All Bowie Saturday
Saturday 5th July
Saturday 5th July @ 7pm
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My 50 years as sideman for David Bowie /Iggy Pop / Sinead O'Connor
Kevin Armstrong
Kevin Armstrong has played guitar for some of the biggest names in music from the mid 1980s to the present day. From David Bowie to Thomas Dolby to Prefab Sprout, from Sinead O'Connor to Iggy Pop, his range of experience as a musician has brought him into contact with some of the most interesting and diverse talents on the planet.
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Kevin has continued to tour and record with a huge variety of famous, as well as up-and-coming artists and produces critically acclaimed solo work.
His book and highly entertaining one man show Absolute Beginner, give an insight into how to survive in the fickle music world, and tell stories from half a century as a professional musician, writer, producer and bandleader.
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Kevin join us to share anecdotes and videos from his fifty-year history in music along with performances of songs with his guitar.
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Saturday 5th July @ 5.30pm
Bowie's Piano Man​
Clifford Slapper
Clifford Slapper is a pianist, producer and musical director of international acclaim. ​He has performed, toured and recorded with stars including: David Bowie, Boy George, Jarvis Cocker, Lisa Stansfield, Suggs (Madness), Marc Almond, Ute Lemper, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Dead Or Alive, Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) and many others.
Bowie's Piano Man" (2018, Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard, USA) is the first, only and authorised biography of the musician who played alongside David Bowie more than anyone else over the years (1972-2006), jazz pianist Mike Garson. It tells the extraordinary story of Garson's life from New York jazz dives to world arenas with Bowie and other rock stars. Exclusively at the Hertford Literary Festival, Slapper will reveal the surprising personal background to the book, and will also premier material from his next album, out this summer, "Bowie Songs 2.0 by Clifford Slapper & Friends: the songs of David Bowie, reimagined for voice and piano.
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Saturday 5th July @ 4pm
Bowie Odyssey 75
Simon Goddard
Simon Goddard is the author of over a dozen books on popular music. As of 2025 he is over halfway through his proposed ten-book Bowie Odyssey series chronicling the life and art of David Bowie against the social and cultural backdrop of the 1970s, year by year. So far, two volumes in the series have made the Sunday Times Books of the Year list.
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Simon will be in conversation with Darren Coffield to discuss his ten-book Bowie Odyssey series.
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With his first starring role in a feature film and his first number 1s on both sides of the Atlantic, 1975 ought to be David Bowie’s golden year. But away from the spotlight the suave soul boy of Young Americans is tumbling into a self-made hell of cocaine, witchcraft and the dark fantasies of his new fascist alter-ego, the Thin White Duke. The sixth volume in Simon Goddard’s epic adventure through Bowie’s greatest decade, Bowie Odyssey 75 is an intricately plotted tour de force of rock’n’roll, crime, punishment, politics, punk – and a cautionary tale of tragicomic addiction.
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Saturday 5th July @ 3pm
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Me & Mr Jones
Suzi Ronson
Suzi Ronson was working in a Beckenham hair salon in the early seventies when Mrs Jones came in for her weekly shampoo and set. After being introduced to her son David and his wife Angie, Suzi finds herself at the Bowies' bohemian apartment and is soon embroiled in their raucous world.
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Having crafted his iconic Ziggy Stardust hairstyle, Suzi becomes the only working woman in David's touring party and joins the Spiders from Mars as they perform around the globe. Amid the costume blunders, parties and groupies she meets her husband-to-be, Mick Ronson, and together they traverse the absurdities of life in show business, falling in with the likes of Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed along the way.
Suzi joins us at the festival to talk about her book, Me and Mr Jones, providing not only a unique perspective on one of the most beguiling stars of our time but also a world on the cusp of cultural transformation, charting the highs and lows of life as one of the only women in the room as it happened.
Saturday 5th July @ 2pm
David Bowie: The Art of Influence​
Nick Smart
Nick Smart is author of the book David Bowie: The Collector. He is also joint editor and designer of the popular fanzine, David Bowie Glamour. He has been a fan of David Bowie since 1979 and has interviewed and written articles on many of Bowie’s collaborators.
He jointly curated the David Bowie World Fan Convention in Liverpool, 2022 and New York 2023 and through his fanzine and convention has created a substantial following of Bowie fans on social media. He holds a masters degree in English and has two essays in a forthcoming academic collection about Bowie.
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David Bowie was more than a musical icon—he was a master of reinvention, drawing inspiration from an eclectic mix of sources to create something entirely new. In this fascinating talk, author Nick Smart explores how Bowie collected and repurposed ideas from art, literature, film, theatre, and beyond, shaping his ever-evolving persona and groundbreaking music. Based on exclusive interviews with Bowie’s friends and collaborators, this session offers fresh insights into the creative genius of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists.
