John Henry Falle, who was recently shortlisted for the Best Comedy Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is to perform Story Beast as part of Connections: Jersey Festival of Words.
Described as a ‘wild and inventive new twist to the age-old art of storytelling’ the Old Victorian’s act is the latest in a series of events to be announced for the festival, which is due to take place from 30 September to 4 October.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and award winning novelists Owen Sheers and Alex Preston are among a number of writers already confirmed to be taking part.
During the festival members of the public will be able to discover some of the Jersey Library’s hidden treasures in special tours of the rare book collections, as well as take part in children’s stories and activities, family history sessions and e-book workshops.
In addition to the events, a new website created by students from Digital Jersey’s coding course is to be launched on September 21, which will help readers explore and share new reading experiences.
The location and date of Mr Falle’s performance has yet to be announced.
Jane Hawking
During the festival the former wife of Professor Stephen Hawking will answer questions on her two books, Music to Move the Stars: A Life with Stephen and Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, the second of which inspired this year’s Oscar-winning film A Theory of Everything.
Will Smith
Renowned Jersey comedy writer Will Smith has penned scripts for the Bafta-winning British political satire The Thick of It and the US political comedy VEEP. The Old Victorian began his career as a stand-up comedian and for several years in the mid-2000s he took acclaimed solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The 43-year-old recently released his first novel, Mainlander, a thriller about a schoolboy who goes missing in Jersey. He has previously written the non-fiction works How To Be Cool and The Joy of No Sex.
Carol Ann Duffy
The first woman to be appointed as Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy’s works, which tackle subjects such as oppression, gender and violence, are studied by thousands of GCSE students every year. The Glaswegian poet and playwright has received a number of major accolades including the T S Eliot Prize in 2005 for her Rapture collection and the Whitbread Poetry Prize in 1993 for Mean Time. Since becoming laureate in 2009 she has famously written poems about the Achilles tendon injury that left England footballer David Beckham out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and a sonnet about the UK parliamentary expenses scandal.
Holly Smale
Children’s writer Holly Smale is best known for her Geek Girl series, which follows the fortunes of 15-year-old Harriet Manners as she embarks on a modelling career. The first novel of the six-book series was the UK’s number-one debut teen novel in 2013, and it won the the 2014 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in the young adult category. Smale (33) also won the 2014 Leeds Book Award and has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
Rachel Bridge
How to Make a Million Before Lunch author Rachel Bridge is a writer for the Daily Telegraph. She is an expert on small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs and has written four other titles, including How to Start a Business Without Any Money. She is the former enterprise editor for The Sunday Times and helped businessman and Dragons’ Den judge Peter Jones to write his book, Tycoon.
