SIR ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSTON

RUNNING FREE / JERSEY OPERA HOUSE / THURSDAY 26th SEPTEMBER / 20.00

When Robin Knox-Johnston sailed in to Falmouth in April 1969 onboard his 32-foot yacht Suhaili, he made history. He had become the first man ever to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single handed. His journey had last 312 days, and he’d had to battle against storms and huge waves to make his way home.

Fifty years on from that record-breaking voyage, Running Free is Knox-Johnston’s vivid account of a life lived to the full. In his early days in the Royal Navy and merchant navy, he was even called upon to do some spying in the Gulf. While living in Bombay in the 1960s, he built Suhaili and then sailed her back to Britain. One of the world’s most successful yachtsmen, he set a new record time for the fastest circumnavigation in 1994, and became the oldest competitor in the Velux 5 Ocean’s Challenge, completing a solo round-the-world voyage at 68.

He also took on new challenges, including mountaineering with Sir Chris Bonington and trekking through the Arctic with Sir Ranulph Fiennes and John Simpson. As he approaches his 80th birthday, he is still seeking fresh adventures and helping to inspire a new generation of sailors through Clipper ventures. Running Free is an action-packed, rollercoaster ride across the high seas, where mistakes can prove fatal. Knox-Johnston writes with pride about Britain’s great maritime tradition, and his insatiable appetite for life shines through on every page.

Robin Knox-Johnston was born in Putney in 1939 and joined the merchant navy at the age of 17. After successfully completing a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the globe on Suhaili in 1969, he took on numerous other sailing challenges and became a successful business man. He continues to sail and works as executive chairman of Clipper Ventures to introduce people to competitive sailing.

Visit his website: robinknox-johnston.co.uk follow on twitter @SirRKJ

Louise Minchin

DARE TO TRI

JERSEY OPERA HOUSE / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 18.00 / £10

EVENT SPONSORED BY CANACCORD GENUITY WEALTH MANAGEMENT

TV presenter Louise Minchin’s incredible journey from the BBC Breakfast sofa to representing Great Britain at the World Triathlon Championships.

What started out as a fun BBC Breakfast cycling stunt in 2012, culminated in Louise Minchin wearing the colours of Great Britain at the World Triathlon Championship in 2015. This is the story of how a newly discovered sport became a passion and then an obsession.

Dare to Tri charts Louise Minchin’s progress as she rediscovers competitive sport after 30 years and takes her first tentative steps as a triathlete. As her performances improve, there’s a realisation that representing the Great British team in her age group is a possibility and the book tells of her plucky attempt to achieve this almost-unthinkable goal.

It is an adventure not without its challenges as Louise has to overcome personal nerves, a brutal training regime, the odd bike crash and the occasional drama. Along the way Louise rediscovers the forgotten joys of sport and receives surprising rewards in the form of new-found respect from her teenage daughters and the realisation of the important role mothers play in inspiring girls to continue to enjoy sport.

‘Louise’s amazing journey to becoming a triathlete encourages us all to be a little more adventurous’  Dame Darcey Bussell

‘Witty, genuine and engaging’ Outdoor Fitness

Louise Minchin is one of the UK’s best known news presenters and television broadcasters. For more than six years she has been the anchor of BBC Breakfast, the UK’s most popular breakfast programme. She has presented the One O’clock News, guest presents on BBC Radio Four’s You and Yours and is the BBC’s triathlon presenter.

 

Leah Hazard

HARD PUSHED – A MIDWIFE’S STORY

JERSEY OPERA HOUSE / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 12.00

No sleep for twenty hours. No food for ten. And a ward full of soon-to-be mothers… Welcome to the life of a midwife. 

Leah Hazard’s life on the NHS frontline, working within a maternity system at breaking point, is more extreme than you could ever imagine. From the bloody to the beautiful, from moments of vulnerability to remarkable displays of human strength, from heart-wrenching grief to the pure, perfect joy of a new-born baby, Leah has seen it all.

Through her eyes, we meet Eleanor, whose wife is a walking miracle of modern medicine, their baby a feat of reproductive science; Crystal, pregnant at just fifteen, the precarious, flickering life within her threatening to come far too soon; Mrs Bhatti, who insists that Leah simply must write her own elaborate thank-you card; and Pei Hsuan, who has travelled hundreds of miles to somehow find herself at the open door of Leah’s ward. 

Moving, compassionate and intensely candid, Hard Pushed is a love letter to new mothers and to Leah’s fellow midwives – there for us at the most challenging, empowering and defining moments of our lives.

