The job of a Festival Director is not an easy one. You don’t just pick up your mobile or dash off an email and everyone immediately jumps to say ‘yes’ first time. It can be a long and bumpy road until the final line-up is confirmed – and even then … .
Therefore, for Richard Greene, our Festival Director for 2024, to be able to produce a list of eight confirmed ‘bookings’ by early April is little short of a miracle.
These have confirmed:
Nigel West will talk about discussions he had with Rodney Dennys, a member of the British Secret Intelligence Services, on Graham Greene’s involvement in the world of intelligence
Lo Dagerman will discuss her parents’ (Stig Dagerman and Anita Bjork) literary and theatrical legacies. Anita Bjork had an affair with Graham Greene in the 1950s.
Motonori Sato will talk about a famous Japanese poet who versified a Greene novel.
Julia Young will place Graham Greene among Anglophone writers in Mexico.
Kevin Ruane will talk about Greene and Dorothy Glover.
Randy Boyagarda, a Canadian/Sri Lankan comic, will explain why his work is inspired by Greene.
Jon Wise will talk about the writer’s autobiographies.
Mike Hill will introduce two films based on Greene’s work: The Man Within and ‘The Fallen Idol’.
Richard has several other names who are ‘probables’ but who not are listed at this stage. Therefore, more to add later to what sounds already like an intriguing line-up.