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Eclectic Friday
Friday 4th July
Friday 4th July @ 7pm
I'm Just Sayin'
Michael Brandon
An interview with American actor Michael Brandon whose autobiography 'I'm Just Sayin' is released in April 2025.
Anecdotes from his early days growing up in Brooklyn, his acting career, moving permanently to England, marriage to his Dempsey & Makepiece co-star - and lots of A-List namedropping!
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Join Rick Mayston for an entertaining and fascinating interview with Michael.
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Michael will sign copies of his book after his time on stage.
Friday 4th July @ 6pm
The Lion of London Bridge​
Roy Larner
An interview with ROY LARNER who, on June 3rd 2017, confronted three machete wielding terrorists who drove a rented van into pedestrians at London Bridge - then continued slashing, stabbing and murdering innocent people in nearby pubs and restaurants.
Completely unarmed, Roy refused to run away, famously proclaiming "I'm Millwall", and promptly saved many lives whilst receiving horrible wounds in the process.
He still has had no criminal compensation or recognition for his actions, and his book THE LION OF LONDON BRIDGE is soon to be turned into a TV dramatisation.
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Join Rick Mayston as he talks with Roy about his experience and memories of this well-documented event.
Friday 4th July @ 5pm
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Queens of Bohemia and Other Miss-Fits
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Darren Coffield
Darren Coffield was born in London in 1969. He studied at Goldsmiths College, Camberwell School of Art and the Slade School of Art in London where he received his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1993.
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Coffield has exhibited widely in the company of many leading artists including Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Patrick Caulfield and Gilbert and George at venues ranging from the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House to Voloshin Museum, Crimea. His work can be found in collections around the world. He is the author of three cult books : Factual Nonsense: The Art and Death of Joshua Compston, Tales From the Colony Room: Soho's Lost Bohemia and Queens of Bohemia and Other Miss-Fits.
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Friday 4th July @ 4.00pm
How Not to be a Supermodel: my practical guide.
Ruth Crilly
Ruth is an author and social media content creator and her blog, A Model Recommends, has been read over fifty million times.
Ruth has the dubious honour of being one of the UK's original social media talents, having started my blog and Youtube channel before the term "social media" even existed.
Last year Ruth published her first book, How Not to be a Supermodel, and it became an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
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How Not to be a Supermodel is a raucous memoir delving into the truths of the modelling industry in a controversial era.
Ruth kept quite detailed diaries and notes during the 00s and these informed and inspired the final book, Ruth will be talking about how she used what was a very... colourful... career as a springboard into a new career as a writer.
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https://www.ruthcrilly.co.uk/​
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Friday 4th July @ 3.00pm
The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army
Jack Margolin
Using extensive leaks, first-hand accounts, and the byzantine paper trail left in the group’s wake, Jack Margolin traces the Wagner Group from its roots as a battlefield rumor to a private military enterprise tens of thousands–strong that eventually comes to threaten Putin himself.
He shows Wagner mercenaries committing atrocities, plundering oil, diamonds, and gold, and changing the course of conflicts from Europe to Africa in the name of the Kremlin’s strategic aims.
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Jack Margolin is an independent expert on international crime and conflict. His work focuses on the use of emerging technology and novel methodologies to expose the drivers of political violence.
He has studied private military contractors and Russian criminal networks since 2014, and is the author of The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army (Reaktion Books, 2024).
Jack previously led conflict finance investigations at C4ADS, a non-profit investigating crime and conflict. His investigations have been cited by the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, the Financial Times and Politico. He lives in Washington, DC.
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Friday 4th July @ 2pm
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Shanghai in the (really) naughties​
Mark Kitto
Mark Kitto has been detained and accused by the Chinese government of being a Muslim separatist, has published two racy China memoirs, countless articles on the country, and now his first novel is out. It’s called ‘China Running Dog’ and it tells the REAL story. He is also an actor with a highly praised one man show, ‘Chinese Boxing.’ He’s joining us to talk about his novel and its setting, Shanghai in the (really) naughties.
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Mark is a fluent Mandarin speaker who spent 18 years in China where he built a media business that was eventually seized by the state. Hence the career-ending separatist accusation. While in China he walked across the ‘Desert of Death’, performed with the Shanghai People’s Arts Theatre, restored and lived in a missionary’s villa on a mountaintop and wrote the most-read feature article ever published by Prospect Magazine, ‘You’ll Never be Chinese.’
He now lives in Norfolk and is an actor and writer. ‘China Running Dog’ is out for review and the first responses are promising and very positive. It will be/was published in March 2025.
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Friday 4th July @ 1.30pm
Scholar's Mate: Literature against Language
Thomas Hurst
Thomas has written prose and poetry since he was fourteen years old, eventually developing a style synthesising that of Silver Latin, baroque, and modernist writers. His work has been deeply influenced by his longstanding interests in philosophy (particularly existentialism, and Neoplatonism), linguistics, mathematics, comparative mythology, and psychoanalysis.
