Oktoberfeste

I’m looking forward to not having to travel too far to make October a month of exciting and varied festivals. Starting a few miles from my back door, the Holmfirth Walking Festival includes a walk that finishes at Read bookshop. I’ll be there for an informal conversation about walking locally and farther afield in Europe. Based on my Long Spring journeys, we’ll talk about the places and wildlife I encountered across the continent one spring.

Walkers are Welcome weekend: 4-6 October, Holmfirth includes two author events: an evening with academic and historian Richard Morris on Saturday 5th, and a lunchtime conversation with author and conservationist Laurence Rose on Sunday 6th.

The following Thursday I am speaking at one of the country’s biggest literature festivals, in Ilkley.

Ilkley Literature Festival, 4-20 October. I’ll be on at the Manor House at 7.30 pm on Thursday 10th October. As it says in the Festival brochure, launched today, “The Long Spring is more than a lyrical account of the changing seasons; it is also an exploration of place, culture and how these combine to fashion the Europe of today.” The line-up during more than a fortnight of events includes Simon Armitage, David Suchet, Clare Balding and Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Then later in the month I’ll be in Berwick-upon-Tweed for that lovely town’s Literary Festival. I’ll be talking about some key species in the story of conservation, including the otters which I watched in the town itself, while researching my new book.

Berwick Literary Festival, 17-20 October. I’m speaking on Saturday 19th, and also in the line-up is T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Jacob Polley.