PIRATES DAY Children’s event
Children’s Space, Guildford Library
10-4pm
Ongoing between 10am and 4pm
Suitable for all ages. Free
Join the Bookaneers for some swash-buckling fun. Try your hand at the treasure hunt, design a Treasure Island book jacket or colour your own parrot amongst other activities.
CAROLINE BOTT – talks about her biography of ALFRED BESTALL,
Illustrator of RUPERT BEAR
Guildford Library
4pm (tea and biscuits)
£4 (incl. tea and biscuits
Alfred Bestall was the illustrator, and later the writer, of Rupert Bear, which appeared for many years in the Daily Express and became a favourite with generations of children. Caroline’s biography The Life and Works of Alfred Bestall is a wonderful record of an era and a delightful personal story. Alfred Bestall’s diaries, photographs, letters and sketchbooks are on permanent exhibition at their home. Open days are notified on www.rupertbear.info and groups of 12+ can make an appointment at other times by telephoning 01483 416546. Royalties go to the Fabric Fund of St. Peter and St. Paul, Godalming.
JOAN BAKEWELL in conversation with JOHN MILLER
Electric Theatre
7pm
£8. £7 Friends of GBF
The Centre of the Bed is the autobiography of a pioneering woman in television and the arts.
Joan Bakewell was one of the first female broadcasters on BBC television, and became a sixties icon. She reveals what went on behind the scenes at the BBC and provides a fascinating record of women’s lives since the 1930s. She will discuss all this and more with John Miller.
CHARLOTTE UHLENBROEK - JUNGLE
WHSmith, High Street
7pm £1 (redeemable off purchases of the book at the event)
Charlotte Uhlenbroek will be talking about her new book Jungle in which she explores the soaring canopy of the Borneo rainforest. This is sure to be an interesting glimpse into a fascinating world, from the largest primates to the tiniest insects.
Amnesty International Event – EMMA NICHOLSON
IRAQI AFTERMATH – RESTORING THE MARSHLANDS
Holy Trinity Church, High Street
Amnesty International Event
7.30pm
£5 Proceeds (less expenses) go to Amnesty International
During the 1980s and 1990s the Marsh dwellers of Iraq were subjected to a sustained attack by Saddam Hussein’s government, which resulted in the draining of the marshes and the obliteration of a way of life, which had altered little since Sumerian times. Some 200,000 people are now refugees and now live in Iran in refugee camps and settlements. The AMAR appeal, founded by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne MEP in the aftermath of the Gulf War, has been closely concerned with their welfare.
DESERT ISLAND BOOKS
With PATRICIA DUNCKER & PATRICK GALE
Electric Theatre
8.30pm
£7. £6 Friends of GBF
Patricia Duncker and Patrick Gale discuss the books they would choose to take to a desert island..
Patricia Duncker’s first novel Hallucinating Foucault was a brilliant study of obsession, madness and the art of writing, which won the 1997 Dillons First Fiction Award.
Her novels, James Miranda Barry and The Deadly Space Between were highly praised and her latest collection of interwoven stories is Seven Tales of Love and Death is a gripping, haunting read.
Patrick Gale’s intense and moving new novel A Sweet Obscurity, set in London and Cornwall, is a companion piece to Rough Music and is told through the alternating viewpoints of four characters. As well as writing several novels and reviewing fiction, Patrick has written for television, published a biography of Armistead Maupin and for H C Robbins Landon’s The Mozart Compendium.
They invite you to make your own lists and join the discussion.