Whilst the Festival of Literature is known for being an eclectic mix from high brow talks to DIY activities, from popular writers to grassroots productions, the land, its use, history and ever changing nature are a subject that is never far away from the hearts of the organisers.
If you didn’t know, the Festival’s HQ is Lower Shaw Farm, an arts space, workshop site, a place bringing new potential to old farm buildings and still with animals wandering about, so they obviously care about nature and what we eat, and like stories and history of ordinary people and the land.
The agricultural adviser to radio soap The Archers, Graham Harvey, will be talking about a Grass-Fed Nation and a movement away from grain-fed meat. On Tuesday 2 May at Swindon Arts Centre, Graham will explain how this can only be better for our health, soil and wildlife.
On Sunday 7th May, at the Farm, we have one of our favourite storytellers Rachel Rose Reid, and folk musicians Robin Grey and Katherine Hallewell performing Three Acres and a Cow.
Three Acres and a Cow is a radical people’s history of Britain in folk song, stories and poems. Part history lecture, part folk club sing-a-long, part poetry slam, part storytelling session.
Then 9th May, at Swindon Arts Centre, historian John Rees brings to life The Leveller Revolution from the time of Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War. It is an important story in the history of not just our democracy but American independance and struggles for freedom across the world.
Click on the names above for more event information and tickets, or, for the Festival in general, visit www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk
