A first festival update

The full details of the programme for the 2021 Graham Greene International Festival programme are still being worked on but some events have been confirmed already.

We are delighted that  William Boyd, novelist and screenplay writer, will be appearing; he was to have featured in 2020 before the festival fell victim to the pandemic. The best-selling author has adapted Greene’s novel The Captain and the Enemy for a forthcoming film. He will speak about what was Greene’s last published novel and the complex problems in making a film adaptation of this often perplexing work.

There will be a panel discussion on three Greene novels – The Confidential Agent chosen by Baroness Claire Fox of the ‘Academy of Ideas’ , The Heart of the Matter, selected by playwright Nick Warburton, and The Quiet American, by author and Birthplace Trustee Creina Mansfield.

Professor Richard Greene will discuss his recent acclaimed biography of Greene, in a talk entitled ‘Graham Greene: Life and After the Life’.

German actress, translator and director Maria Jany will look at Greene on Stage, complete with readings and enactments.

Professor Neil Sinyard will give a talk entitled Journeys into Fear: the parallel literary lives of Ambler and Greene.

There is a lot to look forward to in addition to the festival ‘staples’: film nights, bookstalls, the birthday toast (this year on Greene’s birthday), the evening meal in the Old Hall, tours around Berkhamsted and its historic school and much conviviality in between.