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Soho Literary Festival Returns September 2014

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Soho Literary Festival 2014

Stephen Fry, Michel Roux and Antonia Fraser headline at the Soho Theatre

Wednesday 24th September – Sunday 28th September

www.soholitfest.com

•An end-of-summer, long weekend of literary delights hosted in the Soho Theatre on Dean Street, in the capital’s liveliest district

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•Stephen Fry to star in an exclusive event on PG Wodehouse on Friday 26th September.

•Interactive events such as the literary quiz with teams led by Rachel Johnson and Giles Coren, and a masterclass on matching wine with food led by Tom Parker-Bowles and Rowley Leigh.

soholiteraryfestival

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•The 2014 line-up also includes Antonia Fraser, Michel Roux, Stephen Frears and Russell Norman

•Presented by The Oldie magazine and supported by Waitrose Cellar and Arts Council England

 

Soho Literary Festival, sponsored by Waitrose Cellar and supported by Arts Council England, marks its fourth anniversary on the London literary calendar in September 2014. With 36 unique events all taking place under one roof, the iconic Soho Theatre on Dean Street, the festival is set to take the capital by storm.

Visitors are invited to spend the weekend getting up-close and personal with their literary heroes, in the theatre’s three auditoria or mingling in the bar where regular signings will take place. The events and speakers have been carefully curated to inform and excite festival-goers with a programme encompassing art, music, food, comedy and plenty of author shenanigans.

 

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Highlights include headline act Stephen Fry on the profound effects Wodehouse had on his life; panorama journalist Tom Bower delving behind the public facade of Richard Branson; Michel Roux and Russell Normanon the art of good service in restaurants; pre-eminent rock journalist Mark Ellen opening the festival to discuss forty years of life in the ludicrous music business; Britain’s most successful potter Emma Bridgewater in conversation with her illustrator husband Matthew Rice; and historian Peter Snow on the unknown tale of when Britain burned down the White House.

Further headline acts and returning favourites include an informative and humorous lesson on how to spot a psychopath led by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, an in-depth Q&A with the Oscar-winning director Stephen Frears, and the sell-out one-stop literary smorgasbord hosted by Craig Brown & Friends.

 

Confirmed Soho Literary Festival Speakers:

Stephen Fry, Michel Roux, Antonia Fraser, Brian Sewell, Simon Baron-Cohen, Virginia Ironside, Russell Norman, Tom Parker-Bowles, John Julius Norwich, Christian Wolmar Simon Jenkins, Loyd Grossman, Craig Brown, Peter Snow, Rachel Johnson, Mark Ellen, Giles Coren, Kerry Daynes, Harry Mount, Valerie Grove, Chris Yates, Ferdinand Mount, Marcus Berkmann, Antony Beevor, Stephen Frears, Rowan Pelling, Kate Harrison, Rosie Boycott, Imogen Edwards-Jones, Bill Knott, David Kynaston, Paul Burston, Jeremy Lewis, Lizzie Enfield, Emma Bridgewater, Rowley Leigh, Tom Bower, Tom Ward, Will Hodgkinson, Geordie Greig, Simon Garfield, Dan Cruickshank, Sam Leith, John Sutherland, David Hepworth, Jerry Brotton, Roger Bannister, James Le Fanu, Chris Mullin, Andrew Billen, James Pembroke, Sarah Boseley, Dave Runciman, Tim Bryars, Dr Tom Stuttaford, Jonathan Meades, Mikey Cuddihy, Tom Harper, Owen Jones, Oliver Kamm, Michael White, Dan Kieran, Nigel McCrery,, Matthew Rice, Jerry White, Irma Kurz, Katherine Whitehorn, Shaun Usher, Mark Lawson, Assem Malhotra, Abbie Ross, Mikey Silverman, Dick Traverne, Merryn Somerset-Webb, Martyn Vander Weyer.

 

 

Carole Stone on how she made The Stone Club a success.

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People who meet me now find it hard to believe that as a teenager I was very shy. I remember that in my first job at the BBC as a secretary I used to loiter outside the newsroom waiting for someone else to go in so that I could slip in behind them, unnoticed. Today I must seem very confident, not to say loud, and I’m happy to speak in public to different audiences. But it’s taken quite a bit of effort to get there, for if I was shy when I was young, my brother Roger was even shyer – pathologically so. To try to get him to communicate at all with other people I just had to make contact with them myself. I think that’s where my interest in other people began and why today I can’t pass up a chance to put people together who I think might benefit in all sorts of ways from getting to know each other. At the last count I have over 40,000 people on my database and two books to my name on what I call the art of networking.

I first got a chance to bring very different people together in a big way when I became the Producer of BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions?, every week trying to get the right mix of politicians, business people, and leading figures from the arts and sciences and the media to make an interesting programme. And when I left the BBC I started a business along the same lines, putting together people who wanted to meet but might not have done so without a helping hand.

Recently I have been working as managing director of YouGovStone, a joint venture company which I set up with the online opinion polling organisation YouGov. I have a panel of about four thousand people which I consult on behalf of clients who want to know what opinion leaders – what I call the ‘Influentials’ – are thinking on a host of different topics.

And then in May 2009 I did something I have wanted to do for ages, I opened a club – TheStoneClub. We don’t have a permanent home: instead, members meet for different events in one of several venues in central London. My motto for this virtual club is ‘A Meeting of Minds’, and I have two tiers of membership. Silver members come to what I call my ‘In Conversation’ evenings, to listen to and question speakers like Lord (Brian) Griffiths of Goldman Sachs, Jeremy Hunt, MP, the Tory shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Tom Bower, author of devastating blockbuster biographies about people like Richard Branson, Robert Maxwell, and Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed. Future guest speakers I’ve booked for these events include the Doug Richard, formerly of Dragon’s Den and entrepreneur.

Gold members tend to be more business-oriented, and for them, in addition to my ‘In Conversation’ events, I arrange breakfasts with speakers like Vicky Pryce, the Director-General, Economics, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Communications, at Davos, the World Economic Forum. I’m much looking forward to welcoming Sly Bailey, the Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror, the UK’s largest newspaper publisher, to a breakfast soon.

Running a business that is all about people is really demanding, and of course there are times when I’m cross with myself for not having looked after one of my think tank or club members as well as I think should. But I’ll never give up trying, because to me people are a solace, the real joy of life.

The Stone Club is a fantastic private members club. For more info or to join, follow this link: http://www.yougovstone.com/content/the-stone-club.asp