A highly entertaining programme has been put together for one of Wales’ premier literary festivals. The Wrexham Carnival of Words is now in its 8th year and has become a fixture in the literary calendar in Wales and the borderlands attracting a diverse range of well-known authors. The organisers are very pleased that live audiences will be back for this year’s festival being held between 22-30 April.
Among the many authors highlighting the 2022 Carnival will be Sunday Times bestseller Milly Johnson, one of the Top 10 Female Fiction authors in the UK and the ever-popular Gervase Phinn, best known for his warm-hearted reminiscences as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales.
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Also appearing this year will be enthralling crime writer Mark Billingham, Simon McGleeve whose book The Snowdonia Killings attracted huge popularity and Kate Ellis who will put in a special appearance at the ever-popular Murder Mystery event.
History fans will not want to miss Barbara Erskine, the queen of the time-shift genre and historical fiction giant Patricia Bracewell who is flying in from the USA especially for the Carnival. Local author Peter Evans will share his journey up the river Dee whilst Chris Clode will share his passion for the north Wales slate quarries, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Matthew Hall, who created and wrote the popular television series Keeping Faith and Kavanagh QC, will talk about his life in crime and former government minister Alan Johnson returns to this year’s Carnival to discuss his new book The late Train to Gipsy Hill which is his first thriller. Also appearing at the Carnival will be Sarah Hilary, whose debut novel won the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year prize, and award winning short-story writer Carys Davies.
There will be Welsh-language events with up-and-coming your poets Iestyn Tyne and Elan Grug Muse and Bethan Gwanas, the author of over 40 books in Welsh, who will talk about her latest book, co-written with her dog!
Deliverance describes the everyday investigations into poltergeists, ghosts and supernatural phenomena undertaken by the Revd. Dr Jason Bray, Vicar of St Giles Parish Church, the first Anglican deliverance minister to write about his experiences.
Local writers and budding authors will be able to attend a free event to meet other local authors, poets, bloggers, journalists and songwriters and participate in the active panel sessions. Viva Voce is an open mic for local poets to share their work and be entertained by their peers. There will even be a readathon by local book-lovers of George Eliot’s classic novel Middlemarch.
Families are warmly invited to a free event at Yellow & Blue in Henblas Square where children’s storytellers, Jacqui Bloor, Fiona Collins, Jude Lennon, Krishnapyia Ramamoorthy and Sarah Parkinson will be holding “Storytelling for All the Family” on Saturday 24th April.
Festival Director Dylan Hughes has said: “this year’s Carnival is back with a bang with an exciting and varied programme of events, and we’re so pleased to be able to invite live audiences back to see authors and poets in person”.
The programme of events is at www.wrexhamcarnivalofwords.com.
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