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Thomas studied Classics at the University of Cambridge, where he focused primarily on comparative linguistics and the composition of ancient languages.
The session covers a philologist's communication with his wife, which deteriorates after he begins playing chess with a male student: believing that the moves of the game provide better knowledge of another's soul, he comes to distrust language itself and its ability to express anything truthful.
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The work deals primarily with epistemology and pragmatics. Formally it is classical, exploiting the dramatic capabilities of platonic dialogue, but in manner a synthesis of the baroque, modern, and surreal. The style, though contemporary, employs the abundant rhetorical figures, aphorisms, and pith of Silver Latin prose.
Friday 4th July @ 1.00pm
The Path to Rome
Sean O'Reilly
Hilaire Belloc’s book The Path to Rome describes his journey on foot from Toul NE France to Rome in 1901. He broke most of his vows made before his journey except that of arriving on his target date of 29th June.
Sean's Path to Rome took not a single step from his intended starting destination of Canterbury.
Instead, his pilgrimage was more the road not taken than the one taken. He did get to Rome more by chance and through some human trial and tribulation.
In fact it took over 10 years to do so from my first and only pilgrimage along the Pilgrim's Way - Winchester to Canterbury.
Sean suggests his journey was more of an Odyssey than a pilgrimage.
Friday 4th July @ 12.30pm
How to get your energy back in perimenopause/ midlife​
Evie Goodey
Many women 40+are complaining about being constantly tired and Evie loves helping them to change their daily habits to reclaim that energy again. Food, exercise and stress management come into place here.
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Evie is a Health Coach Helping busy women 40+ to boost metabolism, reclaim their energy, vitality and strength.
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Friday 4th July @ 12.00pm
Haunted by History: Ghost Light and Colonial Imagination
Clarissa O'Reilly
What happens when a story becomes a mirror of the past – when the story turns back on itself, and the ghosts of history are endlessly reflected?
This session explores how Joseph O’Connor’s Ghost Light does just that. The novel reimagines the lives of the actress Molly Allgood and playwright John Millington Synge, whose love is sternly opposed by friends and family due to their differences of class, religion and heritage. However, Ghost Light does more than tell a historical love story – blending fiction, memories and imagination, it creates a world where past and present constantly intertwine.
This session is for anyone fascinated by how stories shape identity, how history refuses to stay in the past, and how fiction can expose the unresolved contradictions of colonial selfhood.
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Clarissa O'Reilly is a literary scholar with a double major in Comparative Literature and English from Gothenburg University.
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Joseph O’Connor’s Ghost Light, with its layered storytelling and its reflections on history’s recursive hold on identity, is a novel Clarissa keeps returning to. Both her bachelor thesis and her future research concerns Ghost Light. This talk marks her first public engagement as she steps into the literary world, bridging academic research with public discussion.
Friday 4th July @ 6.00pm & 7.00pm
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Interviews with Michael Brandon and Roy Larner.
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Rick Mayston
Rick will has served on the Hertford Club committee for over two years. CEO and founder of the Literary and Multimedia Agency Agent Fox Media.
This is Rick's third year interviewing at the festival, having introduced and interviewed an array of his colourful clients including Joohn Lyons, Neil Pearson, Sara Challice, Stephen Gillen and Helen Lederer.​
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Rick's interviews are thorough and full of fun, leading questions helping to uncover the real personalities and stories behind his guest's public biogs.
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https://www.agentfoxmedia.com/
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Apply to be part of the 2025 festival
Applications to be part of the 2025 festival line up are open now!
If you are an author, poet, musician, performer or someone simply with a fascinating tale to tell, we want to hear from you.
Want to sponsor one of Hertford's most exclusive community events?
For the last 6 years The Hertford Club has hosted the Hertford Literary Festival and our sponsors have helped to ensure it remains a free event for all. If you'd like to reach some of Hertfordshire's most creative and inquisitive minds, then why not consider sponsoring the event.
Food & drink
Access the Hertford Club's fully stocked bar all day
Drinks
The Hertford Club prides itself on its beer and real ale and keeps a well-stocked cellar. ​ All ales are regularly checked for temperature, appearance, aroma and taste to make sure that your beer is perfect every time. As well as real ales, the Club offers still ciders, mostly from local producers. In addition to these Carlsberg Pilsner, San Miguel lagers and Stowford Press cider are on tap, alongside Guinness.
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Each wine, from the extensive list, has been handpicked by ourselves and based solely on taste, quality and value for money. Spirits are chosen for their quality which is why we have one of the best house spirit selections in the region and we like to have a selection of local spirits from the local area and surrounding counties too.
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Teas, coffees, soft drinks and bar snacks served all day.
View the menu
Food
We're delighted that Hertford's very own Jerk Chicken Man will be bringing a taste of the Caribbean to the Hertford Literary Festival (and hopefully some sun too!)
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