Stoke-on-Trent Hot Air Literary Festival 2016

Please Note: All events take place at Emma Bridgewater Factory, Lichfield Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent ST1 3EJ

All tickets £6

All tickets, unless otherwise stated, an unallocated seating

To book please call 01782 381381 or click here

For the third year, the “Festival in a Factory” brings the very best authors, poets and playwrights to the city to inspire and foster a love of books and reading. From one of Britain’s finest novelists Nick Hornby to leading international ceramicist Edmund de Waal, acclaimed classic historian Mary Beard and to what promises to be the children’s highlight of the Festival, “How to Train Your Dragon” author Cressida Cowell , the Hot Air 2016 festival programme is a true celebration of outstanding writing and brilliant books.

Set in the heart of a traditional Victorian potbank at the Emma Bridgewater Factory, HotAir2016 also features discussions and workshops exploring poetry inspired by the city, events with published local authors from Stoke-on-Trent, a celebration of the Burslem-based Great British Pottery Throw Down phenomenon, creative children’s activities and an insight into the workings of the publishing world.

“A wonderful and inspiring festival. Such a breadth of speakers.
Thank you for bringing this event to Stoke!”
Lynne (audience member 2015)

“The Stoke Literary Festival was huge success with an amazing line up and brilliant,
important initiatives to get people reading. It’s fantastic for the city and I’m so proud the Bertarelli Foundation is involved.”
Kirsty Bertarelli

Find out more: stokeliteraryfestival.org

Hot Air 2016 – SCHEDULE

THURSDAY 9 JUNE

Nick Hornby
2pm Thursday 9 June (Meakin Room)
The festival kicks off with a visit by one of the country’s most successful and popular authors talking about his hugely successful career in the context of his latest hit novel Funny Girl set in the swinging 60s.
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Edmund de Waal
4pm Thursday 9 June (Meakin Room)
One of the world’s leading ceramic artists. The White Road is an insight into de Waal’s lifelong journey across continents in search of porcelain, beginning where it was born in Jingdezhen, China.
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Emma Bridgewater
6pm Thursday 9 June (Meakin Room)
The festival’s host and designer extraordinaire talks about her second book Pattern, a celebration of her many design inspirations stemming from everyday life.
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Mary Beard – SPQR
8pm Thursday 9 June (Meakin Room)
The acclaimed historian will reflect on her most recent volume about Ancient Rome – SPQR examining not only how Rome grew from an insignificant village to a power that controlled territory from Spain to Syria, but also how the Romans thought about themselves, and why they continue to be important to us.
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Poetic Reflections on Stoke-on-Trent
5.00pm Thursday 9 June (The Eastwood Room)
A special session considering how the city has inspired the works of poets over the decades to the present day featuring Stoke born Whitbread Prize nominee Pauline Stainer, current young poet laureate for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Matilda Houston Brown and visiting poet Rachel Long. The even will also launch a new public art initiative “Pavement Poetry”.
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FRIDAY 10 JUNE

Kirstie Allsopp
12.00pm Friday 10 June (Meakin Room)
For many years one of Channel 4’s most popular presenters fronting property shows such as Location, Location, Location, its sequel Relocation, Relocation and A Place in the Country, Kirstie visits Stoke to discuss her career, her profession, her world and her books – and then open to the floor for what will doubtless be one of the liveliest Q & A sessions of the Festival!
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Orlando Figes – Revolutionary Russia
2.00pm Friday 10 June (Meakin Room)
In his remarkable new book, the UK’s foremost historian of the Soviet Union, sets Revolutionary Russia in the broader context of Soviet history, a reminder of why this once hideously violent and callous state became, for so long, the great focus of the hopes and fears of much of humankind and which still has a disturbing afterlife in the minds and actions of Russians today.
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Graeme Fowler – Absolutely Foxed
4.00pm Friday 10 June (Meakin Room)
In conversation with John Woodhouse, former England cricketer Graeme Fowler talks about his blisteringly honest and starkly revelatory autobiography in which he lifts the lid on the conquests and conflicts of life as a cricketer in the era when players were left to fend for themselves.
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Meg Rosoff – Jonathan Unleashed
6.00pm Friday 10 June (Meakin Room)
The million-copy bestselling, prize-winning author of How I Live Now, discusses her first adult novel Jonathan Unleashed , a blisteringly funny, touching story of a man whose love life is going to the dogs.
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Tristram Hunt – Ten Cities that Made an Empire
8.00pm Friday 10 June (Meakin Room)
Historian and Stoke-on-Trent Central MP discusses his most recent thoughtful and provocative discussion of the legacy of empire and Britain’s colonial past in the great imperial cities of Boston, Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Bombay, Melbourne, New Delhi, and twentieth-century Liverpool.
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How to get Published!
5.00pm Friday 10 June (The Eastwood Room)
Learn the secrets of the industry with advice and experience shared by literary agent Juliet Mushens, and published authors Caroline Lea and Misha Herwin, hosted by Stewart Collins
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Peter Pan in Scarlet
3.00pm Friday 10 June (The Eastwood Room)
Discussing the challenges and opportunities when adapting literature for the stage with Geraldine McCaughrean and the New Vic Theatre’s Theresa Heskins.
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SATURDAY 11 JUNE