‘Heart-rending, inspiring and funny, Hard Pushed brings alive the world of midwifery in all its complexity and radiates love and respect for women.’ Professor Lesley Page CBE, former president of the Royal College of Midwives

Leah Hazard is a serving NHS midwife in Scotland. Having studied at Harvard, she left a career in television to pursue her lifelong interest in women’s health after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. She soon began working as a doula, supporting women in pregnancy and attending numerous births in homes and hospitals across the country. The birth of Leah’s second daughter in 2006 prompted her to make the leap into midwifery. Since qualifying, she has worked in a variety of clinical areas within the NHS maternity services, including antenatal clinics, triage units and labour wards.

FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION / H IS FOR HARRY / JERSEY LIBRARY / REFERENCE LIBRARY / FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER / 18.00 – 20.00

Organised by Every Child Our Future.

H is for Harry is a coming of age story about Harry, a charismatic 11-year old boy, who arrives at secondary school in suburban London unable to read or write. With the help of his extremely dedicated teacher, can Harry overcome the illiteracy ingrained across generations of his family? The screening will be followed by a short panel session to address the issues raised by the film.

SECRETS OF THE SEA / PAUL DARROCH /  JERSEY LIBRARY / MAIN STAGE / WEDNESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER / 18.00 – 19.00

The story of Jersey is shaped by the sea. The treacherous Channel waters drowned the King of England’s son in the White Ship and plunged his realm into chaos. Jersey legends tell of the waves that swept away the doomed manor of La Brecquette and sprung the fearsome trap of the Golden Chair.

Yet the ocean’s call of adventure inspired the mariners of Jersey to traverse the world. It tempted Sir Walter Raleigh, Jersey’s fallen Governor, into his fatal quest for El Dorado, and drove local boy Tom Davis to build a fortune in Africa. The same pioneering spirit led Lilian Grandin, Jersey’s first female doctor, to set sail for China, where she would sacrifice her life.

Jersey: Secrets of the Sea is their story, imagined in their own words. Step onto the bridge of RMS Titanic with her Jersey quartermaster just as the deadly iceberg looms into view, while Islander Lucy Duff-Gordon slumbers in her first-class suite below. Discover the story of her sister Elinor Glyn, who found fame at the peak of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Stand with the Jersey Company volunteers as they leave St Helier for the Great War; and watch the lone boatman in 1941 slipping away from the shadow of the German Occupation.  Jersey: Secrets of the Sea is the panoramic story of an Island forged by the seas, set at the crossroads of maritime history, and told through the voices of the Jersey seafarers who made it.

ANDREW LOWNIE

THE MOUNTBATTENS

JERSEY ARTS CENTRE / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 16.00 / £8

Prize-winning and bestselling historian, Andrew Lownie, returns to Jersey Festival of Words with a nuanced portrayal of two very unusual people and their complex marriage.

Earl Mountbatten of Burma is one of the major British historical figures of the twentieth century (and a central figure in The Crown) whose career included being Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War Two and the last Viceroy of India. Once the richest woman in Britain and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs, Edwina Mountbatten emerged from World War Two as a magnetic and talented charity worker loved around the world. Their lives provide an opportunity to look at the most important and controversial issues of the last century.

From British high society and the South of France to the battlefields of Burma and the Viceroy’s House, this is a rich and filmic story whose characters include all the key figures of the Second World War. From Churchill and Montgomery to Roosevelt and Eisenhower; the Royal Family, including the Duke of Windsor, George VI, the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles; to Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Salvador Dali, George Gershwin, Grace Kelly and Merle Oberon.

Andrew Lownie was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Union, before studying for a Masters and Doctorate in history at Edinburgh University. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and former Cambridge history fellow, he has run his own literary agency since 1988. He has written for numerous newspapers and magazines and his books include lives of the writer John Buchan and the spy Guy Burgess. Stalin’s Englishman was a Book/Biography of the Year in the Times, Guardian, Spectator, BBC History Magazine and Daily Mail and won the St Ermin’s Hotel Intelligence Prize, the premier intelligence book award in the English-speaking world. It was also optioned by the makers of Sherlock for a drama.

Eve Simmons and Laura Dennison

EVE SIMMONS & LAURA DENNISON

HOW TO FEEL THE FEAR AND EAT IT ANYWAY

VICTORIA COLLEGE / WEDNESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER / 14.30 / (JCG + VCJ KS4 only)

SPONSORED BY SALTGATE IN ASSOCIATION WITH VICTORIA COLLEGE

Fight the food fads, beat anxiety and eat in peace

Eve Simmons and Laura Dennison, co-founders of the acclaimed website Not Plant Based, are on a mission to help you love food again. The principle is very simple: eat what you like and don’t worry about it. This is a game-changing narrative for anyone who has struggled to find a balance between healthy and happy, empty and full.

