’s Prize. She has followed this with her first collection of Poetry, What the Deep Water Knows. A collection of reflections on love, life and loss that capture a woman’s life, described as ‘raw, honest and thought provoking.’

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More information about the festival can be found at http://www.bridlit.com