BEST-selling authors and a magician famous on YouTube and TikTok will be among the stars appearing at this year’s Jersey Festival of Words, it has been confirmed.
The festival, which will be held between 21 and 25 September, will see the majority of events taking place in a 400-seat marquee in Howard Davis Park and the creation of a surrounding village comprising satellite stages, a bookshop and food vendors. Other venues include Jersey Arts Centre, Jersey Library and Câtel Fort at Grève de Lecq.
The first events will include talks and interviews with writers including international best-selling author Sebastian Faulks, author and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and historian Tracy Borman.
A special Folio Academy session, sponsored by Rathbones International, will see Birdsong author Mr Faulks discussing his new novel Snow Country, the second in a planned Austrian trilogy that spans the first half of the 20th century and the reshaping of Europe through war.
Mrs Borman will discuss her new book, Crown and Sceptre, which explores 1,000 years of British monarchy leading up to this year’s Platinum Jubilee.
Mr Manzoor – the inspiration for recent movie Blinded By the Light, about a young Pakistani immigrant with a love of Bruce Springsteen – will be discussing They, a personal exploration of a divided Britain.
Also confirmed is 18-year-old magician Dan Rhodes, a successful YouTuber and TikTok influencer, whose first book The Magic is due to be released this summer.
The festival, which was established in 2015, has received both government funding and private sponsorship.
Assistant Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel, who has responsibility for arts and culture, said: ‘We are proud to provide support to the Festival of Words because it has proven to deliver extraordinary value to our community and to the arts and cultural life of Jersey.
‘We want to help the festival dust itself down from the disruption of Covid and enable it to take the next steps in its growth and evolution.’