Cressida Cowell – How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury
12.00pm Saturday 11 June (Meakin Room)
The hugely successful children’s author visits Stoke to talk about Hiccup the Viking’s twelfth and final adventure of the action-packed adventure series How to Train Your Dragon that inspired two smash hit Dreamworks films. The fate of the dragon world lies in the hands of one young boy as he stands on the nearby isle of Hero’s End with nothing to show, but everything to fight for.
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Juliet Nicolson – A House Full of Daughters
2.00pm Saturday 11 June (Meakin Room)
The historian’s latest book is an extraordinarily personal investigation into the nature of family, memory, the past and, above all, love that takes us through seven generations of women in her family, from the nineteenth-century slums of Malaga to the knife-edge that was 1980s New York City.
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Sarah Raven – Good Good Food
4.00pm Saturday 11 June (Meakin Room)
Well known gardener Sarah Raven worked as a doctor before becoming a broadcaster, teacher and writer. Also an inspirational cook, Good Good Food is a canon of recipes, sharing her medical knowledge to explain exactly how certain foods can help protect your body and give you the best possible chance of a longer, healthier life.
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Simon Jenkins – England’s Thousand Best Houses
6.00pm Saturday 11 June (Meakin Room)
We welcome one of the country’s leading cultural historians who, in his magnificent guide England’s thousand Best Houses, selects the finest palaces, mansions, halls, castles and cottages throughout the land, from the stately to the humble, in a glorious celebration of English life.
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The Great British Pottery Throw Down
8.00pm Saturday 11 June (Meakin Room)
Hot Air celebrates the success story of the BBC 2 series, filmed in Stoke-on-Trent at Burslem’s Middleport Pottery. Emma Bridgewater will be joined on stage by renowned potter and programme judge Keith Brymer-Jones together with contestants from the series to discuss the impact and opportunity the show has brought to The Potteries in a highly entertaining finale event.
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Gangsta Granny Workshop
11am Saturday 11 June (The Decorating Studio )
As the hit stage version of David Walliam’s brilliant book hits Stoke-on-Trent’s Regent Theatre, join the show’s designer Jackie Trousdale, (also the design talent behind the live adaptations of Horrible Histories, Skellig and George’s Marvellous Medicine) for a fun, creative workshop, ideal for children aged 7-11 (accompanied by an adult).
Call 01782 717962 to book

Mick Escott – Round the Footlights: The Unofficial Theatre Tour
1.00pm Saturday 11 June (The Eastwood Room)
Author Mick Escott in conversation with Romy Cheesman, honorary archivist of the Victoria Theatre Collection at Staffordshire University, looking at the experience of actors and visitors to theatres around the country, with a special look at the old and New Vic Theatres.
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Lisa Blower – Sitting Ducks
3.00pm Saturday 11 June (The Eastwood Room)
Join award-winning fiction writer Lisa Blower, born and bred in Stoke-on-Trent, in conversation about her debut novel, Sitting Ducks, with Dr Catherine Burgass, Lecturer in English and Honorary Research Fellow at Staffordshire University.
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Take a Hint Theatre presents Tales that Time Forgot (Free Event)
5.00pm Sat 11 June (The Eastwood Room)
Live entertainment for supervised children aged 5 to 11 years.
It’s 2093. Computer games rule and the wonder of reading has long been forgotten.  Find out what happens when Bobby discovers endless rows of books in an ancient, abandoned library, and opening them, she meets the wonderful characters as they come to life!
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