CULTURE CLUB
By the Book MIRIAM BALANESCU LANDS ON THE SAME PAGE AS THIS SPRING’S CAMBRIDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL AUTHORS
CHORUS OF APPROVAL The debut novel from local author Jo Browning Wroe is on the receiving end of rave reviews
ow is a time when many turn a new leaf, as greenery shoots onto the trees and flowers come
into bloom. Spring can often feel like a seasonal clean slate. Some of the authors gracing the stage at the Cambridge Literary Festival – the city’s foremost event in honour of the written word – will quite literally be moving on to the next chapter of their lives. The biannual festival invites local, regional (and occasionally international) authors to share their recent work, host workshops or join panels. This year will see an immersive Earth Day event with
author Christopher Lloyd, and a centenary celebration of Virginia Woolf with Susan Sellers and Maggie Humm. Expect speakers from across the spectrum, from Will Young to Ali Smith, and talks to tickle the literary fancy of bibliophiles of all ages. The festival puts a marked effort into magnifying the voices of first-time authors: Kitty and Al Tait, Rebecca Birrell and Keiran Goddard are among those who will see their first pages in print this year.
JO BROWNING WROE APPEARS AT THE FESTIVAL AS PART OF ALI SMITH’S NEW WRITERS’ SHOWCASE ON 24 APRIL PREACH TO THE CHOIR Jo Browning Wroe, a Cambridge resident, has long drawn inspiration from the city’s surrounds. She first moved from Birmingham to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia, and has been a supervisor in the subject at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, for nearly a decade. While carrying out research for a separate project, she happened upon conference papers from 1966, detailing embalmers’ experiences of the tragedy at Aberfan – the mining-caused landslide that buried a junior school, with a death toll of 144. Her reading opened up a realm of possibilities. She rooted out the contact
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