Armed with knowledge from the world’s leading diet and nutrition experts, two hungry women sort the nutritional nonsense from the scientific fact, while injecting some long-lost deliciousness back into the conversation.

Eve and Laura discuss their own experiences of eating disorders and offer expert-led practical advice and coping mechanisms to help ease food anxiety with some delicious recipes thrown in along the way.

No one is saying healthy eating is bad; there is simply a lot of misleading information out there and food is so much more than just healthy eating: it’s family, friends, enjoyment and memories.

Eve Simmons and Laura Dennison are both journalists: Eve is deputy health editor at Mail on Sunday and Laura is currently freelance, following three years at The Press Association. Laura also runs her own anti-diet PR company called Sugar Content PR. When Laura watched Eve being interviewed on the BBC Documentary Clean Eating’s Dirty Secrets about her no nonsense attitude to so-called ‘clean eaters’, and how such ‘nutribabble’ contributed to her anorexia, she decided to approach her about founding a new website, Not Plant Based. Their website covers a broad range of topics from nutritional advice to restaurant tips, to practical mental health advice, and features interviews with a wide range of chefs, food writers and influencers, including Jay Rayner and Bryony Gordon. Founded in 2016, the blog has already attracted a growing social media following of 15,000 fans.

RAYNOR WINN

THE SALT PATH

JERSEY ARTS CENTRE / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 11.00

In one devastating week, Raynor and her husband Moth lost their home of 20 years, just as a terminal diagnosis threatened to take away their future together. With nowhere else to go, they decided to walk the South West Coast Path: a 630-mile sea-swept trail from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

This ancient, wind-battered landscape stripped them of every comfort they had previously known. With very little money for food or shelter, Raynor and Moth carried everything on their backs and wild camped on beaches and clifftops. But slowly, with every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, the walk set them on a remarkable journey. 

The Salt Path is a beautiful, powerfully honest and deeply moving memoir about overcoming adversity, the redemptive qualities of walking and nature, about survival, the meaning of ‘home’ and above all, about love. 

‘A beautiful, thoughtful, lyrical story of homelessness, human strength and endurance’ The Guardian   

Since completing the South West Coast Path, Raynor Winn has become a regular long-distance walker and writes about nature, homelessness and wild camping. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth and their dog, Monty, still on the South West Coast Path. The Salt Path, her first book, was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award.

EMILY LEARY

GET YOUR KIDS TO EAT ANYTHING

SAMARÈS SCHOOL / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 14.00 / FREE 

SPONSORED BY CARING COOKS

Join Emily Leary and discover her wonderfully practical approach to fussy eating.

Get Your Kids to Eat Anything is an achievable ‘how to’ for parents in the battle to overcome picky eating. Emily Leary’s unique 5-phase programme looks at the issue of ‘fussy eating’ in a holistic way that links imagination with food, and which situates parents alongside – not in opposition to – their children.

Embark on a food discovery which will change the way you look at food and bring healthy variety into every meal for years to come. Ease away from the same four-to-six staple meals most families fall back on, towards truly varied meal plans from day to day, week to week, to the point where introducing your whole family to new flavours, colours and textures is a breeze because new is the norm.

Emily Leary is a multi-award-winning writer, presenter, blogger and vlogger, and a married working mum of two children. In 2011 she launched her blog, A Mummy Too – the place to go for daily recipes, tips and video guides for busy working parents who want to get the most out of family life and parenting. With over 300,000 followers, it has become one of the most popular websites in the UK for parents and is consistently listed in the top 10 in UK blogging charts, winning awards including Best Food Blog at the MAD Blog Awards and the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards. Emily has been ranked at 63 in Grocer Magazine’s Top 100 UK Foodie Influencers in 2016 alongside the likes of Jamie Oliver and Gregg Wallace. She has columns in the Huffington Post and Metro and has worked in brand partnerships with major worldwide companies including: M&S, Innocent, Disney, American Express and Onken.

Emily Leary will also be taking a cooking class at Samarès School at 15.45.

ALEX ROGERS

THE DEEP: The Hidden Wonders of Our Ocean and How We Can Protect Them

JERSEY ARTS CENTRE / SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER / 16.30 / £10

SPONSORED BY PORTS OF JERSEY

Our oceans are facing a catastrophe and have already suffered irreparable damage – this is the rallying cry for help from one of the world’s leading experts in marine biology, in a bid to help and repair our oceans.

