12th edition of the festival

This year the festival takes us on a journey that starts in London and leads, via Occitanie and Provence, to Venice.  Wine takes centre stage, with passion for ‘le terroir’ in a lecture musicale with a glass in hand.   

In the French programme, Leonor de Recondo plunges us into the Venice of Vivaldi.  Catherine Bernard, a wine enthusiast, invites us to taste the elixir of the gods and Elrik Fabre Maigné with Vincent Pouchet cello for the musical readings in french and english .  The story of Italian migrants who found refuge in Occitanie is told to us by Alain Monnier. The shepherdess Violaine Bérot brings us her own, contemporary reinvention of Virgil’s Bucolics. And, as well as sharing his latest work on the photographer Pierre Apraxine, Jean Poderos will also lift the lid on the world of professional literary editors.

In the English programme, migration is also a key theme, along with colonialism and its fallout.  Booker–shortlisted Sunjeev Sahota brings us grief, guilt and secrets against the backdrop of a trade-union election.  Debut novelist Nicolas Padamsee explores being young, male and influenced by far-right ideology.  Matthew Parker transports us to the era of the Empire showing us how common issues continue to resonate. And for lighter relief, M. L. Longworth invites us to solve the mystery of a vanishing museum in Provence and Melanie Cantor’s comedy proves that the best things can come from disaster.