Professor Alex Rogers, who recently served as a scientific consultant on the BBC’s Blue Planet II series, has spent the past 30 years studying life in the deep ocean. In The Deep, he takes us on an epic and utterly unforgettable voyage to an alien world, and brings us right to the edge of what is known about our oceans today.

Introducing us to glittering coral gardens, submarine mountains and a range of bizarre and breath-taking sea creatures, many of which he discovered first-hand, Rogers not only illustrates the ocean’s enormous and untold impact on our lives, but also shows how we are damaging it catastrophically through pollution, overfishing, and the insidious and global effects of climate change.

Alex Rogers is Science Director of the Norwegian foundation REV Ocean, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow of Somerville College, University of Oxford. As one of the leading marine biologists in the world, Alex advises the UN, Greenpeace, the WWF, and the G8 countries on ocean ecology.

Alex Rogers will be in conversation with photographer Matt Porteous, one of the founders of environmental campaign Ocean Culture Life.

Event kindly sponsored by 

MARTIN TOFT ON MÃORI CULTURE / JERSEY LIBRARY / MEETING ROOM / FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER / 13.00 – 14.00

In Te Ahi Kā – The Fires of Occupation photographer Martin Toft explores the deep physical and metaphysical relationships between an ancestral river and its indigenous people in New Zealand. He will discuss the making of his critically acclaimed book spanning 20 years, including research in 19th century archives and his own spiritual kinships with a Maori tribe.

BRAM WANROOIJ

DIANE ATKINSON

RISE UP, WOMEN! THE REMARKABLE LIVES OF THE SUFFRAGETTES

JERSEY OPERA HOUSE / FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER / 18.00 / £8

First published to coincide with the centenary of British women gaining the vote in February 2018, Rise Up, Women! has cemented Diane Atkinson’s status as the most authoritative voice writing on the suffrage movement today.

From their marches on Parliament and 10 Downing Street, to the selling of their paper, through to the more militant activities of the Women’s Social and Political Union, whose slogan ‘Deeds Not Words!’ resided over bombed pillar-boxes, as well as acts of arson and the slashing of great works of art – the women who participated in the movement endured police brutality, assault, imprisonment and force-feeding, all in the relentless pursuit of one goal: the right to vote.

Diane Atkinson celebrates the lives of the women who answered the call to ‘Rise Up’ – a richly diverse group of actresses and mill-workers, teachers and doctors, bootmakers and sweated workers. Rise Up, Women! brings these women to life in a stirring chronicle of their grace, resilience and determination that changed the world forever.

‘Pretty much a definitive history of the suffragette … It’s a huge achievement that her narrative, so crisp and clear, is never less than enthralling’  Rachel Cooke, Observer

‘For too long these extraordinary women have been hidden from history. Rise Up, Women! should be a standard text in all schools and will be a treasured handbook for today’s feminists.’ Harriet Harman MP

Diane Atkinson is the author of two illustrated history books, Suffragettes in Pictures and Funny Girls: Cartooning for Equality, and three biographies, Love & Dirt, Elsie and Mairi Go to War and The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton. A regular lecturer on the suffragettes at conferences and literary festivals, she has also appeared on radio programmes including Woman’s Hour, and has consulted on numerous television documentaries, as well as, most recently, the film Suffragette.

Graham Farmelo

GRAHAM FARMELO

THE UNIVERSE SPEAKS IN NUMBERS

JERSEY ARTS CENTRE / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 14.00 / £8

SPONSORED BY JICAS

How Modern Maths Reveals Nature’s Deepest Secrets – a thrilling exploration of the relationship between physics and maths, and the leaps of imagination that have enriched our understanding of the universe.

That the fundamental laws of the universe appear to be written in the language of mathematics is one of the greatest mysteries of science. Graham Farmelo goes to the heart of that enigma.

Many of the world’s leading physicists are confident that they are on track to discover a new understanding of the universe which will entail a complete rethink of gravity, space and time. Always lively and authoritative, Farmelo navigates through some of the most exciting developments and controversies in modern thought. Is all this ‘fairy tale physics’ as some commentators complain? Are today’s superstar physicists abandoning the traditions of experimentally-rooted science? Farmelo tackles these arguments and explains the huge imaginative leaps that are edging us towards a radically new understanding of the nature of our universe.

Graham Farmelo is an award-winning science writer and biographer, specializing in physics and physicists. Formerly an academic, museum professional and undercover restaurant critic, he is now a Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge and is a regular visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He edited the bestselling It Must be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science in 2002. His biography of Paul Dirac, The Strangest Man, won the 2009 Costa Biography Award and the 2010 Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize. His last book was Churchill’s Bomb: A Hidden History of Britain’s First Nuclear Weapons Programme.

Daniel Geey

JERSEY OPERA HOUSE / THURSDAY 26 SEPTEMBER / 18.00 / £8

SPONSORED BY VOISIN LAW

An insider’s guide to football contracts, multi-million pound transfers and Premier League big business

Whether it is a manager being sacked, the effect of BREXIT on the UK football industry, the signing of a new, star player, television rights negotiations, player misconduct or multi-million-pound club takeovers, lawyers remain at the heart of all football business dealings. Written by leading Premier League lawyer Daniel Geey, who has dealt with all these incidents first hand, Done Deal explores the issues – from pitch to boardroom – that shape the modern game and how these impact leagues, clubs, players and fans.

What really happens inside a club on transfer deadline day? Are football agents overpaid? Which club put a clause forbidding space travel into a midfielder’s contract? And which team’s players can never wear red boots?

Featuring insider anecdotes and expert contributions, Done Deal provides football fans with a fresh and authoritative perspective on all off-field football matters.

‘Done Deal is a testament not only to Daniel’s vast knowledge on his subject, but also to his ability to present even the most complex ideas in a clear and vivid way.’ Gianluca Vialli

‘A hugely entertaining look at the ever more complex machinations of the beautiful game. Essential.’ Raphael Honigstein, the Guardian and ESPN

Daniel Geey is one of the UK’s most highly respected sports lawyers. His clients include Premier League and Champions League football clubs, international players, agencies, rights holders and other sports companies. He is the go-to man when complex legal matters need to be explained to a wider audience and he has appeared on Sky Sports, Sky News, BBC, CNN, BT Sport, Bloomberg, TV2, BBC Radio 4, and TalkSport, and contributed to the Daily Telegraph, The Times, Daily Mirror and the Independent. He tweets at @FootballLaw.

EVENT SPONSORED BY 

Nick Duerden

NICK DUERDEN

A LIFE LESS LONELY

VICTORIA COLLEGE / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 15.00

SPONSORED BY SALTGATE IN ASSOCIATION WITH VICTORIA COLLEGE

What We Can All Do to Lead More Connected, Kinder Lives.

Loneliness has reached the levels of an epidemic in the UK. From the bullied child to the new parent, from the pensioner who has outlived friends and family members to teenagers who manage their social lives through the glow of a mobile phone, it can affect anyone and everyone, irrespective of age, race or class. The last and ultimate taboo – many suffer in silence. What’s it like when loneliness descends? How does it announce itself, and how do you recognise it? Do you discuss it, or conceal it? From where can you seek help? And how can you help others?

A Life Less Lonely shares stories of loneliness and social isolation, and looks for ways in which we can help one another to future-proof ourselves against this most insidious affliction. By talking to those who suffer from it, and by highlighting the work of those who fight to combat it, the book is a call to arms – the beginning of a national conversation about how we can end the stigma attached to loneliness.

‘How strange that in our inter-connected modern lives one of the greatest threats to happiness is loneliness. Nick Duerden has approached this dreadful and isolating condition head on, and huge comfort is to be found in the pages of his exceptionally perceptive and sympathetic book. The practical advice given is gold dust not only for lonely people, but for those who long to help them.’ Joanna Lumley

Nick Duerden is a writer, freelance broadsheet journalist and the author of two memoirs, Get Well Soon and The Reluctant Fathers’ Club. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4, 5 and Sky News talking about his books and the arts and has written widely on health, the arts, travel and society.

Nick Duerden will be joined by Richard Roper, author of Something to Live For, at this panel event on loneliness.

KATE NASH

THE BESTSELLING NOVEL

JERSEY OPERA HOUSE STUDIO / SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER / 15.30

The Bestselling Novel: What Makes It and How to Find the Right Agent and Publisher

Leading literary agent Kate Nash explains the key ingredients that bestselling novels share and how publishers, agents, retailers and authors all work together to make a novel a commercial success.

Kate will share her top tips for finding and securing the right literary agent and explain how literary agents work to find the right publisher for a book. Going ‘behind the scenes’ in the world of publishing, this is a talk that any aspiring author shouldn’t miss.

As a former author, publisher, publicist and marketer, Kate has seen every side of publishing and set up her own literary agency so she could do ‘the best job in publishing’. Founded in 2009, the Kate Nash Literary Agency Ltd has gone on to become one of the UK’s foremost independent literary agencies. Kate was named a The Bookseller Rising Star in 2018.